what kind of critter is this that just ate me up?

[Lee Barner]

I was mowing and got hit from all directions: in my socks, under my shirt, up my shorts a little ways, my neck, head and wrists. they followed me all the way to the house. they are only maybe 3/16" long. went directly to the drug store and got benedryl liquid and cream. a few left the stingers in. been an hour now and most of the pain is subsiding. just mixed up some milathilon, put on jeans, long sleeve shirt, gloves, towel and boonie hat on the head. the hole is almost an inch in diameter, probably a vole hole. sprayed about a quart in and around. they were still coming back and got several more as they landed. not going back til after dark and will pour gasoline down there just to make sure. lee

 

[Hunter8282]

Yellow Jacket? I got hit a couple times by them last year and my foot swelled up to the point I couldn't wear shoes.

 

[Rule3]

Appears to be a Yeller Jacket which is a wasp and would not leave a stinger in.

 

[lkabug]

Yelp, Yellow Jacket. I've gotten into a them a few times working around the yard.
The gasoline will take care of them, but if they are near a tree may do it in also.

 

[steveno]

a range I used to belong to had a steel pipe gate and a bunch of wasps decided to make it their home. a friend of mine stuffed some M-80's in both ends of the pipe and that cleaned them out

 

[billwill]

Yellow jackets...nuke em then nuke em again. They are revengeful little buggers!

 

[crazyphil]

I just call them wasps. Last week I was doing yard work and a bunch of
them swarmed around my head. I never knew the old guy could run so
fast. One of them bit me on the ear. They had a little hive on the inside
of my yard shed door. I had been spraying weeds with Roundup. So, I
just gave them, and their hive a good dose of Roundup. If it causes
cancer in humans I didn't think it could do them any good. Like the old
song, the ear bite "only hurts for a little while".

 

[6518John]

Lee you need to take it easy for the rest of the day and stay in eyesight of your wife or someone. You can have a severe reaction to being stung like that.

 

[292]

Nothing makes a grown man run screaming like a girl quite like a nest of yellow jackets.

 

[Step N. Mud]

Used a 12ga. black powder reload shell minus the shot on a hand size yellow jacket nest in a exposed porch ceiling early in the morning before them yj's started moving around. The concussion of the fired black powder round vaporized the entire nest and any yellow jackets in the area of the nest. This was at a Cowboy action match and was about the last resort to continue the match. So I saved the posse that day. In the past, I wasn't as fortunate and lost the battle with them bad boys, so might call this time a revenge tactic.

ps, the fired shot was pretty much point blank.

 

[6518John]

My view on shooting them!

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yUVflSv5TA[/ame]

 

[Lee Barner]

just got back from the doc. got a steroid shot and took some more benedryl. I always thought yellow jackets were bigger. now it's nap time. lee

 

[brucev]

One of my uncles got into a ness of those things. Ended up in the hospital. Like to have killed him. Be careful. Sincerely. bruce.

 

[steveno]

I have seen some of the ground wasps that were a couple of inches long and the body was a quarter of an inch in diameter

 

[amazingflapjack]

The smell of gasoline is the smell of victory with yeller jackets!

 

[Roadtrash]

Look around for another hole, a lot of times they have two ways to access the nest.

 

[Rustyt1953]

I learned that if you have fire or pee wadding they will sting it out of you.

 

[gman51]

I believe that is what is called a sweat bee. They have caverns in the soil and mowing disturbs them into a real frenzy. They keep going after you till you are way away from their hole in the ground.

If you see your neighbor mowing and all of a sudden he looks like he is practicing Kung Fu then he probably is being attacked and swatting at sweat bees.
My neighbor when mowing wears long pants and shirt with a safari hat that has netting covering his face and neck.
Sweat Bee: pictures, information, classification and more
..........
4 Easy Ways to Get Rid of Sweat Bees (Quickly) - Pest Wiki

 

[fiasconva]

I got hit by those suckers a few years ago mowing also. I took the little tip that makes the hose end sprayer spray off and hit them with a big dose of malathion. If you take that tip off it will shoot a stream at least 20 feet with no problem. Wiped them right out.

 

[ameridaddy]

By the pic and behavior, it's a yellow jacket, a member of the wasp family. They are territorial, aggressive, swarm to the defense of a hive member, can both sting and bite multiple times.
I've been attacked by those things many times, usually while cutting the grass. I've had them chase me as far as 150 ft with me at a dead run. One time I was up at our country piece of dirt and decided to push a stump pile from the edge of the grass deeper into the woods. The loader blade sliced off the top of the nest and a cloud erupted. That nest was easily 8 ft in diameter. I threw the machine into reverse and firewalled the throttle. I was a 100 yards away before they quit chasing me. I had no idea a track loader could go so fast and run over so many things so easily. I went back that evening at dusk when those rascals are usually all bedded down, threw a bunch of straw pats around, soaked them with a gallon of diesel and lit it off. Problem solved.
I hate those nasty little buggers, especially as I'm now too decrepit to run very far or very fast. They are a real threat to cause an anaphylactic reaction in the quantities that attack and are not to be taken lightly.