ground nesting yellow jacket nest

[junkandcattle]

On 9/6/2026 at 5:28 AM, New Englander said:

You didn't outrun them, they gave up after they figured you'd had enough! Yellow jackets cruise around 10 mph but can get close to 30 mph for short bursts. While running away in an opens station in road gear they easily kept up, so I looked it up.

As a kid we would plow wheat stubble under in August. Followed that up plowing red clover regrowth in September. I was usually the tail tractor. All were the two cylinder varieties creeping along in third gear. Absolutely  nothing to do only take it. Average number of stings was around twelve per episode . Lots of days going to school looking like Quasimodo 

 

[B.B.]

I’ve said for years a country boy’s first line of defense is his hat lol.   That being said when you get in a whole nest that hat ain’t big enough to swat them all.  

[Gabriella Cook]

hit one today actully

[Alan Dinan]

I’ve seen video of a guy dressed up in a heavy coat, hood tied up tight and a 12 gauge. He did a drive by on a hornet nest in a tree, driving a SxS!! That was fun to watch!!

[stronger800]

I did not see it, but I would speculate that 95% of the bees survived and they used the blown apart pieces of nest to rebuild it bigger over the  next two days

[acem]

I'm pretty brave around wasps wearing a full honey bee suit.

[MeanGene1]

A few years back, the company hired a new foreman, so they sent me out to help and check him out. It was a commercial building site that had gone broke, and the new owners redesigned the parking lot with some curb changes. I'm on the backhoe pulling out the parts that were deleted, got under the end of a piece and here they came, big nest attached to the bottom of the curb and a serious cloud of angry critters. So I raise the bucket up high hoping they would follow it as their attacker, and it worked, they swarmed the bucket as I tip-toed off the tractor and slowly walked away. The newbie is walking that way, and I yell stay back, yellowjackets! He says bees? No, not bees, yellowjackets, stay away! He goes to his truck and comes back with two cans of marking paint and struts right into the cloud spraying the paint around... and they tore him up, got hit about 20 times and ran away waving his arms. After he ran away, I asked him WTH were you thinking? He says I've heard if you paint bee's wings they can't fly... He still had a couple in his shirt that nailed him as I was driving him to the clinic as he swelled up

[Sledgehammer]

3 hours ago, MeanGene1 said:

A few years back, the company hired a new foreman, so they sent me out to help and check him out. It was a commercial building site that had gone broke, and the new owners redesigned the parking lot with some curb changes. I'm on the backhoe pulling out the parts that were deleted, got under the end of a piece and here they came, big nest attached to the bottom of the curb and a serious cloud of angry critters. So I raise the bucket up high hoping they would follow it as their attacker, and it worked, they swarmed the bucket as I tip-toed off the tractor and slowly walked away. The newbie is walking that way, and I yell stay back, yellowjackets! He says bees? No, not bees, yellowjackets, stay away! He goes to his truck and comes back with two cans of marking paint and struts right into the cloud spraying the paint around... and they tore him up, got hit about 20 times and ran away waving his arms. After he ran away, I asked him WTH were you thinking? He says I've heard if you paint bee's wings they can't fly... He still had a couple in his shirt that nailed him as I was driving him to the clinic as he swelled up

I have sprayed them with contact adhesive and that works on their wings for sure. Drop like a rock. I would not walk into an angry swarm doing that though.....

[vtfireman85]

7 hours ago, Sledgehammer said:

I have sprayed them with contact adhesive and that works on their wings for sure. Drop like a rock. I would not walk into an angry swarm doing that though.....

Belt dressing is pretty funny too. They struggle yo pick up one foot, but have to set it back down again 🤪

[Mark (EC,IN)]

Years ago, I was bush hogging around fields and backed into a corner and sucked a bunch of Yellowjackets out of the ground.

Needless to say, they were pissed.  I got stung three or four times before I figured out what was happening; then I hit road gear and got out of there.

I was stung 25-30 times on my back, judging from my wife counting welts.

I was on a Farmall 560 when I got stung.  A few days later, I put the mower on a cab tractor and went back. They were still there and still mad, but they couldn't get to me in the cab.

[whweldit]

Few years ago rented a dozer to clean up around edge of fields and finish cleaning tornado damage trash piles.  Right off found a yellow jacket nest.  It was rather warm but I took an old wide brim hard hat I had and secured some fiberglass screen around it.  Put on a heavier denim coat and gloves.   Before I finished I found 2 more yellow jacket and one bumble bee nest.   The homemade bee suit worked fine. Coat was a little warm but it beat getting stung!