damn bees

[Tony14]

That was probably the smartest thing you could have done.Don't want to be chasing after one of those guys while hes tryin to sting you.
Always remember some type of bugspray when you go out for bottles, or our other favorite insect, the mosquito, will bite you to shreds.[]

 

[madman]

hey guys thanks for all the info !!! it was a yellowjackets nest in the ground , but i kept my distance im gonna try to wait till fall to dig, but i dont no ive got the fever !!! mike

 

[madman]

oh yea, when i was a kid, we had a white faced hornets nest in our tree , i guess they sting repeatedly, so it had to go, my nieghbors across the street cut it down with a tree trimmer dumped gas on it a lit it up crazy but it worked mike

 

[swizzle]

If your going to keep the hive it may be wise to put it in a large garbage bag. Then take a can of bee spray and spray it into the bag and tie it up. I'm not sure if spraying a rag in the bag will work so that you don't soak and ruin the hive. I'd give a few treatments being careful not to spray the hive itself. Anyone else know how to preserve hives? Swiz

 

[amblypygi]

ORIGINAL: madman

hey guys thanks for all the info !!! it was a yellowjackets nest in the ground , but i kept my distance im gonna try to wait till fall to dig, but i dont no ive got the fever !!! mike

Don't wait till fall, that's the worst time for yellowjackets. When the days start to get shorter in the fall the queen bails out of the nest and the workers get really irritable. When the queen is in the nest, they will sting to defend it, but once the queen leaves they will attack for no reason.

In Australia yellowjackets have become a real problem because the nests in the north don't die over winter and can get to the point of having millions of workers. Those Ozzies are used to stuff tryin to kill them though, they know enough to skeedadle when they need to []

 

[IRISH]

Presumably what you call yellowjackets is what we call European wasps, horrible dangerous things that live in huge nest in the ground, hollow logs,wall spaces etc. We fight a constant battle with them here every year although the last couple of years they seem to be less, I've used insecticide dust (best), poisons, petrol (gas to you Americans), second best results with petrol, explosives (will never do that again, it didn't kill them all, just spread REALLY pissed off wasps everywhere [&:] ) and used guns to punch holes into big nests in fallen trees to get petrol in that night. You get quite good at destroying nests after a while, get good at running really fast though thick bush too [] .

I've been attacked by them a few times digging but never too badly, last time may have turned out badly but I had a full wetsuit on so the little suckers didn't get though [] .

 

[amblypygi]

ORIGINAL: IRISH

Presumably what you call yellowjackets is what we call European wasps, horrible dangerous things that live in huge nest in the ground, hollow logs,wall spaces etc.

Yup, that's them. Vespula germanica (German wasps or European wasps) are the ones that have invaded Oz I think, but there are a bunch of different species in the states. V. germanica are the most aggressive of the bunch though, it's good to hear that the invasion down there seems to be tapering off.

One other thing guys: you are all dissing wasps and using "he" and "him", but it's only the girls that sting. That's because the sting is actually a modified egg-laying thingy, so the males of course are weaponless! I used to teach a class and bring in a big jar full of male wasps with a $20 in the bottom and tell the students that anyone who could reach in and get it could have it. They used to think that my point was the "if you don't bother them they won't sting you" bit and so none of them ever tried, but they should have because those boys were helpless []

Sean

 

[IRISH]

That's interesting about the males/females. I did think they may be one and the same as the Rem. Yellowjacket .22 ammo boxes has a photo of a Euro on them [] .

The numbers are on the rise in most parts here, it's just this property and surrounds where I and my youngest sister (my main wasp hunting partner) have been systematicly hunting down and destroying the nests that the wasps have started to decline, it's good to know that you can get ahead of the things anyhow.