A Bad day at the range!

[Bigahh]

Guys,

Never thought it was possible to have a bad day at the range, but it happened to me today. I never fired a shot. Earlier this spring I brought the Bobcat to the cabin, and piled up some sand behind my 100 yard target for safety. My wife and I are on vacation this week so I brought a few rifles with, and after fishing this afternoon I snuck out the 100 yards to my range to shoot the Model 64. Well after setting up the 100 yard target I stepped in a ground wasp nest in the sand that appeared out of nowhere and I lost the very short battle. I was stung 4 times, but the fight is not over yet! I plan on going back out there later tonight when they are asleep and taking back my range! Just have to figure out how. Maybe drive the 4 wheeler over their hole, and compact the sand around it down to nothing.

[Basswrangler]

Two words:

Gas
Match

[Griff]

Two words:

Gas
Match

Ever watch Caddy Shack? Just get some Wasp Spray.

[awp101]

Napalm?

FAE?

C4?

Ever watch Caddy Shack? Just get some Wasp Spray.

Correct me if I'm wrong Sandy but if I kill all the golfers they'll lock me up and throw away the key...

[jdad]

3am - 4am in the morning, use a flash light to find the hole, but keep the beam indirect, then pour a cup or so of gas down the hole. No need for the match. Heavy fumes will kill them, but you need to dig up the nest a day later and spray it down real well. There is a product at Home Depot called Spectracide that drops them out of the sky.

[AJMD429]

Today I was pounding in a T-post and realized there was a problem - a yellow-jacket nest about 4 inches from the post I was pounding.

Carbamic acid derivatives (in many fast acting bug killers) are environmentally harmless due to short half-life, but they render the little waspies respiratory systems totally dysfunctional, and a little squirt in the hole probably killed 10,000 of them.

Ordinarily, I just leave them alone, but my daughter is severely allergic to them, and this particular nest was right up where we walk.

A couple years ago when we still had the bulldozer , we had a nest in the yard (we live in farmland, so our 'yard' isn't exactly a formal thing), so after a few stings made me good and mad, I fired up the 'dozer, and removed the top two feet of soil from the whole area, then replaced it, and back-graded it nice and smooth, and re-seeded it.

Something to be said sometimes for good old fashioned REVENGE...

[Tycer]

Two words:

Gas
Match

Ever watch Caddy Shack? Just get some Wasp Spray.

My friend did put gas down one. She put about two gallons. It was wet enough that matches would not light. When it finally did (it was late evening), she realized that the bees had nested in a mole tunnel. She ended up with open trenches all over her yard and the light show was quite spectacular! We all about wet ourselves!

[20cows]

Boy, I'm glad the wasps in Texas don't nest in the ground!

In the barn, in trees and such, yes, but nothing but fire ants on the ground (and they don't fly!).

[TedH]

Two words:

Gas
Match

Ever watch Caddy Shack? Just get some Wasp Spray.

My friend did put gas down one. She put about two gallons. It was wet enough that matches would not light. When it finally did (it was late evening), she realized that the bees had nested in a mole tunnel. She ended up with open trenches all over her yard and the light show was quite spectacular! We all about wet ourselves!

That's funny!

[AndyM]

Boy, I'm glad the wasps in Texas don't nest in the ground!

In the barn, in trees and such, yes, but nothing but fire ants on the ground (and they don't fly!).

yeah - but don't you have "killer bee's" and fire ants in Texas to contend with? Not many of those up north...

[Ysabel Kid]

My first thought was napalm as well!

Interested to hear what you ended up doing. The idea of burning or poisoning them then digging out the nest is best. Don't give them a chance to recolonize the spot!

[dsmith512]

Boy, I'm glad the wasps in Texas don't nest in the ground!

In the barn, in trees and such, yes, but nothing but fire ants on the ground (and they don't fly!).

Your wrong there buddy. In Texas we have ground hornets. Nothing like mowing the grass and finding a nest of them buggers. Zoom Zoom, oww, ooowww, runnnn!!! )

[rjohns94]

A couple of years back I discovered a yellow jacket nest next to my house behind a bush, under the mulch. I used two cans of hornet/wasp spray. The little buggers were flying in and out with short intervals as I positioned myself. I started spraying at the entrance hole and kept spraying as I used a hoe to remove layers of mulch. The spraying got fast and furious the deeper I went. Eventually, the whole nest was uncovered and sprayed and destroyed. It was about a foot down, and maybe three or four feet across, and was in layers down about another foot. After using two cans of spray, they still kept coming into the nest. I had to vacate the area for a while. Eventually, I went in, dug it all up and destroyed it. No stings. No returns of the nest since.

[Old Ironsights]

...Carbamic acid derivatives (in many fast acting bug killers) are environmentally harmless due to short half-life, but they render the little waspies respiratory systems totally dysfunctional, and a little squirt in the hole probably killed 10,000 of them. ...Something to be said sometimes for good old fashioned REVENGE...

Got a bag of the powdered agricultural version (Sevin 10%) to use on the nest that got the wife last year.1/4cup poured down the hole after sunset and an inverted glass bowl over the top of the hole for the next 24hours.

They were as dead as the post they had nested beside when I dug up the 6" nest & filled in the hole.

Would have used gas... but I decided that setting fire to my deck supports was a bad idea.

[66GTO]

I hate yellow jackets.

After one of our hurricanes a few years ago, I was cutting up a downed tree with a chain saw. It was a hot, humid, summer day in FLA (is there any other kind?) and my T shirt was soaked with sweat. While bending over the tree with the saw, I felt like someone was sticking needles in my back and neck.

The noise had disturbed a yellow jacket nest and they were biting me through my wet T shirt and on my neck. After I escaped inside and took some Benadryl, I counted about 30 bites.

I didn't wait for dark for my revenge. After the nest settled down, I poured gasoline down the hole and fired it up. I continued to check the spot every year but never saw another nest.

[DennisD]

Boy, I'm glad the wasps in Texas don't nest in the ground!

In the barn, in trees and such, yes, but nothing but fire ants on the ground (and they don't fly!).

Your wrong there buddy. In Texas we have ground hornets. Nothing like mowing the grass and finding a nest of them buggers. Zoom Zoom, oww, ooowww, runnnn!!! )

Yep', I remember hitting a few nests of these: http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/cimg340.html while cutting hay back in my high school days working on a ranch. Only thing to do is, quick as possible shut off the tractor and run. Then at night you had to retreive the tractor; or if you were really brave, let the bees settle then try to start it and move before they found out.

[Griff]

I hate yellow jackets.

GASP! I love 'em!

[J Miller]

Some years back in Phoenix we found a wasp nest in the hedges around the house we were in.
I went back that night and hosed it with Berryman Breakclean. The good stuff with the CFCs. No more wasps.

Joe

[gamekeeper]

Back in the days when I was a professional pest control officer for the City Council, I used to destroy about 20 wasp nests a day, all summer long. I still have to destroy a few each year and I use either Permethrin or Bendiocarb powder in a bellows type duster with long extension rods so I can stay out of their way!

[Pete44ru]

This is the only Hornet, I've had to deal with, at the range !

[Bigahh]

I believe I solved the problem! I used Griff's idea and got a can of Wasp spray. Bought the can this morning, and I filled the hole completely. The stuff foams up, and nothing came out of the hole. I let it sit all day, and just dumped 5 gallons of boiling water down the hole, and then completely covered it with 2 feet of sand. I put the snow plow on the 4 wheeler. I was sore last night from the stings. My wife had a tiny bottle of a product called "Sting-eze" Has a picture of a Mosquito on the package. I laughed at 1st, but it worked immediately, some good stuff to have on hand. The whole thing was a small block in the road to my vacation. On a better note my wife picked 1 1/2 quarts of wild Blueberries this afternoon. Blueberry pancakes in the morning before fishing!

[HATCHETTJACK]

I hate yellow jackets.

GASP! I love 'em!

griff ya durned troublemaker