Mowing over a yellowjacket nest & being real lucky

[fdcg27]

I should have bought a lottery ticket yesterday.
I was out after work giving the grass a badly needed haircut.
I had scoped things out beforehand and thought that everything was clear, which matters since I suffer anaphylactic shock when hit by yellowjackets.
Typically, if you run the mower over a nest, the first notice you get is a burn in an ankle with many more similar burns as the little hornets swarm you in defense of their nest. You abandon the mower and run for the house with a cadre of flying warriors in hot pursuit. Been there and done that a few of times, including my younger years before I was so badly impacted.
Anyway, about half done and sweating like a pig I decided to take a beer break.
I looked back over the area I had already mowed and noted a number of the wee devils flying into and out of the ground.
I had actually mowed right over a nest and the yellowjackets had done nothing at all.
I was both pleased and amazed at my good fortune.
Like I wrote above, I should have bought a lottery ticket.

 

[97K15004WD]

Very lucky indeed!!

 

[bullwinkle]

That is lucky-my childhood dog almost died from getting tangled up in his lead by a nest of them, he had hundreds of stings, all over him. Suffered from seizures for the rest of his life. When one hits you, the whole swarm just follows the sting & hits over & over.

 

[JunkdrawerDog]

Very lucky indeed. Over the years I have had to hire pest control professionals a couple times to remove yellow jackets. They are nothing to fool around with. Let the guy in the bee suit do it while you watch safely from inside.

 

[Railrust]

Been there done that...you're right, they hit the ankle first, then the back of the knee, calf, before moving up top. Hurts like [censored].

They once built a nest in my house somewhere...they were entering through the siding. I sprayed, but couldn't get anywhere near the nest (as they were buried deep). So I set up a shop vac 1 inch belllow the hole they were flying into. Turned it on and watched as I caught 50 an hour. Kept that thing running four hours a day for three days. That was it. Every single last one of them gone. Worked like a charm.

 

[NormanBuntz]

I have to mow around a holly bush that flowers and attracts hundreds of black wasps until mid-August. My only strategy is to cut around the bush as fast as possible and get the H out of there. Have not been stung yet.

 

[buster]

Glad you escaped. I bet that is painful. My grandfather did that once and got stung multiple times. They went up his pant leg. His retaliation was pretty funny.

 

[MasterSolenoid]

Well, then I was recently lucky also.

Last Month I killed an area of grass (3' x 6') along a chain-link fence.
Two days ago I was weed-wacking the (dead grass) area to plant new grass.
I saw maybe 10 yellow-jackets flying close to the ground in same area.

Yesterday I bought a Yellow-Jacket Trap at Home Depot.
So far, it's still empty.

Last Week my Brother was helping a neighbor with his bee hives.
Although he was wearing a bee-suite, he was stung maybe 20 times.
The bees can apparently sting thru the suite and my Brother was wearing shorts and short-sleeve shirt.

 

[walterjay]

Foul tempered and nasty indeed. You are one lucky man.

 

[maintenanceMan]

A person has no idea how fast and agile they are until they are attacked by a swarm of these.

 

[joekingcorvette]

You are one lucky guy. I had a wasps nest in the backyard that was inside a cable tv box. I grabbed a new spray can of wasp killer and emptied it out. There were several on the ground flailing around and also about 10 around the nest but they were badly disabled. I then went to the garage and grabbed a fresh can of gumout carb and choke cleaner and finished them off. I haven't seen one since. OP I am very glad it turned out so well for you.

 

[KGMtech]

Beer is good for you and saved your day!

 

[spasm3]

Very lucky. Seen them swam out when bushoging a field. With a rear bushog you don't know it until you come around again and they get you.

 

[JustinH]

So the yellow jackets were in the lawn?

Usually I'm pretty cautious but i'm nursing some itchy feet from walking into a fire ant mound last weekend with flip flops.

They quickly started crawling all over my leg, I got them brushed off quickly with my hand and ended up with an itchy hand as well.

My wife kept some prescription cream from our last ant bite and that has been working OK, but the first few days was insane itching.

I paid a landscaper to mow the lawn tomorrow, and will spray the whole area with Bifenten this weekend.

 

[Dinoburner]

Last August mowed over a white jacket nest in the ground. Got hit once then bombed them. In October after the first frost went to pick grapes and found the white jackets eating the grapes by drawing out the inside of the grape leaving the skin, weird.

 

[gman2304]

Got lucky last week by spotting a nest near a shrub. After dusk and the little devils came home to roost I poured a qt of gas down the hole. No need to light the gas and no more yellow jackets.

 

[ctechbob]

Originally Posted by JustinH
So the yellow jackets were in the lawn?

Usually I'm pretty cautious but i'm nursing some itchy feet from walking into a fire ant mound last weekend with flip flops.

They quickly started crawling all over my leg, I got them brushed off quickly with my hand and ended up with an itchy hand as well.

My wife kept some prescription cream from our last ant bite and that has been working OK, but the first few days was insane itching.

I paid a landscaper to mow the lawn tomorrow, and will spray the whole area with Bifenten this weekend.


Something that works for me with fire ants. Run the bit area under increasingly hot water from the tub as hot and as long as you can stand it. I've read that the heat denatures the poison and it quits itching. Works for me when those little #$%@#$%@'s get hold of me.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3257884/

Someone actually made a device to do it it appears. Now why didn't I think of that....its just a little heater you stick on the bite.


Yellowjackets? Carpet bomb the whole area. Napalm, lots and lots of Napalm.

 

[dlundblad]

I ran over one twice about 5 years ago. One stung my side and I just kind of brushed it off. Went back to he area for round 2 and about 9 more got me. Some even made it up my legs into my shorts.

 

[Blaze]

I get a kick out of the You tube clips of people teasing yellow jackets with drones etc.

 

[opus1]

Glad to hear it worked out for the OP. No need to fret over the lottery ticket because I think you used up the day's portion of luck already.

Having been stung twice by the flying devils, I also enjoy watching YouTube videos of yellow jackets getting destroyed.