Call them whatever you want, those bastages are azzhats! I mowed over a nest yesterday on the end of my sand mound. Then I got stuck about ten feet away. Never saw them. I was only wearing shorts. Hours later, Miss July walks down the driveway to get the mail and gets stung on the hand. So I drove the work van down (I'm allergic) and sat there for ten minutes till I found them. I heard them bouncing off the van. I mowed over them last week also... wearing only shorts. I got lucky both times!!
Pics..... Fireworks, gasoline? Highway flares work if ya use one per hole lit, dropped in, and covered with a flat stone....
I've only found one of their nests so far. Happened to notice them flying in and out instead of getting stung as per usual.
I saw a crazy video where a guy squeezed Dawn dishwashing liquid down the hole and putting the garden hose directly into hole and letting them have it. Destryed the colony instantly. Wait til dark when they are home and have at it. The soap foams up and saturates everything in their nest, there's not escape. You can also pour sevin dust at the entry hole, the workers carry it into the nest incidentally and it'll kill the colony within a day or so. I've physically seen that work it's magic.
I usually just wait until dark, dump a little gas down the hole, put a rag over the hole and soak it in gas, and put a bucket over the rag. The fumes will kill them over the next 24-48 hours. Slow painful death is fitting for those little spawns of Satan.
I got them at 630 this morning. I wouldn't have found them in the dark. I don't need to carry a pen, but I swell up like softball size and hurts/burns for 7 days. Just in the last few years I started getting poison ivy, swelling from bee stings and some (pollen?) allergies like runny nose and sinus pressure. I avoid bees now like the plague now.
Bees do come out at night, And you don't see them coming. I found some in a basement windows well while pull cable. I ran into the house then got stung. It flew up my shirt and I carried it inside.
Are you talking about yellow jackets? I've never really had any run ins with bees. I leave them alone and they return the same courtesy. I got into a yellow jacket nest over the weekend at a rental house I'm working on. Of course I have to take a day from being productive every now and then to mow the bastard grass over there that grows effortlessly. I cut it twice. First time a few under the highest setting then back over with a nice scalping. I don't even care, have to reseed and sharpen my blades anyway. Of course I hit a nest of them near the house/air conditioner. I jumped off the mower and swatted them off my legs. A couple of them got me on the side of my right knee. I don't swell or anything but it's more of an annoyance knowing they got me. I keep a 5 gallon bucket full of water because it seems like I'm ALWAYS painting something, so it's ready to clean brushes etc. I had a used bottle of Malathion and dumped the rest of it in there, mixed it with a stick, snuck around to their nest, and dumped it on them and ran away with the last laugh.
I have hit several bumble bee nests this year while mowing hay. They don’t get too aggressive after the disc mower goes thru but get really whizzed off after the hay rake goes thru. I have noticed any yellow jacket nests but you usually don’t notice them until it’s too late.
Permethrin SFR in a pump sprayer is my weapon of choice. Oil based insecticide, it knocks them down. It’s best to take care of these pests at night. I have taken care of 4 nests this year. A quart of the off brand permethrin at rural king is $20. I used to work in pest control and I’ve never been stung when spraying nests in eaves, trees or in the ground. It hits them and they drop. In the car, window cracked just enough to get the nozzle out. Make sure you have the Air conditioning going. Just keep pumping and spraying. I had a critter destroy a nest in the yard. I hosed it down and covered the whole with dirt. I thought I had a groundhog for a second. My guess is a raccoon, skunk or possum.
I was cutting wood the other day and I saw a number of wasps and hornets landing on the freshly cut face of a downed red oak I was cutting. They appeared to be drinking or sucking the moisture from the wood. They were not aggressive and I did not get stung or dive bombed. It was weird because I am running a ported saw and engines pizz them off. I’m always on edge mowing or weed eating this time of year. They must have been thirsty because they paid me no mind.
We had yellow jackets building a nest in the eave of our house, going in the track of the vinyl siding, I put silicone in the entrance, next day they found another way in...so I took a piece of 1/2" pvc pipe, made wadding with a bit of paper towel, poured sevin dust down the pipe and used compressed air to blow dust in hole a couple times, by the next day most were dead... Prior to this I had tried the foaming wasp spray...didn't work very well.
