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Yellowjackets
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Yellowjackets Yellowjackets are a very successful social wasp. Especially this year on my little patch of woods. I've had four troublesome nests, fortunately all ground nests and none in my house. The first nest I discovered while trying to harvest pickles and tend to my squash plants. The squash vines had squash vine borers. The moth lays its eggs at the base of a leaf and the larvae, a worm up to an inch long, bores into the vine and eats along the stem. You can slice the stem, remove the worm, and bury the cut portion in soil to encourage new root growth. All through this process I was annoyed by yellowjackets buzzing me. Later while picking pickles, and so standing up, I noticed the nest, inches from where I had dug soil to bury my cut vines. My heart sped up a bit at that. I had saved the squash, apparently, as the vine began to regain color and vigor, but I couldn't keep up on new infestations of worms or pick any more cucumbers now that I knew about that nest. Bending down inches from a yellowjacket nest is not for the faint of heart. I've had luck discouraging yellowjackets by running a stream from a garden hose down the entrance to a nest, so I tried that. It got me stung on the ear for my pains. But I watched for a few days and the population explosion of yellowjackets appeared to have been stemmed a bit. Nests reach a critical mass this time of year and the number of resident wasps will spiral quicky upward in late August and September. The nest has been there all summer but it gets noticed when it seems that suddenly there are tousands of them. There really are thousands of them. So to take my mind off the nest I was obsessing about in the garden, I grabbed my weedwacker, and<b> attacked </font></b>the tall grass around our flower beds and front fence. I almost never weedwack. I hate weedwackers as the most pernicious invention of the industrial age. Much like a snowmobile or a German motorcycle, they never work when you need them to and are always broken. But the goddess Kali has shown a fondness for torturing me so I'm sure it was she who inspired me to take to the weedwacker. I promptly found a large yellowjacket nest near the front door, a place where my Gracie likes to hang out when she is outside. I didn't get stung but I certainly animated them. It appeared to be a large nest, so that night I went out armed with a flashlight and a can of Yellowjacket Killer. The wasps are hunting during the day. They are a good thing to have visiting your garden because they kill all kinds of nasty plant eating things, especially worms, but yellowjackets are prickly in temperament and always end up engaging the gardener in territorial disputes. I am fairly prickly in temperament when I get stung and the thought of my wife or my poor puppy being smothered in the nasty little pricks made me shudder. So on my own I might have lived and let live, but I couldn't ignore a nest in such a dangerous place. So I waited till about ten PM when all the workers would be back in the nest and I ventured out to commit genocide. I got about two feet from the hole that was their entrance, an old ground squirrel burrow, and started spraying and then moved the can to about a foot from the hole. Nobody sallied out to meet me. I used the whole can of spray. For good measure I went out back to the garden and figured they ought to go to, but the lilac bush over the hole was shielding it so I couldn't see it even with the flashlight. I got a long snow scraper from the garage, the kind we use to scrape snow off our roof when it gets too deep and heavy. It has a fifteen foot handle so I wouldn't have to get too close. I pushed the lilac bough back away from the hole and I am not ashamed to say I then ran like hell, not looking back. After a couple more hours I went back out on a reconnaissance mission. At first I didn't understand what I was looking at, but then it dawned on me that the yellowjackets had responded to the waterboarding treatment by building a new nest above ground and attached to the lilac leaves. Doughty little bastards, they are. They were busily building as I watched them, chewing and spitting wood pulp to make the papaer for the new expansion. I knew they all returned to the nest at dark but I guess I supposed that they rested. Instead they were working three shifts, non stop. I went back to the garage for weaponry. I couldn't see the entrance hole from any angle, so this was gonna be a bit dicier than the other nest. I had to drop all the workers in the first spray, and I couldn't be certain of penetrating all the way into the nest without a straight shot through the front door. I knew how Joushua felt at Jericho, or the Greeks before Troy. I went ahead and sprayed from about three or four feet, and performed what I believe is referred to as a reduced range walk up, to a foot or so. No one challenged me. The next day I kept a scout on the enemy all day, and I had decimated , but not destroyed him. If you can't kill the queens, you fail. It isn't uncommon for a wasp or even a number of wasps to not make it home for the night. They get involved in carousing, frequenting houses of ill repute, and so on, and will spend the night under a leaf and return home in the morning, hung over. So a few stragglers doesn't mean much. Give it a day or two and they should all go away. The garden nest appeared to have capitulated, so I felt confident. That evening as we sat in the front yard, Gracie yelped and came running to us, and lay down at our feet, sprinkled with stinging yellowjackets. We swatted them off her, surprised as she was. My wife wandered over to where Gracie had been playing and came running back, stung on the wrist. I took everyone inside and put a baking soda plaster on PD's sting and went back out to scout out the nest. A new nest was building near my apple trees, in another abandoned ground squirrel hole. So about ten last night I girded my loins once again. I armored myself with Carhartt bibs and a thick insulated hoody, tied up tight, and gloves, this time. I figured my luck had to be running out. I took a can of spray, a cup of Sevin, and a milk crate. My method of attack was not creative. Nothing succeeds like success, so I started spraying and walked up on the hole, til the can was empty. Then I dusted the entrance to the hole with Sevin, pouring some into the hole. Any stragglers will have to walk through the dust, contaminating anything inside that hasn't already been blistered by the spray. Then I up ended the milk crate over the hole to keep Gracie from snuffling up the Sevin dust. I treated the other hole again the same way. Today there was no yellowjacket traffic at either nest. Not one wasp. Instead I found a new nest, between my fence and the street. It's a big one. I think I'm gonna post a sign as a warning and avoid the area. I'm already the insect Heinrich Himmler. I feel bad about using such toxic chemicals to kill the critters, but I also feel a bit like Hunter Thompson after the Hell's Angels beat him up. "Exterminate the bastards!" Become a member now and get a free tote bag. |
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Oh, how I hate wasps. Bees sting, but they have a purpose. I often look at a wasp and wonder what the hell it's actual purpose is? As for weed whackers...while out using mine today I came across a frightened mouse, which first caused me to scream, and then I closed my eyes and propelled my machine in its direction. Did I get it? I have no idea. I heard no screams, saw no blood, so hoping I scared it enough to make it run far from my house. Inches from the mouse was a small garter snake. I screamed once again, but left it to live another day. A large garter snake will have that mouse for lunch. I love summer, but hate all the critters invading my life. Back to your yellow jackets, I have heard if you spray them with Dawn dishsoap mixed with water, it will kill them and ruin their nest. Good luck and hope nothing of importance gets stung!
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It ain't hard to get them riled up, either. They are as intensely territorial as a small dog. I hate them. We found two more nests today. I posted warning signs, but one nest is near the door again so I think I'll dust them tonight. If I could leave them alone I would, but when they get too close, they have to die. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Oh, how I hate wasps. Bees sting, but they have a purpose. I often look at a wasp and wonder what the hell it's actual purpose is? As for weed whackers...while out using mine today I came across a frightened mouse, which first caused me to scream, and then I closed my eyes and propelled my machine in its direction. Did I get it? I have no idea. I heard no screams, saw no blood, so hoping I scared it enough to make it run far from my house. Inches from the mouse was a small garter snake. I screamed once again, but left it to live another day. A large garter snake will have that mouse for lunch. I love summer, but hate all the critters invading my life. Back to your yellow jackets, I have heard if you spray them with Dawn dishsoap mixed with water, it will kill them and ruin their nest. Good luck and hope nothing of importance gets stung! What I really need is a skunk or a bear. They will dig up yellowjacket nests and eat the larvae. But where are they when you need them? I like mice and snakes in the garden too, and they don't sting. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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I have dealt with priests before. They would side with the yellowjackets on account of the memories I left them with. The war is ramping up too. I keep finding new nests. Really, I'm a country boy and have spent a lot of my life outdoors getting stung, but this year is the worst I've ever seen for the Yellow Peril. Like I said above, what I really want is a skunk, but they may have some bad memories of me too. It's karma, I reckon. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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I have no mercy on wasps nests and I always run like hell!  But hornets and yellowjackets scare me. When I was a little boy, my grandma stirred up a hornets nest mowing the lawn. She ran into the kitchen hollering "Get 'em off me!" My uncle was getting out of the shower and came running out in his skivvies, and started pulling off hornets barehanded and squashing them with his bare feet. I thought he was the bravest son of a bitch on the planet. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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*shudder* I hate the bastiges. I'm cool with bumblebees and honey bees but the others can stay away. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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