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Aggressive Yellowjackets Breaking Records in Much of Bay Area
San Jose Mercury News ^ | Denis Cuff

Posted on 09/13/2017 11:20:25 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Aggressive yellowjacket populations are booming this year in the Bay Area as reports of complaints about nests hit records in many areas.

For breaking news get our mobile app for free from the Apple app store or the Google Play store. Winter rains produced plenty of insects to eat, which helped wasp nests thrive, insect experts say. Hot September weather, like the Labor Day heat wave, spurred the insects to hunt more aggressively for food, increasing the opportunities for human encounters of a painful kind.

Vector control districts in Santa Clara, Alameda and San Mateo counties have received record numbers of yellowjacket and wasp service requests already this year and more calls are coming in fast.

Contra Costa County is on pace to break its all-time high for yellowjacket service requests of 972 set in 1999.

Public calls for help with yellowjackets have increased 83 percent in Contra Costa County so far this year. The vector district received 858 calls through Labor Day, up from 469 at the same time last year and more than the 744 calls during all of 2016, the district reported.

Lisa Hallahan, an Orinda resident for two decades, was stung a week ago in her side yard after carefully turning on a sp

(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...


TOPICS: Local News; Outdoors; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: bayarea; wasps; yellowjackets
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To: Stevenc131

I ran over a nest with my lawnmower a couple weeks ago. Fortunately they attacked the lawn mower and I was able to just walk away. Lawnmower did not seem too traumatized by the experience.

It is hard to sit on my back deck this time of year with any kind of drink or food. They crawl right into my beer glass.


21 posted on 09/14/2017 3:41:57 AM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: nickcarraway

22 posted on 09/14/2017 3:48:25 AM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: SamAdams76

Little arseholes with stripes. Ours are paper wasps out here and they love to get into any enclosed area when it gets cold. Open a disconnect box and there’s liable to be several hundred in there. I get hit several times a year by the little bastards, I hate them.


23 posted on 09/14/2017 3:51:37 AM PDT by Dusty Road (")
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To: TTFlyer

Funny. We called them “Meat Bees” as well here in the South Bay...

They aren’t as aggressive as people make that type to Bee...


24 posted on 09/14/2017 3:52:01 AM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: SamAdams76

It used to be that way around my house at this time of year but I almost never see a yellowjacket now. This is farm country, I wonder if the insecticides have killed them off.


25 posted on 09/14/2017 4:10:19 AM PDT by RipSawyer (Racism is racism regardless of the race of the racist)
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To: nickcarraway

26 posted on 09/14/2017 4:36:17 AM PDT by raybbr (That progressive bumper sticker on your car might just as well say, "Yes, I'm THAT stupid!")
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To: nickcarraway

I was walking around inspecting my property when suddenly I felt like I had been shot in my right thigh.It hurt that bad.

It turns out that I had been stung twice by these yellow jackets.I ran as far away as I could but those mothers will pursue you.

Best things to do with them is kill them when you find them.

I never want to experience that pain again.


27 posted on 09/14/2017 4:37:51 AM PDT by puppypusher ( The World is going to the dogs.)
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To: lefty-lie-spy

Around here, people call them “bees”, which makes no sense at all.


28 posted on 09/14/2017 4:40:14 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Hillary: Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect 2 billion dollars.)
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To: Stevenc131

Unfortunately for me, I discover the nests a simpler way...

I ride over them with my tractor while cutting the grass.

The stings really alert me to the problem.

After much cussing, I then look for the nest.

Then I kill them all in revenge.


29 posted on 09/14/2017 5:00:32 AM PDT by Alas Babylon! (Keep fighting the Left and their Fake News!)
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To: nickcarraway

Wasps, hornets and yellow jackets do serve a purpose. They store yeast in their guts and allow yeast to survive winter temperatures. Without these stinging critters, there would be no beer, wine or fermented products like leavened bread. The late summer is when many fruits ripen. Grapes and ripe fruit attract hornets and yellow jackets and when they come to feast, they leave behind yeast.


30 posted on 09/14/2017 5:18:19 AM PDT by BuffaloJack
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To: nickcarraway
That's not a hornet - THIS is a hornet...


31 posted on 09/14/2017 5:42:31 AM PDT by stormer
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To: nickcarraway

We had a nest in our attic and one afternoon most of them found their way into our bedroom. I opened the door and the air was full of them.

DS 1 grabbed a can of “dairy bomb” fly spray that we had for the cows — a new one sitting on the kitchen counter, had not made it out to the barn yet — put one arm through the door and fogged the place. Bravest thing I ever saw because he hated those things. Had gotten stung in the face as a toddler and remembered it. The whole can took them out. What a mess tho.

The ones we have here build in places like eaves, attics, window frames and trees. There’s hornet and wasp spray that makes a stream, or fly spray that fogs.


32 posted on 09/14/2017 5:46:13 AM PDT by Cloverfarm (Pray for the peace of Jerusalem ...)
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To: MilesVeritatis

We have the little bitty guys who nest in the ground. Gasoline usually fixes the problem. Any petrol based product will ruin the nest for them.


33 posted on 09/14/2017 5:46:57 AM PDT by AppyPappy (Don't mistake your dorm political discussions with the desires of the nation)
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To: nickcarraway

As in TX, it’s a consequence of going from drought to wetter times.

I thought the had gone extinct before it started to rain again. Having them return was good sign.


34 posted on 09/14/2017 5:50:01 AM PDT by windowdude
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To: AppyPappy

back in July, I needed to fix the lamp post in the front. I put up a small ladder and was on the second step when the attack came. I had placed the ladder such that my ankles were directly in the flight path to the underground nest.

They ate me up. It took three weeks for it all to heal.

I destroyed the colony with one of those cans that shoots out a long stream. I have poured gas down other yellow jacket holes but that was not necessary this time.


35 posted on 09/14/2017 5:53:32 AM PDT by bert (K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column)
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To: nickcarraway
torpor

Ya learn something every day here at FR. Same thing our chickens would do at sundown.

36 posted on 09/14/2017 6:03:38 AM PDT by super7man (Madam Defarge, knitting, knitting, always knitting)
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To: nickcarraway

B-I-L and friend needed to remove a bald-faced hornet nest so they could use the truck. The arrangement was to dislodge the nest at night into a heavy garbage bag. B-I-L dislodged the nest and holler “OK” so the friend would catch in the bag and dispose of. The friend was too quick on the closure and the Hornets weren’t in a “stupor”. A one time plan went awry.


37 posted on 09/14/2017 6:05:41 AM PDT by mcshot (Prepare for the new meaning of "riding shotgun".)
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To: nickcarraway

My son and I would make YJ traps out of 2 liter soda bottles. We would hang them up and get our lawn chairs and watch the YJs around the trap. We would make bets on which ones were going to go in the trap. My wife saw us and wanted to know what we were doing. She said, “You are such hicks.” All we could say was “Yup.”


38 posted on 09/14/2017 6:11:35 AM PDT by super7man (Madam Defarge, knitting, knitting, always knitting)
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To: ETL

Different beasties.


39 posted on 09/14/2017 6:12:51 AM PDT by mcshot (Prepare for the new meaning of "riding shotgun".)
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To: nickcarraway

Is there some other, gentle and unaggressive type of Yellowjacket of which I’m unaware? They’re nasty under the best of circumstances, but particularly ornery when it’s raining and warm, in my exposure. It’s always fun to “find” a new underground nest of them with the lawnmower, too.


40 posted on 09/14/2017 6:14:36 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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