Yellow jackets...

Originally Posted by WebSlave

The cure might actually turn out to be worse than the original disease. Those big hornets look like a commercial bee keeper's worst nightmare.

Anyway, I'm not exactly sure what happened, but it looks like the yellow jackets might be gone. Connie removed the garden pots around the hole leading to the nest the other day (some day that girl is going to give me a heart attack!), and someone on one of my other forums said there was some studies done indicating that changing the landmarks of a nest entrance could confuse the bees wanting to return and they might not be able to find the entrance again. Not sure if this is the case or not, but it sure appears that the yellow jackets are gone.

Of course, the worry now is that if they have just relocated, where the heck are then now?

I'd keep a super close eye out next time you've got the lawnmower going...

Originally Posted by lauraleellbp

I'd keep a super close eye out next time you've got the lawnmower going...

Most of my property is heavily wooded, so hopefully they relocated out in the woods and away from anywhere Connie and I will be walking. We are clearing the underbrush and vines away from the house gradually (the place got pretty wild and wooly while we were tied up with the reptile business), but with the temps getting into triple digits, we're really not pushing things. But I am DEFINITELY keeping my eyes open for anything that comes flying up from the ground. I am READY to just drop the tools and RUN.

The areas that we have put in grass we used centipede grass, which naturally stays low to the ground. The lawnmower we have is a manual push mower. We've only used it maybe three or four times here. Before pushing the mover over a patch of grass, I will just eyeball it for anything suspicious looking.

I took a look today where the nest was and didn't see a single yellow jacket. Looks like they are gone. Hopefully they will keep their distance so I don't have to kill them.

We have a lot of hornets in the raised bed garden that Connie set up, but it appears that they are seeking out the worms that she finds on her tomato plants. They don't seem to be concerned about us, so I'm not really concerned about them. I just persuade them to not build nests underneath the porch on the house.

I had most of the trees on my property cut down., and the most heavily wooded area is a fenced off section of another property, so I've pretty much cleared my area while I was younger. As I get older, I am less willing to take unneccessary risks..thus I have yard boys to take care of the yard. It's a great investment!

After having been stung by those suckers, I have absolutely no desire to risk it again. It's not like a bee sting!

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Most of my property is heavily wooded, so hopefully they relocated out in the woods and away from anywhere Connie and I will be walking. We are clearing the underbrush and vines away from the house gradually (the place got pretty wild and wooly while we were tied up with the reptile business), but with the temps getting into triple digits, we're really not pushing things. But I am DEFINITELY keeping my eyes open for anything that comes flying up from the ground. I am READY to just drop the tools and RUN.

The areas that we have put in grass we used centipede grass, which naturally stays low to the ground. The lawnmower we have is a manual push mower. We've only used it maybe three or four times here. Before pushing the mover over a patch of grass, I will just eyeball it for anything suspicious looking.

I took a look today where the nest was and didn't see a single yellow jacket. Looks like they are gone. Hopefully they will keep their distance so I don't have to kill them.

We have a lot of hornets in the raised bed garden that Connie set up, but it appears that they are seeking out the worms that she finds on her tomato plants. They don't seem to be concerned about us, so I'm not really concerned about them. I just persuade them to not build nests underneath the porch on the house.

I've not been nailed by a yellow jacket Thank God, but shortly after we moved here I stumbled into a nest of what my neighbor calls guinea wasps~ big red suckers that build their nests in the undergrowth. WOW!!! Did that hurt!!!! Never felt anything like that before. I've been nailed a couple times since then, but not often. I've learned to buy that spectricide in bulk packs and always have a can near me. I even keep one in my van after a particularly nerve wracking two hour drive with a wasp in the van with me, I pulled over at least two dozen times trying to get him OUT of the van but he wouldn't leave and I didn't really have the nerve to try to make him! That will keep you alert but not a safe driver as you try to keep track of where the wasp is!!

For your overgrown woodsy areas try a nice brush goat. She'll eat all that up and they don't seem to mind the wasps as much. I seen them wade back into a nest area if there is something extra yummy in there~ twitchy and kicking at the stings while they very quickly eat whatever it was they wanted in there! They'll eat almost everything including poison oak and ivy leaving pretty much nothing under the the height of the tallest goat standing on her back legs.

Then once the goats clear it for you, you can sell the goats or have enchaladas!

My 2 cents on the yellow jackets is to hire a professional exterminator. They are capable of constructing massive nests in the walls of your home. Once the nest gets large enough you will start seeing them inside your house. I have opened walls during remodeling jobs and found nests spanning 24 linear feet all the way up the valleys (space between the studs). I have also been nailed pretty good by angry yellow jackets for disturbing their nests. The worse experience I had with them resulted in around 180 stings. Not pleasant. The more you are stung the more vulnerable you become to effects of the venom and anaphaltic (sp?) shock.

Well, Connie found the new nest this morning. Out by the pool enclosure. She was cleaning the automatic pool cleaner when one got her on the leg. Luckily she didn't get stung by more of them, as she said they were all over the place when she dropped the part she was rinsing off right on the nest entrance. OK, so this is WAR now.... I am NOT going to have a bunch of bugs dictate to Connie and I where we can or cannot go on our own property.

There is a small depression in the ground that they are building their new nest in. Odd thing is that I was just out there yesterday with the new pressure washer I was using to clean off the pool enclosure with, and they weren't there then or likely they would have been offended at my being so close to them. So I'm guessing this is a brand new nest they are beginning to build.

Time to nip this in the bud before they decide to relocate somewhere else. I'll eyeball where that entrance is and tonight spray it with the wasp spray I picked up and cover over the entrance.

They do move around fast. I had a small nest. I think for something the size I am visualizing in your case, I would go with experts. You may have more than you think if they are building that fast, and they don't seem to be leaving.

Good luck!

Last night I got my weapons prepared. Ortho wasp spray and a BIG rock to place on top of the nest entrance. I then put on long pants, a jacket, gloves, and a hat. Figuring I would limit the amount of exposed bare skin as much as possible. Even at nightfall the temps were still hitting around 90 at that hour, so coupled with the tension of the impending battle (or slaughter, if everything went according to plan), my sweat was running freely and profusely.

I squatted about 6 ft. from the nest entrance and watched the yellow jackets returning from their foraging as the light gradually diminished. I held that post till it got so dark that I could no longer see if their were any more bees returning, but still light enough that I could still barely see the hole in the ground. I grabbed the wasp spray and pointed it at the hole and pressed on the button on top of the can. WTH? Nothing. Pressed again. Nothing.... Great...... Connie was over on the porch watching me (she said she wanted to be nearby in case she needed to drag my bee sting riddled corpse away), and yelled over that the button on the can was REALLY hard to depress. She used it earlier in the day on a wasp nest on the porch. I pointed the can in another direction and used my THUMB and REALLY pressed on it, and that seemed to break it loose. So I then pointed it at the nest entrance and let loose with a stream. WTH (again)? This stuff has the consistence of highly pressurized shaving cream. So in short order I had a big mound of white foaming shaving cream on top of and all around the nest entrance. Not sure how much, if any, actually went INTO the hole, since it was so thick, but I was kind of committed at this point. So I foamed it up BUT GOOD. I tossed the flat rock on top of the hole anyway (at least I hoped it was on top of the hole, kind of hard to tell now), spraying more all around the edges of the rock for good measure, just hoping for the best. But that certainly did not go as planned. I guess I violated one of the cardinal rules of doing battle. KNOW YOUR WEAPONS.

Today I inspected my work. The rock seemed to be covering the hole, so at least I did that accurately. The foam was gone, of course, so hopefully it then flowed into the nest. I watched the area for quite a while and eventually a yellow jacket showed up and crawled underneath an edge of that rock. I used a pole and pushed the rock in that direction to cover up any part of the hole that might have still been open. And I watched some more. Only saw one more yellow jacket, and this one, too, appeared to be trying to return home to the nest. He just flew off when he apparently could not find the entrance. I did not see any other opening anywhere nearby with yellow jackets congregating around it, so hopefully this was the only entrance to that nest. I don't think that nest could have been there too long, as Connie and I have been in that same area a LOT over the last several days before Connie got stung.

I'll leave things be for another day or two, then I'll flip that rock (actually it's an old piece of asphalt) off of the hole and see what happens. But I'll have my guard up in case another nest springs up somewhere else. I think Connie got shaken up by that sting, as she isn't all that keen to get outside and do any more gardening at the moment. I know the feeling, as I'm pretty jumpy too whenever any bug lands on me now... Enjoying nature isn't quite so easy to do when it bites and stings you.

It's kinda funny. I have a nice collection of tarantulas and scorpions and used to be heavy into reptiles and thinking of getting back in. Now the exterminator we use at work thinks I'm nuts but he will put on a green glove up to his elbow and spray dust right into a yellow jackets nest with out a thought. I stand 20 feet away ready to run, lol. He will literally have 100's of those pissed off creatures all around him and keep a conversation going like nothings going on.