The Spawn of Satan

[redhawker]

Wasps...

Hate 'um. But I always give them a wide berth. I'm not out there hunting them down or harassing them or anything. Today I'm out by the side of the house where the wife has some potted plants in the "bullpen", so to speak, until she can determine where she wants to plant them. I finish up watering them and I'm pulling the hose back towards the gate and all of a sudden my right earlobe feels like it catches on fire! I utter a few choice words as I obviously grab at it as I don't have any idea why that happened all of a sudden and one of those yellow and black devils flays away, seemingly laughing. Little jerk stung me in the earlobe. Never saw or heard him coming at all. No nest or hive (if that's what you call it) in the area that I've found and all the plants I watered were low to the ground so I doubt the watering disturbed it and I was in fact done with the watering for several minutes before the attack. Maybe this explains it though...

...Actually I think God let the devil create two things because there are mosquitos too.

 

[hittman]

They've nested behind a couple of shutters on my house this year.

PITA for sure.

 

[Muley Gil]

I read the title of your post and thought maybe you had met my ex-wife.

Years ago, I was cutting grass and ran over a ground nest of yellow jackets. I got sting five times; the worst one was behind my glasses, just under my left eye.

 

[Mobuck]

Years ago I was plowing at night(back then I worked a job during the day and farmed mostly after dark) and got a large chunk of driftwood wedged in the plow frame. I got off to kick it loose and walked into a storm of wasps/yellowjackets/ground bees and got stung dozens of times before I could get away. That was the only time I ever got sick from stings. It was lucky I had an afternoon schedule the next day cause I had to go to the Dr the next morning. Doctor counted over 30 stings on my face, neck, and arms.

 

[Watchman]

When I was just a kid, I jumped out of a low tree house at our next door neighbor's house, right on top of a ground nest. In bare feet!
It's a good thing I was a fast kid, and the basement door was only 30 feet away. Nevertheless, I was stung over 50 times. The most painful being on the bottoms of my feet.

Yeah, I still carry a grudge...

 

[GunnyGene]

You need some armadillo's. They love those spicy snacks. They'll dig up a nest and wipe them out.

 

[contender]

The picture appears to be of a yellow wasp,, while the yellow jacket is a nastier species & different than the one pictured.

I work on ladders a lot,, on other people's homes. I encounter a lot of wasps. Reds, browns & yellows. USUALLY,, they aren't too aggressive towards me if I don't bother them. And,, yet,, often,, they have hidden nests inside the cracks or holes I'm working on. I have had them fly out & land on my face, hands, in my beard, on my chest, etc. ALL while on a ladder, where an involuntary movement could mean serious injury. I have had to learn to NOT jerk, jump or even react when this happens.

Luckily,, it's wasps,, & not those nasty yellow jackets. Otherwise,, big trouble. And,, luckily,, the white faced hornets build nests I can see easily. I carry wasp & hornet spray,, as well as an epipen (?spl?) due to my helper being allergic.

 

[Paul B]

On time long ago my friend and I were cruising around in his convertible enjoying a nice day in the Santa Clara Valley and having a few illicit beers. We were only 17 at the time. when a rabbit ran across the road. We stopped to look because that rabbit was totally covered in yellow jackets. It finally ran into some brush out of sight but I'd bet the farm they killed that rabbit. When it comes to getting stung, I've been quite lucky. One got me in the back while driving in Reno and three or four got me when I went into my large shed to get some meat from the freezer. Seems they were starting a nest and when I opened the door I busted the nest big time. Funny thing is we have a few swarms of killer bees not too far from the range where I do my shooting. One day I looked into a trash barrel and there were dozens of once fired .270 Win. and 30-06 brass with the boxes. There was a lot a hell of lot of bees enjoying the remnants in the soda cans. To dog for that brass or not to dig for that brass. I dug, being very careful to not disturb the bees.I got 5 full boxes of .270 and 6 full boxes of 30-06 out of that mining venture. A guy was watching me and he asked if he could get some brass as well and I said OK, but be careful you don't P.O. the bees. About his second or third dive into the barrel he starts hollerin' and bees were going at him full time. Must have been 40 or 50, maybe more but there was no more diving for brass that day. Dunno how long it took the bees to settle down but I wasn't gonna try and be greedy. I don't know if he bumped bee an dh urt it triggering them off or he was just so afraid they went after him.
Paul B.

 

[kramden]

Oh wasps....I thought these was a post about "The View".

 

[mistermills357]

Wasps set up housekeeping at my house every year, and there are a lot of them. I never do find all of their nests, but I destroy the ones that I do find.

 

[toysoldier]

Years ago, I noticed the paint peeling from the second-story attic vent at the end of the house. I set up a ladder, climbed up with a scraper---and found a paper wasp nest. The ladder and I parted company, and I hit the ground hard enough to get a compression fracture of my T-10 vertebrae. Got six or eight stings, too. That was a bad day.

 

[Mobuck]

Paper wasps are hatching out everywhere right now. We emptied two big cans of wasp killer last weekend just getting the barn doors open at the north farm. Today, I was running the brush hog around some fields and access roads and saw a nest the size of a 3# coffee can just as the tractor(no cab) tire brushed it. I thought "OH CRAP" but not a single one left the nest until I saw it going under the mower deck. Good riddance, it's extremely unlikely any survived the "blades-o-death". Then I got a call from the water district guy who was coming to search a waterline and we found a nest in the breaker box on the pump house--another 1/2 can of spray. After noon, I went out and noticed what seemed like dozens of wasps crawling out of a light fixture above the deck--the remainder of the 1/2 empty can.

 

[6GUNSONLY]

I believe the paper wasp's sting hurts the worst with the big solid red ones a close second. The big red ones are the most aggressive, it seems to me. Certain times of the year they seem like they will go out of their way to come after you.

I went into our mail/break room at work the other day and one of the girls was trying (unsuccessfully) to kill one of those huge purple Asian hornets. She was so scared of it she couldn't do the job for ducking and dodging. She had one of those Swiffer dust mops, so I took it and whopped him against the ceiling with it, which ended the party. Man, that thing was huge! Would not care to be stung by him. The stinger itself looked like it was a good 3/8" long.

Now that I look up pictures of that big boy (actually probably a female), I think it was a Cicada Killer wasp rather than an Asian hornet.

 

[Mobuck]

Last week at one of my farm visits I was talking to the manager when a "mud dauber" (no idea what the actual name might be but they build mud and spit block houses in which to lay eggs) flew past. They're basically non-aggressive unless you squeeze them but they do have a painful punch.
The farm manager was flailing away unsuccessfully at the critter and finally in a joking manner I commented that sooner or later he was going to make it mad. Sure enough, the next pass was right in his face but that put the little winged fighter right in front of me, too. Appearing far more proficient than I really might be, I swatted it with my cap and it hit the gravel where a size 12 manure covered chore boot ground it into paste. The younger guy just looked at me like "how did you do that?".