Attacked in my own kingdom

Had Fire Ants in my San Antonio backyard.
Used everything that was legal and a couple which were questionable -
Fire Ants 1, Me 0.
 
Never had to deal with Yellowjackets , but we do have fire ants . Back when I used to work on airplanes most of us always had MEK on hand . We used to put it in shampoo bottles , mainly because they had the tips on them to squirt product . One day I took some home to try it on a fire ant mound . While it's not good on the environment , it's h*** on fire ants . They didn't even get a chance to try to escape . As long as I worked at the airport I always had a squirt bottle of MEK at home .

On a side note , the grass won't grow back for some time if you try this .
 
Ivan, that is the most amazing rescue story I've heard in a long time. I realize there probably was no state-run lottery back then, but with your luck that day I'm sure you would have won it if there was. Dang but I despise flying-stinging things. :mad:
 
The house we lived in for 41 years had a small court yard at the front door. one summer we had big problems with ground nesting hornets. I spent many hours and over $100.00 but finally emerged victorious. At one point I was notified by the post office that if I didn't take care of it soon I could pick up my mail at the post office.

EDIT TO ADD: After spending mucho dinero on various products and not making a dent, a $7.00 can of Black Flag Wasp Killer made short work of the entire problem.

I know that this wasn't really funny but my late FIL was in his 80s when he ran over a hornets nest on his riding lawn mower. He had some mobility issues but he was off that mower and rolling on the ground slapping at his face and head. He was a cranky old dawg so I couldn't resist a little discrete laughter.
 
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I have poured gasoline around the hole and some in the hole and light it and then start digging. When the little heathens try to fly out the fire puts them on the ground.
One day bush hogging I backed into a Hornets nest that was in a bunch or honey suckle. They eat me up. I put the tractor in high and stripped it down and when I got to the house (75 yds.) I jumped off and killed the engine and gave them the tractor. I took a big dose of Benadryl and went too sleep. Later I went out to move the tractor and they rolled out from under the hood and I gave the tractor back too them. I got the tractor back the next afternoon. Larry
 
Back in the 30's my grandfather was cutting a logging road with a Cat. He knocked over an old dead standing tree only to find himself immediately enveloped by a cloud of wild honey bees. He could not outrun them but thought about the fuel tank located behind the seat at the stern of the Cat. He made his way to the drain valve, stood under it and turned the petcock on enough to cover himself with gasoline...it worked, they left him alone. His face and extremities all swole up so bad that he could barely bend his fingers, his eyes puffed up til he had to squeeze one open to see. He got back on the Cat, help was a good five miles away at camp. He drove the Cat one handed and one eyed all the way back to camp. Grandma loaded him in the car and drove hell bent for leather to Moscow, Id. to the nearest hospital. He made a full recovery, the Doc told Grandma that the gasoline probably saved his life because he worked like a poultice to draw the poison out of his stings, he had enough bee stings in him that should have disabled and possibly killed him. He cussed himself because finding those wild honey nests was one of his hobbies, this one must have been higher up than normal. They always had that deep dark amber honey from the woods, best ever.
 
Operation was a success, no more Yellowjackets.

All I do is fill a soda bottle about 1/2 full, go after dark and stick the bottle in the hole. No fire, dynamite,etc. Coca Cola brands of bottles work best since they have a longer more narrow neck. Funny part is the bottle nearly screws into the hole perfectly. Wild to see the bodies in the bottle.
 
Grayfox said:
Some years ago when I was still working, I was driving down the road in my City truck. Nice day, I had the window down. A Yellow Jacket came through the window and directly down my collar. :eek: Sucker nailed me twice before I could dig it out. DAMN! That hurt! The side of my neck was swollen and sore for several days. :(
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I won't drive with the windows down in the desert. We have the Tarantula Hawk wasp, and their sting makes a yellowjacket sting seem like a love nibble from your bichon.
 
Grayfox said:
Some years ago when I was still working, I was driving down the road in my City truck. Nice day, I had the window down. A Yellow Jacket came through the window and directly down my collar. :eek: Sucker nailed me twice before I could dig it out. DAMN! That hurt! The side of my neck was swollen and sore for several days. :(
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Once, on a long motorcycle ride, I needed to both stretch my right knee out and continue to make miles. I had found I could put my leg over the top of the handlebars and get a nice break from the pain in my knee. So, I'm heading down the highway, leading my buddy, and leading with the sole of my cowboy boot. As I'm travelling down the road, enjoying life, a yellow jacket flies right up my pants leg all the way to my knee. Then it immediately starts trying to burrow it's way higher. Now, like I said, my buddy is following me. His view of the incident was like this. " I'm riding behind and I see alot of slapping at the leg, then he hard brakes and pulls over, jumps off the bike and right on the side of the freeway he pulls his pants down to his ankles." It probably wouldn't have been so bad if I had decided not to go commando that day. I didn't get bit, but the other eastbound travellers on I-90 got a free show that day!
 
You could also put a window screen down over the hole when they are all in for the night. Then you can do whatever you want and they can't get out to get you.
 
I guess at one time or another I've been bit or stung by just about every critter capable in my part of the country. :rolleyes:

Another story: I was out checking emergency generators around the city. Pulled up to one of the fire stations and started doing my thing. As soon as I opened the cabinet door I got hit in the face by a cloud of red wasps. One got caught behind my glasses and nailed me just under the left eye. :eek:
I just loaded up my stuff and went back to the shop. Eye was swelling up fast. Told the boss what happened and left. Made a quick stop at the store and got some Benadryl. By the time I got home, I could barely see out of both eyes. Took the pills and crashed. Woke up 3-4 hours later. Still sore, but the swelling was gone and I could see. ;)
 
Came upon an unexpected wasp nest near an air conditioner I was working on. No wasp spray left on the van. Hmmm what to do?
Gave them the spiderman treatment, aerosol contact adhesive!
No units were airborne that day.
Work was uninterrupted by those little devils:)
 
Every year I seem to weedeat over a yellow jacket nest and get lit up . My God those things hurt and the pain stays with you for a full day .
 
In my poor youth we would get Red Wasp nest to fish with the larva. RW are mean critters. We would take a sheet of news paper and fold it open and wrap it into a funnel. We would hold the small end and light the top end. When it was burning good we would cram it up to the nest and burn "em". Any that tried to fly through got their wings burned off.
We would also go to bridges. Under side always had red wasp nest. We would shoot them down with a .22 rifle. When the wasp left we would recover the nest.............Thanks for bringing back a memory.
 
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Thank goodness I've never had that happen. Hope you are doing well.
Saw a video of a guy who ran wires into a hole with a wad of steel wool on the end. He then filled the hole with propane or another flammable gas. Then after full and removing the gas hose he hit the exposed ends of the wires to a car battery. No critters after that
 
Well Hell if'n were goin down the funny side with this distraction I got one. Years ago the family were into them Seadoo PWC thingies. They were a blast, I liked to jump the wake of big ole cruisers and if encouraged would put on a show of getting completely across their wake, etc. There was a big ole party boat, loaded with fine people drinking martinis, etc. up on the upper deck. The boat was putting off a hell of a wake so needing little encouragement from my fan base I went about jumping their sizeable wake. I got distracted and went about my business as they motored away, a buddy and I were whoop'in it up, I mentioned the big waker and off we went in chase. I had been on the machine long enough to dry out, and every now and then my leg would stick to the seat making a kind of a pinching sensation. We were closing on the big boat at a good rate of speed when I felt the first stinging sensation on my inner thigh, OW...I moved a bit and felt another a little closer to my crotch...OOWWW, wellsir it didn't take very long for the old brain to figure out this was no dang sticky it was a yallerjacket and closing in on the family jewels so just as I passed the big cruiser at a fairly high rate of speed I bailed off the scooter and commenced to rippin my suit off and flappin it around to get rid of mr. stinger...bout this time the cruiser motors by, drinks raised in my salute, cheers abound, I then realized I was naked as a jay and could do nothing more than make a bow and thank them for their consideration and thumbs up.
 
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