Yellowjacket wasps

[Kevin Dill]

I ran into a ground nest of yellow jackets here in Ohio once. I was operating a Stihl brushcutter and inadvertently bumped the blade above their hive. I was on foot and they chased me hard through the woods as I ran. I ended up with 19 painful stings and was pretty sick for hours.

Then there was a time I was using the same brushcutter and was carving a trail through tall blackberry briars. There was a 10' sapling growing and I cut the trail just beside it. As I swung the brushcutter I heard the blade rip into something that sounded like cardboard. It was a basketball-sized bald hornet nest and I cut it open. Hornets began spilling out in confusion, but I had no confusion at all. I had a fresh trail behind me and I HAULED ASS down it as fast as I could run. I paused at 50 or 60 yards and turned around just in time to duck a bald hornet coming at my head like a lead pellet. I dropped the brushcutter and ran to the truck where I took refuge. The suckers showed up and gave me a good display of their defensive-offensive attitude. I retrieved the brushcutter after dark.

 

[MTguy0341]

Got stung fourteen times in two days elk hunting from bald headed hornets. I was a world class hurdler going over the downfall!

 

[bigmoose]

Those bald faced hornets are the meanest bees in the woods ! We've had to rush guys to the hospital that have been attacked. Nasty and ornery little suckers!


When I was younger I was in the excavating business. One afternoon I was clearing a lot, getting it ready for the contractor to lay out the footings so I could dig them the next morning. The lot had been logged forty years earlier and there was a large slash pile that had to go. I started into it, grabbing the old material with the clamshell and moving it to the corner of the lot. There must have been three or four yellow jacket nests in the pile and thousands of angry meat bees filled the air. They were everywhere ! I was on a John Deere backhoe that was painted yellow and I did not get stung one time ! They just freaked me out but I remained on the tractor and they left me alone. I knew if I had got off and ran, they would have been all over me. They just swarmed all around that tractor as I moved the whole slash pile. It probably took thirty minutes and they were all around me the whole time. Amazing that I wasn't stung.

 

[jeffpg]

I am highly allergic to yellowjacket stings and without my Epipen just one sting can potentially end my life pretty quickly. I have been through several episodes of being stung and the first one many years ago that brought this toxic reaction to light did nearly end me for good. I can honestly say that I have been very near death more than a couple of times, and I don't believe I'd ever survive multiple stings at one time. I have to be on high alert for these guys and early season hunting can be quite a challenge, and makes me extremely selective on what and where I will shoot.

Yellowjackets are my greatest fear in this world, and for very good reason.

 

[archer wapiti]

This is one of those little details that I forget about every year until I'm up to my elbows in elk and there's wasps around.

That severe of an allergy would be a game-changer for me too. I swell up pretty bad, but nothing more than great discomfort. I pack hydrocortisone for the itching.

A few years back, I was turning meat to cool it while i was taking more meat off the carcass and got a helluva poke when I grabbed a nice roast-sized chunk. I thought I'd grabbed a broadhead somehow (which made no sense), but I wasn't being careful enough and got stung by a yellowjacket. Fortunately it wasn't my dominant hand and I was still able to use a knife and get it done.

Here's wishing you all to stay wasp-free this year!

 

[Violent Hippie]

My friend in Northern Idaho and I were just catching up and discussing how our fall hunting went when the subject of the MAJOR increase of wasp encounters last hunting season came up. He mentioned the intentional release of wasps bye the government and it appears this may be behind this ? US releases parasitic wasps to fight tree-killing beetle - BBC News Either way the wasps this past archery season added to the SUCK factor in a major way.

 

[ChrisS]

My friend in Northern Idaho and I were just catching up and discussing how our fall hunting went when the subject of the MAJOR increase of wasp encounters last hunting season came up. He mentioned the intentional release of wasps bye the government and it appears this may be behind this ? US releases parasitic wasps to fight tree-killing beetle - BBC News Either way the wasps this past archery season added to the SUCK factor in a major way.

Interesting article, but the wasps they released and the wasps that sting aren't similar and only distantly related. They share a common name, but that's about it.

But wait, it gets better. These wasps do not sting.

“These wasps do not sting human beings,” said Duan. “They don’t even sting ‘naked’ emerald ash borer larvae dissected out of the bark. They simply lay eggs on it.”

“People worry because it’s a wasp,” said co-author Douglas Tallamy. “They wonder ‘will it sting my kids?’ They’re picturing bigger wasps. These are tiny. Nobody would look at them and recognize them as a wasp. They’d think it’s a little gnat or something. They will never sting you. They couldn’t sting you.”

 

[Violent Hippie]

Chris S, thanks for that link man. This is some interesting stuff. Well, I have know idea why there were so many stinging wasps out there last summer but I hope Its not like that again anytime soon.

 

[Mmcan]

Last fall I had a dairy cow calve. That morning I was getting her in after I had milked. Her and her calf had dropped on the east side of. Hill in a small patch of woods. I was on a 4wheeer just kind of easing them along.

I stopped in the woods just letting them take their time coming out into the field to the barn when I got stung on the arm I smacked it and killed it then I got swarmed by a freakin hive

I jammed the throttle hauling ass out the woods out the top of the hill Away from the cow and calf and the whole time I was getting stung while swatting with my left hand holding the throttle all it would go with the other. After about 75 yards from the woods I was slowing down and I started gettin stung again in my shirt and pants

I jumped of the moving 4wheeler falling down them gettin trying to run peeling my shirt of and kicking my muck boots off peeling my pants and underwear off. Before was all over with I was stark naked on top Of a wide open hill overlooking the barn and my aunts house.

Bees had ate me up. Stung 27 times in all. Luckily I'm not allergic to them but needless to say I was sore and hurting most of that day. I'm not sure if nest was in the ground in a tree limb over hangin me or Wat but them lil yellow bastards had no remorse on me. After that day I stayed clear of them small patch of woods.




I will say it seems some hives aren't that bad and don't bother you but other times it seemed some hives are very aggressive. Could be me though



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You have Africanized bees in your area? Thats a tenacious hive you encountered!