Wasps!
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mkk41
US Veteran
A nice long stream of Brake-Kleen!
LouisianaJoe
Member
Put wet tobacco on a sting to ease the pain. I do not smoke but I have a ten year old pack of cigarettes handy to use on stings. Here is a link that explains why it works.
Chewing tobacco is good for you - Birmingham science news | Examiner.com
Chewing tobacco is good for you - Birmingham science news | Examiner.com
Maddog 521
Member
I was on the front porch watering some plants today and one of those little winged s#^&%T nailed me on the back of my head. I swatted and knocked it away before it got real serious. It hurt like the dickens for a while. I shot the nest with hornet and wasp killer. I hope I killed every one of them.
Jdavis
Member
I was trimming low limbs on a magnolia when I walked into the area of an underground nest. The yellow jacket inhabitants apparently didn't like the intrusion and nailed me several times before I realized what was happening. After a hasty retreat and taking care of my wounds, I prepared my counter attack. I staked out the area and observed the bees to determine the location of the entrance to their nest. I prepared a cocktail of 93 octane in a soda bottle and began the stalk to the nest. Just as I was about to deliver the coup d' gras, I felt a sting as I was discovered by the enemy. In spite of the obvious pain, my 93 octane reached it's target. I fled battle scared but, victorious. My cocktail did the trick but there has to be a better way to deliver it.
Having read through every previous post, I am disabused of my original assumption that you were referring to WASPs, the ethnicity, rather than insects, which are only somewhat problematic around here occasionally, rather than Presbyterians and Mormons, which cause us no end of aggravation, perpetually...
I've found that getting a hose with an extremely fine jet that can reach a good 30-40ft will knock them down real good. I've made traps out of gallon milk jugs and pv tubing, that keeps them under control. A couple of years ago while going through an old wrecking yard and stumbling on a real nice '46 Mercury pickup I yanked open the door and there I was staring at what had to be the largest yellow jacket tribe I had ever seen. The whole in the old seat base was easily the size of a basketball and just ringed with very active yellow jackets, to a thickness of at least 3-4 inches. I carefully closed the door and got the h-e-double ll out of there. I mentioned it to one of the guys at the shop and he said you want to look in there, I told him I was interested, he grabbed a 5lb CO2 fire extinguisher and opened up the door and flat blasted that hole for a good 15 seconds or so, then said "That'll do it, except for those coming back to the hive they are all dead." Sure enough only the yellowjackets coming home were of any trouble, no muss no fuss, one big Whoooosh and they were all dead.
JohnK
US Veteran
I'm deathly allergic to Yellow Jackets, I HATE the durn things.
Sure treatment: locate the entry/exit hole, AFTER DARK, put a few ounces of Permethrin dust, or Sevin dust in the hole, and RUN. You will have a 100% kill by morning.
If you try this in the daylight, you will get your butt stung, and you won't get a complete kill.
Sevin is getting hard to find, don't know why. Permethrin works better, and more quickly.
Sure treatment: locate the entry/exit hole, AFTER DARK, put a few ounces of Permethrin dust, or Sevin dust in the hole, and RUN. You will have a 100% kill by morning.
If you try this in the daylight, you will get your butt stung, and you won't get a complete kill.
Sevin is getting hard to find, don't know why. Permethrin works better, and more quickly.
Since I am allergic to bee and wasp venom I am cautious around any such critter. But I've lived right here for over 40 years and in that time the insect population in my yard has collapsed in both number of species and even observed numbers of individuals belonging to a single species. I don't know where they went. Used to have several types of bees, including the small and extremely attractive emerald ground bees. Lots of yellow jackets and thread-waist wasps, even occasional specimens of huge species like tarantula hawks and those steel-blue cricket killers. Now there's an intimidating insect.
Yesterday I was installing a couple of new plants, and I actually found a couple of honey bees on a blooming Russian Sage. I kept an eye on them but they didn't seem to know I was there. Those are the first bees I have seen in weeks. The spiders in the garden are catching something or they wouldn't be there, but they must be surviving on small and insignificant fly species. I never see a big anything wrapped up in a web.
If I had a wasp or meat bee problem, I'd just get a trap and bait it with a scrap of cooked chicken or cheese. These days I am pretty much opposed to chemical solutions for anything.
The insect in my yard in the greatest numbers would be the eucalyptus tortoise beetle, which looks like a nondescript brown ladybug. They live by the thousands in my trees and aren't seen unless they fall off. Actually they are a little larger than a ladybug, and they are not so much brown as sort of mottled, like a -- well, like a desert tortoise. If you look at them closely, you can see that they have white feet. I'll try to post a picture of the next one I see because most of you won't have seen one. They live mostly in Australia and, as of about 10-15 years ago, California.
Oops, topic drift. Sorry.
Yesterday I was installing a couple of new plants, and I actually found a couple of honey bees on a blooming Russian Sage. I kept an eye on them but they didn't seem to know I was there. Those are the first bees I have seen in weeks. The spiders in the garden are catching something or they wouldn't be there, but they must be surviving on small and insignificant fly species. I never see a big anything wrapped up in a web.
If I had a wasp or meat bee problem, I'd just get a trap and bait it with a scrap of cooked chicken or cheese. These days I am pretty much opposed to chemical solutions for anything.
The insect in my yard in the greatest numbers would be the eucalyptus tortoise beetle, which looks like a nondescript brown ladybug. They live by the thousands in my trees and aren't seen unless they fall off. Actually they are a little larger than a ladybug, and they are not so much brown as sort of mottled, like a -- well, like a desert tortoise. If you look at them closely, you can see that they have white feet. I'll try to post a picture of the next one I see because most of you won't have seen one. They live mostly in Australia and, as of about 10-15 years ago, California.
Oops, topic drift. Sorry.
CAJUNLAWYER
Member
serious question
Just what do wasps/yellow jackets do? At lease bees serve a function-but I can't seem to figure out the wasp place in the hierarchy
Just what do wasps/yellow jackets do? At lease bees serve a function-but I can't seem to figure out the wasp place in the hierarchy
This should explain them.
All About Yellow Jackets, Bees and Their Kin, Wasps, Hornets: Gardener's Supply
rog8732
US Veteran
My grandma used to fix dried apple slices laid out on clean cloth in the fall in order to make the best fried apple pies you ever tasted. The apple slices brought yellow jackets by the thousands, and I was always admonished by grandma not to swat at them, you will "make them mad". One day,after learning a few new cuss words from a favorite uncle, I responded back, "Grandma, the damn things were mad when they got here".
I was about four at the time,but I still remember the switching I got for saying the bad word was pretty rough. My uncle got chewed out so bad for teaching me to cuss, he took a long while to resume the...uuh...aah lessons...
.Always have blamed those yellow jackets...,don't like em to this day.
I was about four at the time,but I still remember the switching I got for saying the bad word was pretty rough. My uncle got chewed out so bad for teaching me to cuss, he took a long while to resume the...uuh...aah lessons...
.Always have blamed those yellow jackets...,don't like em to this day.
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