@&*$%#)! Yellow Jackets

Years past I rented from a friend who had acreage. There was a huge yellow jacket nest in a tree near the access road. We decided to drive his old Chevy Apache pickup to the nest and shoot it down with a shotgun from inside the cab. Then we would then quickly drive away. Well we shot the nest down and it fell in front of the truck. I slammed it in gear and the old, worn hammerhead linkages on the steering column jammed and we were stuck in neutral. The only way to free the linkage was to pop the hood and tap the jam free with a hammer. No way to do this! We rolled the window up as the truck rolled forward over the nest and stopped. Now we were trapped in a running truck over a massive YJ nest inside a swirling cloud of hornets. At least we were safe.....that is until the hornets found the rust holes in the floorboards. Suddenly were trapped in the cab with a swirling cloud of hornets! Needless to say, stung many times, we bailed out and ran screaming like old ladies. Unfortunately, in my haste to run, I didn't turn off the truck. The engine noise and vibration kept the hornets agitated for several hours till the farm truck ran out of gas. When they had settled down in the evening we were able to sneak a hook and long cable from the bumper to the tractor and pull the truck away from the nest. We dealt with the hornets that were still in the cab for several days until they all found their way out. Truly a Red Neck experience!

 

Classic!!

 

While not “environmentally correct” whenever I’ve located;-)) a ground nest of yellow jackets I sneak back at dusk when they’re dormant and with a coke bottle half full of gasoline just invert it and stick it in the hole. Bye Bye

 

So, I wonder..... If you found a nest well away from anything, back in a field say. And you marked the hole for finding at dark. And if you could find a long skinny container that could be shoved a bit into the hole and yet still have some container sticking up out of the hole. And then you filled said contrainer with tannerite and stuck it in the hole after dark.. And then the next am, shoot it. Wonder how that'd work.....

 

Hysterical.....

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/yy9mIhbEHXY?feature=share

 

I havent had to deal with any in a few years thankfully. Last time I did though it was gas down the hole then lit it on fire. They usually dont seem to be a problem until August.

 

... that vid never gets old...

 

Half gallon of diesel down the ant hill, yellow jacket nest....or other crawly hole.....Tends to ruin their day....
No need to blow up the yard......

 

You have probably not had to deal with fire ants…..I think they drink diesel fuel like we do coffee

 

This video and Randy Schilling bird strike video are two of my favorite clips!

Had an old Vietnam Marine tell me about his experience with yellow jacket nest that after numerous failed attempts involved multiple 5 gallon cans of gasoline, numerous entry holes and a spectacular detonation that made the ground shake, removed standing trees and left the ground in a state that a tiller would not have been needed but a bulldozer was!

 

Randy Johnson, the lefty.

Schilling was right handed

 

Yep, my bad, typing instead of thinking.

 

The yellow jackets usually aren't much of a problem (now I don't go sticking body parts down their little burrows either) until August when their colony gets larger and they get bolder. Last few years the skunks have dug them up for me. Again, late August.
Not a fan of the yellow jackets that like house wall cavities rather than a hole in the ground. Apparently they also like chipmunk holes and we have plenty of those here.

Those bald faced hornets can be quite aggressive even when their nest is still small. Plus I think they don't lose their stinger and can get you several times.

 

We do have a thread called "Critters in the woodstacks", everything is in there......for me in my area, it's spiders........big and small, venomous and all...

 

My dad did the same thing with a brush hog. He jumped off and ran then had to run back and shut the tractor off as it was headed for the neighbor's house.
He got over 100 stings on his head/neck, hands/wrists, ankles.
He was ok, but mom took him to the ER just in case.