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If You Think Yellow Jackets are Bad
allen griggs
Member Posts: 35,614 ✭✭✭✭
I have a nice little tool shed, 16 x 24 and 100 feet down the hill from my house. I went down there the other day, I messed around there for 5 minutes. As I walked out, I shut the door and POW POW POW on my left arm. Felt like somebody hit me with a baseball bat. I got nailed 3 times by paper wasps. Their new hive is 15 feet above the ground where the roof overhangs the tool shed door. This hive is about 9 inches wide and 9 inches high. Brand new, 'cause I was in there 5 days ago and didn't get stung.
Comments
The hive is currently uninhabited. I hosed 'em down with HotShot. Honestly I wanted to just leave them alone. In November they go away, I don't know if they commit seppuku, or if they migrate to Mexico, or what, but they will abandon the nest in November. I don't like to kill any of God's creatures. But, my girlfriend is allergic to beestings so she could have had a fatal encounter with these bugs.
That looks more like a hornets nest to me. Paper wasps make the honeycomb nests without a outer cover. Wait until dark and spray two can at the nest at once. one near the top to soak the escape hatch and one into the bottom hole to kill them fast. I would also spray two more cans on the nest and stay away for at least 24 hours to make sure they are all dead and the queen is kaput also.
Sir, that's a hornet's nest. Bpost is correct. If you need them gone ASAP, use a CO2 fire extinguisher and put the chill on them before hosing wasp spray into the entrance hole.
As I said, the bugs are all dead, I hosed 'em down with HotShot.
You have to hose them at night, when they are all home, if you want to kill them all.
The worker, non-sexually active, females die. The queen over winters. Those are black hornets. They make those "flat" nests.
"You have to hose them at night, when they are all home, if you want to kill them all."
That is good advice, nunn. I had hosed them down about 11 am the other day. I streamed a lot of that poison into the entrance hole.
I thought the hive was kaput. I had to go into the tool shed just a minute ago, and I got nailed! One on the neck and one in the middle of the back. Those bee stings hurt, I am not kidding. Glad I'm not allergic.
Yes, Hornets. (very bad dudes when they get disturbed)
I have couple of them nests in my man cave.
I got them in winter time (the Queen and others are inside)
I got them on a very cold day in winter, by easing the next into a large Plastic garbage bag, spray the inside good with Wasp spray, twist the top good and place it into a chest freezer.
I can later take it out carefully dig out some of the hornets and sometimes see the queen, glue them to the outside of the next a then spray clear coat over the nest. quite a decoration.
I've heard of people that think they have left the nest because they do not see any activity, get the nest and toss it into the back seat of the vehicle or into the trunk and as it warms up in the vehicle the hornets now own the vehicle.
They prefer to sting right between the eyes.
Had a guy one day in fall asked me to help him gather a nest after he had previously seen mine. I knew I was picked to do the gathering. I told him the day is not cold enough to wait for colder weather.
He told me later that he got a weak upstairs helper to go with him and they guy was to use Duck Tape over the hole then saw off the limb and place the nest into a plastic bag.
As they were sawing on the limb the duck tape fell off, they replaced and back to sawing and the nest started buzzing, he took off running and tripped and fell in deep leaves and the other guy passed him with the Hornets in tow. He said he had to lay still in the leaves for several hours until they quit flying by. He said the other guy did not get stung and he could hear him calling out to come on and was laughing loudly all the time.
I told him it appears to me that his weak upstairs helper was smarter than You.
They were very lucky.
Do not see as many of those nest in my neck of the woods last several years.
They can build those nests fast. I've seen them when they first start (only one or two Hornets at first) and the nest are the size of a big walnut and hollow inside.
I have lots of respect for them dudes.
Been posted before, I'm sure, but seems appropriate.
old wives tale about hornet nest, I allways heard the higher up a tree they build the colder the winter will be.....
Old wives tales often use reverse logic like that. The colder the winter, the closer to the ground the better.
I am not sure about those hornets. We have what is called white or bald faced hornets. They can actually stung more than one than once.
I got stung by one in my eyelid.
I never swelled up so much in my life. Ended up going to emergency room. Dr. gave me Benadryl intravenous to bring swelling down. Pressure on the eye was cutting off circulation and he said I could loose my eye.
Now I steer clear of all hornets. Bees don’t both me as much.
All hornets, like other wasps can sting multiple times. European honey bees are the ones that sting only once, because the sting is torn out of the body.
I have posted this before, but it bears repeating, when social hymenopterans, i.e. wasps, bees and ants sting, they also spray with a pheromone that says to others of their species, "ENEMY, sting here."
The take away lesson: beat feet!
Last year I had a nest exactly like that only 6" in diameter and 8' off the ground under the garage soffit. Shot it from about 2' with .22 birdshot and it literally exploded. I was quite surprised and pleased. Never saw any more hornets after that so the rest must have cleared out. .22 birdshot is no joke at point-blank range.
Bald face hornets.Old timers said if you throw a rock at the nest,they can tell which direction the rock came from and find the thrower and make him regret messing with hornets.I doubt its true,but it made a good story.
I can tell you, if you are 9 years old and knock a wasp nest with a bean pole, the wasps will fly straight up the pole and sting you.
The nest makes good shotgun Muzzle loader wadding. Best collected in January when all inhabitants except the queen are dead.
That is supposedly very true from what I have read.
Do not see as many Hornets nests in the woods as in previous years.
Squirrels will usually eventually wreck a nest in the winter time. I think the squirrel is mainly just curious or maybe getting some revenge due to a previous warm weather visit.
They will also attack the person standing on the opposite side of the nest from the thrower. Their vision is really good and ranges into parts of the spectrum we can't see. They can identify a source of danger.
The squirrels are recycling the paper into nest lining for the winter. Resists water and insulates. Squirrels don't have time for revenge, that is a human trait.
I went back yesterday at twilight time. I sprayed down the nest with an entire new can of hornet spray, making sure lots of spray went into the entrance "hole.". I did see one hornet buzzing around, but I figured the nest was destroyed. This nest is 15 feet off the ground. I picked up my extension saw, and in one stroke I slashed the hive in half.
To my surprise, a dozen hornets flew out of the hive. I threw down the saw and bolted for the house, I figured I was going to really get it. Somehow I made it back to the house without getting stung. It was time relax in the big chair, and drink a beer.
I went back this morning and it looks like the hive has been abandoned.