Man Burns House While Trying To Kill Yellow Jackets

WXII ^ | October 1, 2007 | Unknown

[decimon]

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- A Triad man who was trying to rid his home of pesky yellow jackets is now looking for a new home.

Authorities said Hugh Williams sprayed insecticide in a hole next to the St. Andrews Road house on Sunday, but that didn't kill the bugs.

He then stuck paper in the hole and lit it, but the fire spread into the house and the attic, authorities said.

The home on Monday was draped with a blue tarp, and the chimney was bruised with fire soot.

"We certainly do not advocate the burning out of these insects, although it may work," said assistant Greensboro Fire Chief David Douglas.

The family is safe and no injuries were reported, but about $80,000 worth of damage was done to the home.

Fire officials said the house has been condemned until repairs can be made.

Williams did not want to be interviewed.

[decimon]

That’s a hell of an alarm clock.

[kinghorse]

My best yeller jacket story, it happened about 3 years ago when a colony had hollowed out a hole under my hedge by the sidewalk. They were buzzing the area and creating a hazard for kids. I grabbed my long distance spray and got in my truck and eased up along the curb, rolled down the window hit em and rolled up super fast. Too far away. Moved up on the curb and did the same thing. Still didn’t reach. Backed up and move all the way to the sidewalk. Rolled down the window, hit em hard, direct hit. Hit the button to roll up my window and I swear my window picked that exact moment to come off the guide and fall down into my door. Dead meat staring at a cloud of hurt, I threw it into reverse and jumped the curb so fast I was airborn. No stings by a miracle.

[aruanan]

But not these Yellowjackets.

[roamer_1]

Dead meat staring at a cloud of hurt

LOL!

[archy]

Here.. Hold my beer... Watch this! That’ll fix ‘em!

Got him!

[martin_fierro]

[newzhawk]

OMG!I started reading this article and immediately thought of Greensboro! We were plagued by yellow jackets and they chased my husband down and stung him so many times his leg looked like a country ham- he had run the lawnmower over their hidden tunnel. We were told to fill a “cokecola” bottle up with gasoline- turn it upside down into their hole and jam it up to as deep as the bottle would go. No one said anything about lighting it!!!The fumes are supposed to kill them. We moved- I hated that town- pretty but boring and full of wasps and yellow jackets!

[Billthedrill]

They can make you crazy. My brother came up from SoCal largely so he could at last afford his own house. Proud of the place, he is...so he's out in his backyard mowing the lawn and wanders under a tree where there's a soccer-ball sized nest from the house being on the market since early spring and the back yard being unattended. Gets stung, also for the first time in his life.

So he gets a lawn chair and a six-pack. No, not beer, insecticide. Anyone sane would hose the nest down and have done with it. Not my bro. No, no...I find him sitting out on a lawn chair with an adult beverage zapping them out of the air one at a time and laughing maniacally, like something out of a Vincent Price movie. When they stopped coming he soaks the nest and torches it. His only tree. In his backyard. Twenty feet from his new house.

I'm thinking someone has an anger management issue here...

[thackney]

I know the mosquitoes are huge in Alaska, but do you really need a hook that big to catch an Alaskan Yellow Jacket?

[Welsh Rabbit]

The chemical professional exterminators use is mainly just alcohol in a highly pressurized aerosol can (can shoot about 20 feet). I used to be an exterminator, but was by no means a professional. I worked for a small city as a gardener, and one day my supervisor called me in and told me I would now be working for the animal control department (because I had a license to spray both herbicides and pesticides). My new boss was a total, non-functioning alcoholic and did nothing to train me but give some government publications from the Eisenhower administration, mostly recommending bug-killing chemicals that had been long outlawed.

My first assignment was to get rid of a yellow jacket nest that was under an ornamental wood barrel in a park. I had no idea what I was doing and came to site reading the directions off the back of a can. When the park worker showed me the barrel, I said, "This one?" and tapped it with my foot. All at once, the yellow jackets swarmed me, most of them attaching themselves to my left wrist and hand. I didn't want to look like the incompetent rookie I was, so I tried to pass it off as normal and somehow managed to keep a straight face as dozens of bees stung my hand and arm ("Happens all the time. I'm used to this.", I told the horrified park worker). Anyways, after swatting all the bees off of me, I sprayed the nest down with the alcohol spray and they died almost instantly.

So my long, rambling point is that rubbing alcohol with kill a yellow jacket nest. So will gasoline (I've seen my uncle do this). There is no need light either on fire.

[bert]

The insect spray is a volitile gas. He was spraying an explosive mixture in a confined space.

[decimon]

They can make you crazy.

I think your bro had a head start.

[Billthedrill]

It may run in the family. That worries me a little...

[JBCiejka]

Quite a few years back, my husband poured pure gasoline on a nest, and the next day, it was dark brown and everything was completely dead. It was disgusting.He did not light it on fire or anything, just poured it on. I expect the rains that came disappated it, but we had no problem after that. Those bees are nasty.

[KoRn]

/ping

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Al Gore comments, “Jeepers! Is this guy Williams a neighbor of Jonni Edwards? I mean he sounds as dumb as Jonni.”

[NemoDog]

Mom was right, where there is smoke, there usually is FIRE!

[decimon]

Good story and good job of saving face in front of the park worker.

On my job as an equipment repairer in business offices I learned to take good jolts of ac without showing any visible sign other than my arm momentarily shooting up into the air.

[decimon]

It may run in the family.

Have you ever picked off the members of some other family before burning down their house?

[Dumpster Baby]