Insect versus man-Massive yellow jacket nest keeps woman afraid and indoors(Alabama)

Ledger-Enquirer ^ | 26 July 2006 | Brian McDearmon

[Marius3188]

Link has photo.

"Most of the nest, they say, is below ground. Judging by the chunk attached to the home, they estimate it could be 20-30 feet long."

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

That's a lot of Georgia Tech fans.

[billorites]

The end is nigh!

[Robert A Cook PE]

Ouch.

(Check your backyard....)

[Quilla]

A yellow jacket nest engulfs the inside of a 1955 Chevrolet
on Harry Coker's Tallassee property on Thursday.
Gigantic yellow jacket nests have been found in
old barns, unoccupied houses, cars and underground
cavities across the southern two-thirds of Alabama.

[Toby06]

Entomologists are pointing their fingers at the weather as the cause of the phenomenon.

It's Bush's fault!

[justshutupandtakeit]

Holy comoly.

[Toby06]

Ramblin Wreck, alright.

[EagleUSA]

Yes, I had one of these monster nests (underground as usual for true yellow jackets) which was far bigger than imagined. All we could see was the entrance -- a hole about 3" in diameter. There was a natural cavity, which they found and built in it over the period of a year or so. Think naively that I could just put a road flare on a long rod and push it down the hole in daylight turned out to be a big mistake -- a painful mistake. Once I learned that you WAIT until they are all in the nest at night, then you hit them with a flare, and it gets them all.

Once we dug up the nest it was about 2 feet square -- just huge. So beware --- always go after them at night --- :-)

[Enterprise]

Ping

[AnAmericanMother]

Wow. That's a lotta yellow jackets.

We have a good hard freeze every year (we're way north of Ft. Mitchell - my dad's family originally came from that area) so they don't overwinter here. But they're still a royal pain. Some people pour gasoline down the burrows, but one of the really neat ways to get rid of them is to invert a large glass bowl over the entrance. They can't get out to forage, and since they CAN get out and they can see daylight, they don't dig another entrance, they just starve. I like the suffering aspect of it (I REALLY hate yellow jackets.)

[AnAmericanMother]

Try the glass mixing bowl trick next time. It's fun and less dangerous.

[KC Burke]

"Just poke at it with a fork, Stevie, that will make them go away."

Sheesh.

[Puppage]

Entomologists are pointing their fingers at the weather as the cause of the phenomenon

We're doomed as doomed can be!

[headstamp]

Damn! Beat me to it. LOL

[AnAmericanMother]

Almost forgot - your post reminded me.

You have to invert the glass mixing bowl over the nest entrance at NIGHT, so they're all inside.

My husband likes to pour gasoline down the entrance at night. That smothers them, but he also likes to toss in a match . . . don't think he's ever used road flares, but he'd enjoy that too.

[NonLinear]

[macamadamia]

Bunker bust it.

[nuke rocketeer]

[RandallFlagg]

The what? Please describe.