Bl***y hornets!

[steveselvage]

I accidently disturbed a Hornets nest today and collected four stings for my trouble,One on the back, two on my arm and one right on my bald spot.
They certainly pack a punch, i was as sick as a dog and it felt like i had been hit on the head with a hammer.
It makes bee stings feel like a peck on the cheek.
To make it worse the customer knew they were there but forgot to tell me and wont get rid of them as he likes to watch them.I would have enjoyed suiting up and torching the things.

 

[BKF Admin]

Same thing happened to me less than an hour ago.

A local farmer was haymaking and ran over a large wasp nest(The very one that has been having a go at my hives on his land).

They need to roll the hay in the morning so asked if I could get rid of them.

It was right in the middle of the field,I kicked back the hay to find the mouse hole(The forgers could not get back in since lunchtime) and as soon as I uncovered it they poured out like water,a few circled me while I put Diesel on an old rag to stuff down the hole.

As soon as I started to put the rag down the attack started,after taking more than a dozen stings I had to run for the cover of the woods,they followed me in and found me !!!

I would of not been so upset if I had not been suited and booted with leather gloves on..

Give me bee's any day.

 

[hedgerow pete]

sorry mark but when i have had such a realy bad day as today with having massive side effects to the drugs , i spent 20minutes laughing, evan ending up being sick because of it,

on how to deal with wasps and mainly hornets i have had to deal with a few over the years try theses ideas,,
sucba divers wear what is called a wooly bear under there dry suits they are basicly a very thick fleece jump suit, i wear one and put over the top a pair over overalls, wellies on next with three elastic bands around the ankles, gloves are welders gloves again with three elastic bands and the viel is a round type one with a leather welders cap underneth with a wolly hat on the top , the idea is that you have a covering of 30mm all over with if needed a plastic face grinders mask under the viel so every thing is seperated from the outside, in this lot i have been swamped with angry hornet several times and got away sting free, as for wasps, several years ago i disturbed on in a loft i was working in it was massive and in late september they were evil. i ended up smashing from the cieling to get out of the loft dicolated my sholder still ran to the van grabed the co2 fire extinguser and then killed the lot of them end up in the hospital with 211 stings and a straped up arm.

i dont like wasps

 

[BKF Admin]

That made me laugh regards the ceiling,more so because its the sort of thing I would also do.

I will send you a pm regards your treatment today.

 

[Rosti]

Pete, I'm writing this with a grin on my face, great story! I can't help but ask, how did you kill the bees with a CO extinguisher? If I have got the gist of this, you waited till the blighters stung you and then whilst they were pre-occupied you hit them over the head with the extinguisher? Must have taken ages!

 

[hedgerow pete]

co2 fire extinguishers freeze the buggers stone dead at short distance but send the rest to sleep at distance, its the only way i know of being able to clear ones self with out spraying me with a pesticide,

 

[banjomorris]

I've only just joined this forum, being a novice, and thought I would find out what others were doing about wasps....and then I read this thread! You'll forgive me for laughing so much - the mental image is wonderful. I thought I had problems. My attempts at trapping wasps resulted in wasps 3 bees 4, so not good. Will change tactics tomorrow.

 

[Rosti]

That's boringly logical and effective, my version seems far more innovative and amusing to the observer!

 

[BKF Admin]

One of my kids gave me an electric fly swat last week.

What do you think my chances would be if I went back with it in the morning for another go ?

 

[hedgerow pete]

banjo if you want to seperate wasps attract them with meat do not use sweets, and rosti it depend so n how big the buggers are, when we were kids living in the vale of evesham we used to play cricket with hornets they go miles if you hit them hard enough

 

[Rosti]

I've got one of those - same model! Thoroughly enjoyable pass time, Take it with me when going to hives all the time. Creates a very satisying 'crack' as the little blighters 'crash and burn' (really do if the get stuck on the grid)

I know it's pointless, so do the wasps but the ladies seem to find it amusing.

On an associated point I topped up the wasp traps with an out of date carton of tropicana mango and passion fruit the other day, traps are now working a treat, posh yorkshire wasps seems to turn their noses up at common and garden orange these days

 

[BKF Admin]

tropicana mango and passion fruit prefered ?
That will be global warming reaching Yorkshire then.

 

[ribblesbees]

So far my latest wasp trap, which I only put out yesterday afternoon and contains ginger preserve and gin, has the grand total of 14 wasps , one fly and two slugs .


Those which are near the hives are being despatched quite efficiently by the little ladies although they are not without their losses

 

[peteinwilts]

banjo if you want to seperate wasps attract them with meat do not use sweets, and rosti it depend so n how big the buggers are, when we were kids living in the vale of evesham we used to play cricket with hornets they go miles if you hit them hard enough

I can agree with attracting them with meat... I am feeding my birds at night as they have been having been fighting the wasps for their food.

Not sure about putting some meat into a half filled milk bottle container for a week or two though

 

[hedgerow pete]

what we used to have was a large pop bottle suspended from a string through the cap, then roughly about 150mm down from the very top 4 or 5 holes around 12 to 15 mm in size around the bottle at the same hieght just below these holes was a pencil that was pushed through from one side to another with a bit or raw meat in the centre and then fill to below the pencil with sugar water, we used the washings from an empty jar of jam , they dont get out to well but they are evan worse at swimming