So today at the boat yard

[Starman]

Don Charland and I were talking and I was showing him some of the outside work on Boss lady when we saw a small yellow jacket go under a piece of cardboard that was on a pallet.

I said" I wonder if there are any others in there" as I kicked the cardboard over.........

Soon as I did that, some 4-5 small yellow jackets came buzzing. I looked up and Don was no where to be seen !!

Now I do not like these yellow jackets because when I was about 5 I was throwing rocks at a huge nest on a saw horse in the back yard. Well after missing several times....I just swatted them.

Need I say more ?

Any way, I went over to Don and he said I knew if there was one there would be more. He did not wait to see them come out.

These sort of things happen when you are sanding/grinding/spreading fiberglass and epoxy for a few hours at a time.

The dust and fumes affects the brain !!

 

[yachtsmanbill]

Wait till you spray Awlgrip or Imron too !! The seem to really love that sweet kinda smell! Its kinda cool when you dust them with white paint-- catch one after a while and show it off as an albino yellow jacket ws

 

[CARL GUZMAN]

Lysol and a lighter

 

[Starman]

Now last year I got swarmed with honey bees. Hundreds may be too modest a number. I was mixing epoxy outside and it was really kind of funny. People in the yard would not come anywhere near me with all those bees around.

But there is a big difference in honey bees and yellow jackets.

When I swatted a bee and it was still alive, it would be swarmed by other bees and they would buzz me big time. Glad they were not the killer bees, LOL

 

[Genesis]

Yellow Jackets will sting the fool out of 'ya - we get those and WASPS around here.

Honey bees don't bother me in the least. Yellow jackets are another matter entirely, and wasps I can do without. Those things are NASTY.

 

[(Nobody You Know)]

Yellow jackets nest in cavities. A few years ago we had 'em nesting in the side of the house in Atlanta. A slight split in the cedar siding was all they needed. A second time was in a outside terraced wall made of old RR timbers.

The solution? Give 'em a shave. Attack at night when they are beddy bye. Find a short tube say one of copper or any material 3/8" diameter and maybe 18" long. Stick one end in their hole and stick the nozzle of a shaving cream can in the other end. Then proceed to inject the cavity with shaving cream (they seem to really like Old Spice, but any kind will do). Let that sit overnight then hose away the residual cream on the outside.

This proceedure gets rid of the YJs and leaves their buriel smelling menthol fresh!

Starman, shaving cream is available at any local convenience store

Oh, plan B, more fun: Simply use a powerful flying insect spray or long distance wasp spray and, standing up wind some 4'-5' from the hole, blast them as they come in on final approach. At this point they already have their landing gear down and their little yellow spoilers activated - too late to pull up or turn back (committed). Watch 'em crash while you pick 'em off at leisure (but also watch your back).

You can gather that we have lots of these here in GA.

 

[Bob Bradley]

Here in CT, they gather around the filet board in Autumn. They're actually just there for the fish, and I've never had one sting me while I was fileting, but they sure make you nervous when there are a dozen or so buzzing around you. It's kinda like walking thru the north end of Waterbury. They're all around you, they probably don't give a damn about you and won't hurt you, but still they make you nervous.

 

[joe31hat]

Darn near swallowed one a couple of years ago. He had flown into a good bottle of Canadian beer! I felt something in the beer and SPIT, in time.

Watch the beer cans and beer bottles!

Joe

 

[Starman]

I keep the wasp spray handy in the summer around here.

I also keep a couple good swatters on the back deck I have a roof over my deck, and everything ( the rafters ) are covered, so there is no place for them to really nest.

But they do buzz alot.

Amazing how they can almost hover in front of you, but are so dang hard to swat !!

And every now and then, the monster hornet will come round. I would sure hate to get stung by one of those fellows .....Ye-ouch !

 

[mopester]

I dont know the diff between yj and hb, but wasps and hrnets suck!!! they bite too!! I was diiging worms as a kid and dugg into a rotted piece of wood with a nest of those big wood bore bees?? they bite toooo oouuugghhhchh


I take the flame thrower method!!!! burn baby burn...

 

[Starman]

Buddy and I were squirrel hunting way back in the day. We had seen this huge hornets nest many times over the years, but on this day, the time seemed right.

So we opened up on it with our 12 gauges, number 4 shot.

This nest was a lot larger than a basketball.

Well it seemed like the sky turned black and a jet was in the woods. Now I do not know how far we ran, or how we got through those thickets. But you can believe one thing, we ran farther and faster than Forest Gump ever thought about about

 

[Bob Bradley]

I did a honeybee nest with my bb gun one summer when I was young and stupid. Fortunately, I've gotten older.

"He ran thru the briars and he ran thru the brambles and he ran thru the bushes where a rabbit wouldn't go"

 

[Maynard Rupp]

My son told me hat there are no bugs in southern Miami. I didn't beleive him, of course. I can tell you that when we arrived at Dinner Key Marina on Biscayne Bay, we had huge Michigan spiders. As we know spiders live on other bugs. Well, after a week, all those spiders were dead and gone and I still have not seen a bug at Dinner Key or in nearby Coconut Grove Florida. Very neat place also. Pascal has been there for a long time. Are there any bugs at Dinner Key Marina Pascal???

 

[Starman]

I heard or read somewhere long time ago that the earth has about 50,000 spiders per acre.

Thats alotta' legs

I lived at River Bend Plantation in New Bern for about a year. That place was built on swamp land, so I heard. But the spiders, Geeeze, in the evenings they would drop out of the rafters so thick it was hard to dee the canal behind the apt.

 

[Mike53C]

My Dad and I went hunting one evening, I was about 7 years old so it must have been a looong time ago. With us came along our dog Naoh, a wire haired pointing griffon, to help in the retrieve of any partridge Dad put down. We were walking along a dirt trail when about 50 yards ahead we saw a horsecart with a mule attached. The man was having a rough time trying to control the mule that was rearing and kicking and threatened to back enough to push the cart out of the trail and down the slope. When we got closer the guy yelled:

Watch out!, there is a huge nest of black wasps in that hole there and they are MAD !!

My Dad took a closer look and sure thing, I could see it too, there was a hole in the lateral embankment of the trail and a MEAN buzz came from inside. A few were going in and out like black bullets. The guy wanted to calm the mule and go his way and we wanted to go hunting so Dad decided to shoot above the hole to make it colapse and close it. He loaded a couple of slugs he always carried just in case we spotted a wild boar, got as close as he dared, and fired those two 12 gauge barrels at the wall above the opening.
The dirt colapsed efectivelly sealing the opening.

Brilliant!

But then, the dog hurled at the dirt and started digging to retrieve whatever it was that his never missing master had shot. No yelling, rock throwing, whistling, nothing could stop that dog.

The mule man said Oh sh**! and was gone down trail, the mule, at least free decided to run down trail too after the farmer and my father grabbed my hand and we ran up trail.

Boy, did we ran.

And then we heard the wail of the dog as he finally opened the hole and a black jet of absolutely pissed off wasps buzzed out looking for revenge.

And guess what....the poor dog came running AFTER us, and after him a black cloud of wasps...but let me tell you, for this and only time, we actually outrun a dog. When we finally felt safe we stopped, panting, busted, and the dog, now without the screaming escort came to our side.
He had what seemed like hunderds of wasps entangled in the thick and wiry hair. Once we killed and removed all, the dog fell and my Dad had to carry it home. We were sure he would die, he was so bloated he could barley breath, but after a couple of days he was asking for food.

And in a week we were hunting together again.

Miguel