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

Ledger-Enquirer ^ | 26 July 2006 | Brian McDearmon

[Biggirl]

I had to deal with a few years back on my rhodiadanian tree plant a basketball size bald face hornet's nest. They are related to the yellow jackets. A friend and I were going to kill the nest at night, using gasoline and putting the nest in a plastic bag. A good neighbor across the street took care of it before we were able to do it.

[shield]

Unfortunately, there are more and more threads with the same type of flavor as DU threads...these days. Speculation without much truth or facts whatsoever. Disturbing...

[lafroste]

No, I've never been stung (by anything in my whole life). But the cicada killers are huge for wasps but thankfully, not particualrly aggressive. The funniest thing I've ever seen was a cicada killer coming home with his catch. The thing it caught was about five times its size and it was absolutely all it could do to lift it. His wings made straining noises like an electric motor under too much load, and he finally crashed. It was hysterical. Not hysterical enough to tolerate them, they look really nasty and I have been tolds that they have a powerful sting.

[RandallFlagg]

Sweet! Thanks.

[EagleUSA]

And some daft raccoon or skunk dug out the nest and ate all the poisoned adults and larvae. Ick.
----
Yep, the nest I had got raided in the night too --- skunks or coons -- they had a feast. Before they got real bad, they were always all over me when Bar-B-Que-ing...so I would take a chunk of hot dog or meat and throw it down by their nest -- that got them off of me. :-)

[backhoe]

I can't locate the story on line, but we had an entire, abandoned house filled with a giant yellow jacket nest about two years ago.

[MelonFarmerJ]

It is truly the Year of the Yellowjacket here in California. We have had occasional nests on the farm over the past three decades, but this year we have wiped out over two dozen so far, FAR more than usual. Although not the huge underground pests of the South ... May It Rise Again!..., these California above-ground nests' denizens also pack a painful wallop when disturbed, as I was abruptly reminded of this weekend when I opened the trunk of a "car in storage" on the back twenty. SURPRISE! Youch!! Adrenalin kicks in, run, bat off wasps with hands, run, keep batting, keep running......Five painful hits on head, but Ultimate Revenge accomplished after dark, a blast of pestercide by the light of a flashlight...

[Enterprise]

"yaaa hoo hoo hoooooooey"

[Laura Earl]

We kill those mofos all the time

[Mr. Jeeves]

Yellow jackets act like the Muslims of the insect kingdom. ;)

[Godebert]

and BTW, they (yellow jackets) don't have the cranial capacity to understand a human emotion like 'suffering.'

Kinda hard to have any cranial capacity when you don't even have a cranium.

[cyn]

did ya'll see this?

In a last-ditch effort, Steve Garvin duct-taped several pieces of wood together and attached a metal fork to the end. The siblings climbed into Joyce's car and rolled down a window, covering the opening with a vinyl screen. Steve manned the improvised yellow-jacket-nest remover; Joyce took the wheel.

They drove the car forward to the mobile home's edge, scraped off a large chunk of nest and accelerated down the street. The yellow jackets buzzed the car for four blocks.

[Dog Gone]

Holy smokes!

[cyn]

hehe. Can't make this stuff up! Does this nest beat what ya'll have in Texas?

[Dog Gone]

Gawd, I hope so.

Haven't checked the ranch house in about 4 months....

[cyn]

I'm wondering to what extent the creative eradication methods were "hold muh beer" fueled.

[RunningWolf]

Austin Texas early summer 1972, I was painting a house and 15' high up an 20' ladder against the side of a large house with a row of long dogwood trees on that side I was painting.

I reached into the Dogwood tree for support and the entire population of a large paper wasp nest (also called yellow jackets) leaped out onto my arm.., reflexly I jumped off the ladder and landed in the soft turf below.

I was not allergic either.., good thing. Also 80 stings does not hurt more than one IMO.

W.

[RunningWolf]

I believe I understand you and I agree, for what you describe is Ahimsa अहिंसा

But then there was this summer in North East Texas (1966?) after I got bit by a spider and we could buy black-cat firecrackers at the roadside stand.

Many a black widow and/or wolf spider met horrendous ends that summer.

er 'Wolf

[RunningWolf]

/cicada killer wasps/

I have seen those. Very impressive creatures they are, and quite large as you say.

As a 13 year old, I observed several 'air intercepts' by cicada killer wasps against cicadas. The cicadas were on a suicide (mating) mission anyway.

W.

[mhking]

Run a hose from the car's tailpipe to the nest (obviously at night, when the buggers are inside and unlikely to sting you), and crank the car up. The carbon monoxide'll get 'em every time...

Just damn.

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