Did the crazy, flailing-arm dance today...

So I'm mowing the lawn today... dooh-do-do, la-la-la... AHH!, HOLY SH**!, AHH!!!!

Mowed right over a fresh new yellow jacket nest!

Arms flailing, legs akimbo, I run and dance screaming like a little girl into the house, only to realize they are still on me, stinging my arms, legs and chest (under my shirt!). When the dance is over, there are 5 dead bees on my kitchen floor, 6 stings on my body, and one pissed off mother-****er (me).

On top of this, the push-mower, which has an automatic handle-release shut-off that I conveniently disabled with a piece of string, is still running out in the yard 6 inches from the nest in the ground. So after the adrenaline slows down, I grab a 10-foot wooden pole, fasten a hook on the end, and gingerly step towards the lawn mower to hook the string and yank it to pull it off the mower handle, thereby shutting it off.

So the front lawn is half mowed at this point. Can't leave it like that. So, I send my 6-month pregnant wife out for some wasp spray, spray the sh** out of the hole in the ground while the bees are hovering around it, shove a wooden stake into the hole, don some long pants and a hooded sweatshirt (it's 85°F outside) and finish mowing the lawn without getting stung again. My neighbor, unknowing as to what was going on, later told me he thought I stopped homebrewing and started growing something.

I've stepped in yellow jacket nests in my youth and saw a kid at summer camp go into shock and nearly die from being stung 40 or so times, so I hope to think I sensed the situation I was in before it got that far for me today. My homebrew this evening is quite soothing to the stinging lumps on my body!

Damn I hate those mother****ing bees. Similar thing happened to me last fall. Just pushing the mower like I do every week... and suddenly wasps just start flying out of the ground by what seemed to be the thousands. You never realize how fast you can run until you encounter a wasp nest!

A gallon of gas and one match later and I never saw another wasp again.

Well thank god that you're not allergic.

marubozo said:

A gallon of gas and one match later and I never saw another wasp again.

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We used to have to do that with red ant hills at my parents house. Except, we used diesel or kerosene.

They are tough bastards too. I have a nest in the base of my bay window and gained entry where some caulk pulled away. I sprayed about 3 cans of kill'em into the hole over the course of a few days and I still see them going in and out. Napalm next.

Did the same thing - had NO idea they nested in the ground. Came up behind me after I passed over their hole and nailed me.

I waited until dark, put a kitchen sieve over the hole and poured in some ammonia. Killed 'em all, and a little grass too.

I was digging up a tree root three or four years ago. I got stung in the arm by a ground hornet. It killed a vein in my arm which hardened. I still have it. It's like I have a pencil buried just under my skin. Bastards!!!

Bobby_M said:

They are tough bastards too. I have a nest in the base of my bay window and gained entry where some caulk pulled away. I sprayed about 3 cans of kill'em into the hole over the course of a few days and I still see them going in and out. Napalm next.

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There's a powder I've used (Drione dust). Squirt a bunch into the hole and watch them drop out dying over the next three or four days...

For outside, these work great, (got mine from Lowe's). I've used them for a couple of years, and they fill up with the buggars.

When we had a pear tree next to the house we had yellow jackets pretty bad. One time I counted the number I sucked into the vacuum and quit counting at 250. I woke up feelign a crawling across my wrist one night and got stung as I tried to shake him off. After that, it was all-out WAR!

They never really went away until that tree came down. now I never see any.

My bil was clearing his lot and threw a small rotten stump into the dump truck. As the stump hit and rolled over he saw a nest about half the size of a basket ball on the stump. The other half of the nest was still in the ground. The Yellow jackets chased him about 300 yards before he jumped in a pond
to get away. He was stung/bitten (yellow jackets can do both) about 40 to 50 times. Within the next 30 minutes his tongue swelled to the point he could not talk. He had been an avid outdoors person all his life, been stung more times than he could count, and never had any reaction before. My sister drove him to the ER and she said she had never seen them take anyone straight back but before, but as soon as they told the admitting nurse bee sting they saw a doctor within 1 minute. 15 years later he still has to carry a sting kit to inject himself if he gets stung.

Bobby_M said:

They are tough bastards too. I have a nest in the base of my bay window and gained entry where some caulk pulled away. I sprayed about 3 cans of kill'em into the hole over the course of a few days and I still see them going in and out. Napalm next.

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You should talk to marubozo. I've heard that if you got yourself some gas and matches you could get rid of the little buggers.

A few years ago, I ran over a nest in the ground on what happened to be the last time I mowed for the season (those two events may or may not have been related). Hurt like ****, and yeah - I screamed like a little girl on my way inside.

But, the ****ers never came back. I bought a bunch of insecticide the next spring, but never saw them again. Not sure what happened - do they make a new nest every year? Did the neighbor hit them with something? Did they know I wasn't going to **** around if they came back?

Well, I'm a bit itchy today, but not so bad otherwise. I thought about pouring gasoline down the hole and lighting it, but the hole is right next to the woods and it hasn't rained in weeks, so with my luck, I'd probably start a forest fire. I'm hoping the stake in the hole combined with the wasp spray has worked.

This really goes back to my mole problem, which in turn goes back to my Japanese beetle problem. The yellow jacket nest is in an old mole hole. One of the primary sources of food (so I've read) of moles is Jap beetle grubs. So, I put milky spore down last fall, which really made a difference this year... very few Jap beetles. Then there are some stray cats running around that seem to be taking care of the mole problem (tried the castor oil, didn't do ****). So now there's a stray cat problem, but that will take care of itself because they'll freeze come winter.

jmendez29 said:

You should talk to marubozo. I've heard that if you got yourself some gas and matches you could get rid of the little buggers.

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I see you hail from the Carl Spackler school of pest abatement. Bees in your house? Burn it down!

reminds me of a story that still cracks me up every time I read it.

Oh dear lord! Bees! - The Something Awful Forums


Sorry for the cross post.

Same thing happened to me a couple years ago. Thankfully I outran them to the back door, so I only got 3-4 bites and they didn't follow me inside. What really annoyed me is that I'd seen the nest a few weeks earlier, and had forgotten to deal with it.

A couple weekends ago my puppy stuck his face in a hole while backpacking and got several yellowjacket bites in reward. We have him lots of rest and some benadryl. It knocked him out pretty well, so I ended up having to carry him (43 pounds) along with my backpack. Right on the steepest section of the whole hike too.

When I got home yesterday, I walked out back onto the deck and heard what sounded like about a thousand angry wasps. As it turned out, they had built a nest between the gutter downspout and the wall of the house at one corner of the deck. A pretty big one at that.

I ran back inside before they got too stirred up and came back out with a can of wasp killer. Emptied about half the can on the nest, and fortunately they didn't have time to try to fly away.

menschmaschine said:

Arms flailing, legs akimbo, I run and dance screaming like a little girl into the house, only to realize they are still on me, stinging my arms, legs and chest (under my shirt!). When the dance is over, there are 5 dead bees on my kitchen floor, 6 stings on my body, and one pissed off mother-****er (me).

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I assume the Benny Hill chase song was playing in the background?

When I was only about 7, my dad took me and my brother over to his old friend's house. Robert was of retirement age and I'm not sure what he used to do, but that man had a concentration span.

He was mowing, found the bee's nest in the ground, killed them and then dug up the nest.

I know this because I asked him about the large glass carboy filled with dead bees and a piece of paper taped to it; written in marker was the number 4287.

Henry Hill said:

I know this because I asked him about the large glass carboy filled with dead bees and a piece of paper taped to it; written in marker was the number 4287.

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Tha's funny rite thar - I don care who ya are!

I recently had what appears to have been a rather large nest in my back yard but one day I noticed a skunk digging in that area, come to find out they apparently chow down on bees.
I went camping once at a state park and was setting up the tent, pounding in tent stakes and there was a very large nest below the "maintained" camp site. I believe I got stung about 20 times. Dreadful experience, had to chow down on some benadryl and still ended up in the hospital.

Well, my wasp spray / stake-in-the-hole didn't do ****. They just dug around it and carried on. Oh, and I realized there are two holes side by side, so they were using the other hole more than the first with the stake in it.

Trying to avoid doing the gasoline thing at this point, last night I put on ski-type winter overalls, thick leather work boots, a winter jacket, a wide brimmed hat, ski goggles, a bed sheet over my head and tucked into the ski goggles, leather gloves, and lots of blue painter's tape to seam it all together. I went to the nest (I must have looked like a real freak to the neighbors) and dumped some powdered insecticide all over both holes. Well, the wasps weren't real happy about that, but I didn't get stung thanks to my ridiculous garb. I'll check it tonight to see if it's working.

Meanwhile, the stings are still itching the **** out of me.

A Happiness:



When I first moved here, I'd have to clean the traps twice a week. This is all I've caught in two months. Last year there was a nest right where Katie Belle likes to sleep. She got stung and spent the next hour screaming, until the meds kicked in. Dumped a can of wasp spray into the nest opening, end of that story.

For anything that nests in the ground... if it's not in a spot where you worry about killing the grass (sidewalk crack, gravel driveway, etc) I found that Drain-o works wonders.

I had this same thing happen when I was about 10 yrs old. My friend and I would push the mower around the neighborhood and get paid $5 to mow a lawn. I remember one getting my calf and then looking down to see about 30 of'em crawling all over my legs. Needless to say, I ran for about 3 blocks, stopped only to get stung one more time, and took off running again. My friend that was with me ran into the swarm to get the mower and didn't get stung ONCE, me, I got stung 34 times. Glad I wasn't allergic.

Call the lawn a "meadow" and quit mowing it. That's what I do.

Funny you bring this up. I came in from walking around and checking the garden and felt something on my back. I reached back and felt a bump and thought it was a beetle as it happens often. Took off my shirt and a bee fell off and onto the floor. Honey bee I think though, not too aggressive. I stepped on it and the dog came over and ate it.

One of my greyhounds caught and ate a yellow jacket. Since then, he has been very careful about looking at bugs before snapping them up.

jgln said:

Funny you bring this up. I came in from walking around and checking the garden and felt something on my back. I reached back and felt a bump and thought it was a beetle as it happens often. Took off my shirt and a bee fell off and onto the floor. Honey bee I think though, not too aggressive. I stepped on it and the dog came over and ate it.

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Forgot to mention it was under my shirt.

I just think it is hillarious that you sent out the pregnant wife to kill the hornets! Priceless!

No need to light the gasoline. Wait till dark, give them a nice liter or 2 drink of petrol, problem solved. Usually only kills a real small patch of grass too. Maybe 4 inches around the hole. This has happened to me several times. Last time, I tore my patellar tendon running away. Needless to say, i was pi$$ed.

Good News
i have found video footage of
lawn mowing incident.
its 21 seconds in.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH5aClvkNIA]YouTube - Bob Saget[/ame]

rsmith179 said:

I just think it is hillarious that you sent out the pregnant wife to kill the hornets! Priceless!

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I think he said he sent his pregnant wife out to pick up the bug spray. He stayed home in the danger zone. Quite bravely if you ask me.

Tie the string back on the handle of the mower, lower it to the lowest setting and park it on the holes with a full tank. I doubt they can fly as fast as the blade can spin.

ChshreCat said:

I think he said he sent his pregnant wife out to pick up the bug spray. He stayed home in the danger zone. Quite bravely if you ask me.

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Quite right. Someone needs to work on their reading comprehension skills.

beerthirty said:

Tie the string back on the handle of the mower, lower it to the lowest setting and park it on the holes with a full tank. I doubt they can fly as fast as the blade can spin.

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It's funny you say that. The thought crossed my mind. But then I thought... "must kill... the queen." (Naked Gun... anyone?)

I got home from work today and the powdered insecticide is still piled up over the holes... and I don't see any new holes or holes bored through the insecticide. So, I'm assuming the ones in the ground are dead/dying. But the funny part was, there were a whole bunch swarming around over the holes... "oh, what do we do?... I'm a stupid yellow jacket that can't get in it's hole!" Ha-ha... jerks.

But the funny part was, there were a whole bunch swarming around over the holes...

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That's when I stand by with the brush torch. They pop nice.