Trouble breathing is a sure time to be near help... I read where at that stage the sting reaction can just stop your breathing.,, shut you right down,,, scarey... My last stings I itched for about 4-5 days, swelling went from the back of my hand half way up my forearm...other then that, nothing more happened. My bee keeper friend said that that was not uncommon to get that type of reaction.. sure made me have second thoughts about getting stung in the neck or eye area...
Since my parents own a small orchard we are in constant battle mode with wasps. The gas/carb cleaner/nasty liquid route is pretty sure to work, but we've always used Sevin dust (not the granules, the dust). The dust apparently gets tracked into the entire hive and is a killer. We then allow skunks to dig up the rest of the hive OR we dig it up after watching it for a day or two.
Like BogyDave said, gas fumes work great. The vengeance of burning them up feels better but depending on the location I will let the fumes do all the work. I will have to look for the foaming carb cleaner. You can't have too many weapons when it comes to the yellow jacket wars.
Oh we love the actual bees (honey and bumble), but we get a lot of nasty yellow jackets that do more harm than good. Not a lot of pollination out of them and they are downright dangerous from late July until the 1st frost. I'm on a 1-year streak of not getting stung, 2 years ago a small one got me so it wasn't that bad. I think my Dad has been stung every year of his life for 50years now. The worst was a ground hive with the push mower between the tree rows. He did the shirt over the head trick and we hosed him down at the barn. The mower ended up staying out there and we let it run dry.
That sucks. I have been stung by them so many times that I don't even get a red mark where I get stung' Those evil bastages are KOS as far as I am concerned .
KOS? Buck, Yellow jackets aren't honey bee's? I thought they were... I have to look that up, not up on my "bee's"!
I hate Yellow Jackets. At the bakery come anywhere from early August to the first frost we battle them. This year was the worse I've seen in over a decade. I've learned that by not acting afraid and nervous, and not swatting around they don't bother me. I can go out with garbage and open the dumpster and put in trash and I haven't been stung but just once in the last several years. That dumpster will have at least a thousand of them and often many more. The only time I'll get is if they get under my arm or in my shirt and I don't it or they crawl into something and you grab it without knowing they are there and then you get it. Stings like a mother. I've never tried stepping on a nest. I think I'll your word for it and learn by your experience I hope you heal fast without too much pain. I like the idea of the gas fumes, I like even more setting it and them on fire
Yupp, Yellow Jackets are actually wasps. Most are predatory and have only a minimal impact on orchards through pollination and/or killing other insects. I remember learning something in college about invasive yellow jackets being more aggressive, but who knows. KOS- kill on sight?
