Yellowjackets!

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MrWhoopee

MrWhoopee

Minister of Fire
Sep 27, 2011
692
Shingletown, Northern California (elev. 4000 ft.)
I've been out splitting a load of doug fir I cut yesterday morning. When I started splitting, I realized the layer of punk under the bark went deeper than I thought, about 1-1/2 inches. Not that big a deal since the rounds are 2' diameter. I just make another pass through the splitter and split off the outer layer. I throw that to the side for the burn pile. After about half an hour, I noticed a lot of yellowjacket (Vespula sulphurea) activity. Out here they're commonly called meat bees because of their irritating habit of showing up, uninvited, at your barbeque. At first, I thought they were attracted to the moisture on the surface of the splits, but I noticed them exploring holes on the freshly exposed surface. Then I saw it. One of the critters that infests the wood is the larva of the Pine Sawyer Beetle (Monochamus species). The yellowjackets were carving these things up and taking them back to the nest. I wonder what draws them in so quickly.

(broken image removed)
Ain't nature grand?
 
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Cool!
I think it's pretty well known that insects don't sense the world the way we do. Sight and sound are probably much less important than chemical cues, something roughly analogous to smell. When you expose those juicy caterpillars it probably gives off a signal like a smoker full of barbecue would be for us.

Yellowjackets are definitely a pain but they can be a big help in the garden, killing caterpillars of all kinds to take home and feed their larvae.
 
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I literally cannot STAND those bastages......especially this time of year.....
Its almost as if they sense winter coming, and are literally IN YOUR FACE all damm day long when you are outside. I was almost 60' up that chestnut oak tree last weekend and they were pestering me so badly I could have sworn I was near a nest somewhere.

Was at my parents place last Monday for a Labor Day picnic when dad dropped a hamburger on the patio. So he tried to use it as a YJ deterrent and sat it on a plate, out away from our eating table, to see if it would draw the PITA's away from us. Well, it drew in plenty of YJ's, but that didn't stop them from bothering us. You should have seen how they slaughtered that hamburger....there were little chunks of it laying all around it on the plate.....carnivorous little creatures for sure!
 
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One of my favorite pastimes this time of year, while enjoying a refreshing beverage, is to take one of these, tape the button down and place it over a bowl with a chicken bone or hamburger in it. Hours of entertainment.;)
http://www.harborfreight.com/electronic-fly-swatter-40122.html


[Hearth.com] Yellowjackets!
 
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Funny you mention meateaters...
Tore the side of my big toe on a nail sticking out of a 2x4 up in the garage - using some old lumber for skids for siding and had my jesus shoes on getting something form the freezer.
Decided to air it out without the bandage one afternoon and a yellow jacket decided the wound could be a snack....
Talk about pain, felt like a hot iron was driven into the cut!!!
 
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Yellow jackets suck big time ,picking up some old wood off the ground, came out in my face, attacked me, !!! stung me about 40 times , got in the shower bees all over, was not fun at all :mad: , went back out in a rain suite w hood , a half gallon of gas , burned all Yellow jackets ,and the small pile of wood ::P
 
HDRock said:
Yellow jackets suck big time ,picking up some old wood off the ground, came out in my face, attacked me, !!! stung me about 40 times , got in the shower bees all over, was not fun at all :mad: , went back out in a rain suite w hood , a half gallon of gas , burned all Yellow jackets ,and the small pile of wood ::P
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Yea, I stepped on a nest and got stung on the eyelid twice. I was laid up for a couple of days. Went out at night with a 4' square of clear visqueen, spread it out over the hole and covered the edges all around with dirt. I went out each day and watched them trying to get out. Took about 2 weeks for them all to die (I think they're cannibalistic). Thousands of 'em piled up when I took the plastic off. Revenge is sweet, slow, agonizing revenge even sweeter.::-)
 
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MrWhoopee said:
Yea, I stepped on a nest and got stung on the eyelid twice. I was laid up for a couple of days. Went out at night with a 4' square of clear visqueen, spread it out over the hole and covered the edges all around with dirt. I went out each day and watched them trying to get out. Took about 2 weeks for them all to die (I think they're cannibalistic). Thousands of 'em piled up when I took the plastic off. Revenge is sweet, slow, agonizing revenge even sweeter.::-)
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I had a little bit of hard time breathing for a few minutes after it happened , may face was on fire for a couple days. took 2 or three weeks before the stings were all gone
If a few more had got me I might not be here.
 
I guarantee there is nobody that hates them SOBs more than I do. My neighbor has a nest in the bottom of a walnut tree right beside my fence and every time I mow I get hit in the head with them SOBs flying back and forth. Two years ago while mowing my hill I stepped on a nest and got nailed in the finger and by the time I realized two had flew up my shorts it was too late!!!:mad:. It gives me great pleasure to go out at night and poor gas down there hole==c No lie, I have only been stung 4 times in my life two by yellowjackets and for some reason they seemed to hurt worse than the two wasp stings I've had
 
Had a nest in one of my rounds glad I noticed before splitting
 
This time of year I am always on the lookout and watching where these things are going when I see them around the house. They like to nest heavy going into fall and seem to find the small holes to get in your eaves or under your siding. I had a real battle about 10 or 12 years ago. They had found a small crack up under the siding and somehow was able to get in the house and built a huge nest between the drywall ceiling in the basement and the upstairs floor. This was on a side of the house that I was not around alot, just mowed but hadn't noticed the activity. Well when the cool fall weather set in they found there way into the house. I had noticed the activity outside before that and had sprayed the hole a few times but that did not do a thing. After about a week of fretting just got darn mad and went to battle armed with a drywall saw and half a dozen cans of spray. Nest was about 2 ft long by the width of the floor joist. A couple weeks ago as I was doing some painting I noticed some activity going into the eaves of the garage and sprayed but again not effective. Took a foot long piece of 1/2 inch plastic pipe and filled it up with Sevin dust and blew 3 rounds in with the air compressor and that took care of it.
 
I like to find the underground nest, pour a little gas in the hole, wait a bit for it to vaporize, then light it off. The "WHOOMP" and the puff of smoke that follow are my revenge.
 
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Locust Post said:
Took a foot long piece of 1/2 inch plastic pipe and filled it up with Sevin dust and blew 3 rounds in with the air compressor and that took care of it.
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Good idea :)
 
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Amazing thing happened to me last year as i was stung at least 9 times by Yellow jackets in Mid November cutting up a dead Oak . I was sure that they were gone by then ...was i fooled
 
I just dug out a nest out of our big landscaping pavers. At 9 pm I started gently lifting off pavers because they were entering two rows down, and the dirt goes all the way to the top. I saw the 1.5" entrance tunnel and shot it with Raid hornet and wasp killer. Then I got one of those 10" square ground compacting things and gave them several wakeup thumps.

It was very hard to believe how sluggish they were at night. I had a chair and a trouble light, and picked them off as they left the nest. Then I got a four pronged pitchfork and dug, and turned the nest over. Hosed it down with Raid.

Half-dozen stragglers the next day and this one is gone. Today I did see one elsewhere with a caterpillar under it's belly. They are excellent at what they do and deserve much respect.
 
We have yellow hornets up here, but I don't think we have true 'yellow jackets'.

The ones I really hate are those big ass black & white wasps - those things can really put a hruting into you, as many times as they feel like.
 
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Sounds like bald faced hornets (the big white and black ones). Those feel like getting hit with a claw hammer.
 
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Scotty Overkill said:
I literally cannot STAND those bastages......especially this time of year.....
Its almost as if they sense winter coming, and are literally IN YOUR FACE all damm day long when you are outside. I was almost 60' up that chestnut oak tree last weekend and they were pestering me so badly I could have sworn I was near a nest somewhere.

Was at my parents place last Monday for a Labor Day picnic when dad dropped a hamburger on the patio. So he tried to use it as a YJ deterrent and sat it on a plate, out away from our eating table, to see if it would draw the PITA's away from us. Well, it drew in plenty of YJ's, but that didn't stop them from bothering us. You should have seen how they slaughtered that hamburger....there were little chunks of it laying all around it on the plate.....carnivorous little creatures for sure!
Click to expand...

I saw a large dump truck run over a big fat 7' black snake and came back two hours later and the yellow jackets had it stripped to nothing.
 
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bmblank said:
Sounds like bald faced hornets (the big white and black ones). Those feel like getting hit with a claw hammer.
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[Hearth.com] Yellowjackets!


Dolichovespula maculata

Yes, we have those too. Not as common, nor nearly as irritating, but you don't want to mess with them.
I've seen one swoop down and snatch a dead yellowjacket off my zapper.
 
I got nailed by bald faced hornets several years ago. I was using a pole pruner to cut off the end of a branch that had a tent caterpillar nest. What I didn't see until it was too late was the hornet nest right behind the tent caterpillars. The pole pruner bumped the nest, I heard the buzzing and ran like hell. They still got me 6 times.

Ever since then I triple check what might be hiding in a branch before doing any pruning.
 
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