Yellowjackets -- the wasp/hornet

wait. car, dog, knife?

 

Buffoon occasionally.
Maybe ONE other ....um.... wind instrument.

I'm otherwise musically untalented......

 

Stinking Hornets. Just came across a hornet Bungalow like I've never seen before. Trimming the neighbors overhanging maple before all the leaves become 2 tons of lawn art on OUR side of the fence, I start cutting back branches & limbs so it's easier to manage.
Will have to douche it w/ long range hornet spray early tomorrow morning when it's only 62°. That's one way to get out of yard work for the rest of the day.



It's probably a good 3" diameter
.

 

bees are driving the hummingbirds batty

 

Hiking in the Grand Park area of Mt Rainier National Park yesterday, I saw numerous fallen and abandoned paper wasp nests on or next to the trail. Well inside a federally protected wilderness area, safe from humans but not from recent weather events.

But it wasn't one of them that got me. Some other kind of trail-side wasp or hornet, ground dwelling in a decaying log, did, on the back of the right hand.

It was quickly apparent that this was going to be my strongest insect sting reaction since my early teens. Normally the sting pain starts fading after a few minutes, but this one kept growing, widening to the full width of the hand, with other tingles as far as the elbow. Puffiness also kept expanding, covering the entire back of the hand this morning.

I've long been less reactive to insect stings than the spouse, but maybe that is changing. She'd also been seemed to reacting stronger in recent years.

 

so far it has been a quiet year here, fingers crossed

 

+1

 

@fuzzy1 local tissue responses to wasp chemicals are unpleasant, but if your immune system is not going anaphylaxis and constricting your air pipe, you are better off than you might imagine.

That scenario is owned by all who sell epipens for lavish profits. I wish I could describe how to DIY epinephrine injection for about $USD5. So sorry.

 

In cases where you don't have the money to replace an expensive item regularly? YouTube can be your friend

.

 

We had wasps in a faux wall protrusion, last summer. Very persistent., applications of bug killer might have finally discouraged them. So far so good this summer. I did dig up one of our decoy wasp nests, ensconsed it on the adjacent porch. "Might" be working.

 

A year ago I relocated newly-under-construction wasp nests from my shed something like four times in a row. I had noticed the ladies overwintering on the inside of the door, and thought they might start building something when it got warmer, and sure enough I went out a little later in the spring and saw the small beginnings of a nest, 4 or 5 cells or so. So I would go back out in the dead of night and see it there, with the proud builder protectively wrapped around it, and I would drop her and her nest into a jar and relocate them to the front yard.

Apparently a glass jar doesn't feel or smell like a predator, because she never seemed to get very alarmed by this, just more like "huh? whaz goin on?". And then I would smear some pennyroyal oil on the spot in the shed where she wanted to build, because it was rumored she'd be deterred by that. But I had to do that something like four times in a row last year. Main thing was remembering to check the shed often enough to not have a bigger nest by the time I'd notice.

Only one time this year, though. I *think* maybe now it's late enough they're not looking for places to start....

 

i sprayed a growing nest under the gutter of my garage door the other evening, an easy spot to get at fortunately

 

I don't kill hornets, because they do good work hunting mosquitoes and other insect pests.

 

Three Vespula pensylvanica...Western yellowjacket...nailed me as I picked berries about 12 yards from the house. They must have a nest there. Lucky it was early and in the low 50sF. Warmer and I am sure the whole nest would have come for me.

Way within the 1,000 foot exclusion zone recommended. Well, no way to eradicate a nest buried in blackberry without a backhoe and bee suit, so that berry patch is off limits this year, but I suspect my yard area is going to become a bit dicey as summer warms and yhey get more active. I have 24 acres...they had to pick my best berry patch. Maybe I can pick quietly at night.
kris

 

candlelight dinner?