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Attacked by hornets/yellow jackets
- Thread starter coinworld
- Start date
brokeinNYS
New member
Sorry to hear about your yellow jacket experience. At one time in my life I was a commercial bee keeper and can suggest a few cautions for anyone in this situation again - a couple of protective moves could possibly save your life. Number one bees never live in the ground and you described rightly - yellow jackets. Bees can sting you only once, yellow jackets on the other hand can if there under your shirt or in your pants sting you numerous times.
Number two - waving your arms is an attention getter to a bee or wasp, there eyes are set up to follow motion, for example a flower blowing in the wind. If you can resist making any motion for example with a bee enters your car, calming pull over and stop and open a door and usually the bee feeling the air currents will fly off and leave you free to travel.
Number three - Africa bees are a modified honey bee, the major difference is there alarm system. Hit the side of a hive of a regular bee hive and several will come out and look to see whats bother the hive. African bees - all come out and investigate - a possible difference of thousands of flying bees.
Number four - Bees are smart in defending the hive - although one sting and they die - the sting leaves an odor which attractions other bees to the site of the defensive sting. They normally go for the region around the eye to blind there victim first and secondly to the throat area for reasons of suffocation by swelling the throat area.
Suggested choices of protection and removing your self from danger - Without swinging arms or detector look and see if there are any near by leafy bushes to walk through, it none available, walk away as quick as possible. ONE last survival tactic - if your ever over whelmed by thousands of bees, you best choice would be to fall flat on the ground and try to cover your eyes and mouth with anything to keep the bees or wasp from there blinding and suffocating tactic. Drop anything that slows your retreat up as that can be recovered after dark. Bees and wasp do not fly at night. If you have been stung by a honey bee there's a small sack of venom on top of the stinger - scrape the stinger and sack off. Wasp have not venom sack, a difference between the two insects. Rubbing a sting area only intensifys the stinging feeling. Good luck - in future hunts.
Number two - waving your arms is an attention getter to a bee or wasp, there eyes are set up to follow motion, for example a flower blowing in the wind. If you can resist making any motion for example with a bee enters your car, calming pull over and stop and open a door and usually the bee feeling the air currents will fly off and leave you free to travel.
Number three - Africa bees are a modified honey bee, the major difference is there alarm system. Hit the side of a hive of a regular bee hive and several will come out and look to see whats bother the hive. African bees - all come out and investigate - a possible difference of thousands of flying bees.
Number four - Bees are smart in defending the hive - although one sting and they die - the sting leaves an odor which attractions other bees to the site of the defensive sting. They normally go for the region around the eye to blind there victim first and secondly to the throat area for reasons of suffocation by swelling the throat area.
Suggested choices of protection and removing your self from danger - Without swinging arms or detector look and see if there are any near by leafy bushes to walk through, it none available, walk away as quick as possible. ONE last survival tactic - if your ever over whelmed by thousands of bees, you best choice would be to fall flat on the ground and try to cover your eyes and mouth with anything to keep the bees or wasp from there blinding and suffocating tactic. Drop anything that slows your retreat up as that can be recovered after dark. Bees and wasp do not fly at night. If you have been stung by a honey bee there's a small sack of venom on top of the stinger - scrape the stinger and sack off. Wasp have not venom sack, a difference between the two insects. Rubbing a sting area only intensifys the stinging feeling. Good luck - in future hunts.
I just now got on the board to see this thread. I am Sunday school teacher at the church I go to, for our teenager class. We have a smaller church and only have 4-5 teenagers there but that doesn't matter for now. They have expressed an interest in wanting to go relic hunting so I took them yesterday (Saturday) to a spot trying to get them on some bullets.
I let them go at it and I just kinda dug for them and would listen to the detectors to see if the target was a digger or not. They had been getting a few fired 3 ringers off and on. My main spot was too over grown and we had to resort to another spot that is quickly being lost to development. I moved us into a little patch of woods and it was really open up in there. We got a couple bullets there and all was good.
I was with one of the boys showing him how to pinpoint a bullet we were about to dig. He stuck the shovel in the ground and we about had a fit for what popped up. Now folks let me stop the story here to tell a few facts. #1...we were having fun. #2...we had a relic just moments away from being turned up. #3...nothing will get two people running and screaming faster than a nest full of ticked off yellow jackets that just had their home dug out of the ground.
Yep that relic had a bunch of striped warriors protecting it...and we decided to let them keep it. I didn't quit running until I was a good 100 yds from the hole, thinking I was safe and when I stopped, they pounced on me. I could already hear the other fella hollering and knew they were getting him too. I ran to the other boys who were clueless to what was going on, and had them beat the little devils off me with my hat. I got lucky...just got it 6 or 7 times. The other boy got it worse and got one sting on his head. We decided to evacuate the woods and when we did that, it started raining a few minutes later. Thankfully he wasn't allergic to 'em. They got him good and his eye was swollen shut this morning at church. But that sure was a big first for me. All these years of digging and you would have thought I would have ran into them before now.
Spray wont get the job done. Even fast legs don't work either. As Butch Holcolmb says, "those things have one mission in life...kill humans". I never got hit yesterday until I stopped running and I was a good 100 yds from where we dug them up. And even when they got them beat off of me, they were still somehow able to find me and buzz around me.
I let them go at it and I just kinda dug for them and would listen to the detectors to see if the target was a digger or not. They had been getting a few fired 3 ringers off and on. My main spot was too over grown and we had to resort to another spot that is quickly being lost to development. I moved us into a little patch of woods and it was really open up in there. We got a couple bullets there and all was good.
I was with one of the boys showing him how to pinpoint a bullet we were about to dig. He stuck the shovel in the ground and we about had a fit for what popped up. Now folks let me stop the story here to tell a few facts. #1...we were having fun. #2...we had a relic just moments away from being turned up. #3...nothing will get two people running and screaming faster than a nest full of ticked off yellow jackets that just had their home dug out of the ground.
Yep that relic had a bunch of striped warriors protecting it...and we decided to let them keep it. I didn't quit running until I was a good 100 yds from the hole, thinking I was safe and when I stopped, they pounced on me. I could already hear the other fella hollering and knew they were getting him too. I ran to the other boys who were clueless to what was going on, and had them beat the little devils off me with my hat. I got lucky...just got it 6 or 7 times. The other boy got it worse and got one sting on his head. We decided to evacuate the woods and when we did that, it started raining a few minutes later. Thankfully he wasn't allergic to 'em. They got him good and his eye was swollen shut this morning at church. But that sure was a big first for me. All these years of digging and you would have thought I would have ran into them before now.
Spray wont get the job done. Even fast legs don't work either. As Butch Holcolmb says, "those things have one mission in life...kill humans". I never got hit yesterday until I stopped running and I was a good 100 yds from where we dug them up. And even when they got them beat off of me, they were still somehow able to find me and buzz around me.
Airborne80
New member
Hi guys. I can't believe that you are all talking about this! I just googled "How to survive a wasp attack" and found this forum. First... I have had a fear of bees and wasps my entire life. I mean... I would throw my own wife between a bee and myself. its that bad. Well.... yesterday iwas finsihed with the M.D. and decided to hunt arrowheads in the woods near my house. I found a killer arrowhead and was looking for more when my horror became reality. I used a hand shovel to scrape away some leaves that covered the ground. I heard a very loud buzz and thought it was a dirt bike in the area. i stood up to look around and when I looked down again, my whole hand was black and yellow... covered with yellow jackets. My ear exploded in pain and I realized that they were covering my ear and stinging me. The rest of the nest was pouring out of the ground like enemy aircraft leaving a carrier! Without thinking... i grabbed my hat and smashed all of the ones that were on my hand and started running for my life. I am 46 years old with metal rods in my leg and screws in my knee from an accident. I do not run fast but was doing a pretty good job. I ran about 50 yards and stopped to begin beating the 40 or so yellow jackets that were on my shirt, off. I turned around and was meat with what looked like smoke coming up the trail after me! The nest was chasing me and I turned and ran again screaming like a woman! After about 50 more yards, I stopped, turned and about 25% of them were still coming. I'm a smoker and was out of breath and my leg was killing me. I knew that I only had one more sprint left in me. I turned and ran as fast as I could with yellow jackets buzzing around my head. Instinctively, while running, I grabbed a handkerchief and put it into my mouth so I would not inhale a yellow jacket. I have no idea where that thought came from! Anyway...... when I finally stopped, they had quit chasing me and I was left to kill the remaining yellow jackets that were trying to sting through my shirts. How lucky I was! I only took three stings to the ear, two to the arm and three to the hand. The ear is still hurting as I write this! When I finally hiked back to my truck and took off my outer shirt, there were three live yellow jackets inside! man... that was a nightmare!
I will try and include a cellphone photo of my ear that I took once I reached my truck. you can see that it was starting to turn blue. Thanks for the informative posts to all of you. As for standing still. Man..... it sounds like its a great idea but i just doubt that I have the guts to do that. I am just happy that they were not hornets or I may be dead! I was planning on carrying hornet.wasp spray with me from now on, but after reading some of the posts here, i may just wait until colder whether to go into the woods again. No matter what.... the next time I go, I will wear long sleeves and gloves. maybe a bandanna over my head and ears. i don't know. Scary!
I will try and include a cellphone photo of my ear that I took once I reached my truck. you can see that it was starting to turn blue. Thanks for the informative posts to all of you. As for standing still. Man..... it sounds like its a great idea but i just doubt that I have the guts to do that. I am just happy that they were not hornets or I may be dead! I was planning on carrying hornet.wasp spray with me from now on, but after reading some of the posts here, i may just wait until colder whether to go into the woods again. No matter what.... the next time I go, I will wear long sleeves and gloves. maybe a bandanna over my head and ears. i don't know. Scary!
Airborne80
New member
Im new at this.
try to move away slowly then stop and freeze!..it's tough i know,BUT it works!.make ANY lind of motion around them ESPECIALLY after disturbing them,and kiss your ass goodbye,because they think you are attacking the nest!..it's true!..thay are just defending the nest!
(h.h.!)
j.t.
(h.h.!)
j.t.
Airborne80
New member
You are right. They are just protecting their home bum MAN!!! they are scary! I just ordered a boony hat with a mosquito netting thing that hangs from the brim and cinches around the neck. I don't know if it will help against yellow jackets but it might. I read on the Internet that August through October is the worst time of year for them because the colonies are large and they are looking for new homes and such. Thanks for the advice.
P.S.
After washing off the arrowhead that I did find.... I guess it was worth the attack after all. In this photo, its just recovered and not cleaned yet but it turned out to be a beauty!
P.S.
After washing off the arrowhead that I did find.... I guess it was worth the attack after all. In this photo, its just recovered and not cleaned yet but it turned out to be a beauty!
I have been in the "pest control" business all my life and I am near retirement. I have learned how to spot a nest from all the calls I get to come and kill them and FWIW I have never been stung killing a nest! (Knock on wood)
Know this: yellow jackets are all business leaving and coming back to the nest. If the nest is in the ground they will fly in a straight line up and out of it and back to it, (vertical). They will be moving pretty fast. If the nest is in a wall they will fly fast and straight out of it and back into it, (horizontal). When they are coming into the nest they will fly straight to it until the last foot or so when they will fly a slight back and forth pattern, but not much. When they are foraging they fly a lazy, zig zag sort of pattern. If they are just lolling around flowers or bushes.. it's not a nest and they wont bother you.
SO... bottom line... train your eye to catch anything small that flies up or down or in or out in a straight line... if you see anything like that STOP and take a look. If it is yelow jackets this time of year you wont wait long before you see another and another. Just stop an look. You may save your self a lot of misery and maybe your life.
If you do find your self too close to a nest just move slowly away, fast movement stirs them up. I use a hand duster to kill nests. I walk right up to it, reach down, and stick the duster into the opening. I just wait for a little break and do it. They don't seem to even notice me because I move in slowly and back away slowly.
J
Know this: yellow jackets are all business leaving and coming back to the nest. If the nest is in the ground they will fly in a straight line up and out of it and back to it, (vertical). They will be moving pretty fast. If the nest is in a wall they will fly fast and straight out of it and back into it, (horizontal). When they are coming into the nest they will fly straight to it until the last foot or so when they will fly a slight back and forth pattern, but not much. When they are foraging they fly a lazy, zig zag sort of pattern. If they are just lolling around flowers or bushes.. it's not a nest and they wont bother you.
SO... bottom line... train your eye to catch anything small that flies up or down or in or out in a straight line... if you see anything like that STOP and take a look. If it is yelow jackets this time of year you wont wait long before you see another and another. Just stop an look. You may save your self a lot of misery and maybe your life.
If you do find your self too close to a nest just move slowly away, fast movement stirs them up. I use a hand duster to kill nests. I walk right up to it, reach down, and stick the duster into the opening. I just wait for a little break and do it. They don't seem to even notice me because I move in slowly and back away slowly.
J
One morning some years ago I went to the shed in the backyard before going to work. I opened the door and one of those big black and red jobs flew straight at me and stung me right on the eyelid. I tried to go to work but by the time I stopped down the road at the country store it was like I had been staring at a welder...
They are all bad to me.
My dad is 90 this month. He told me that when he was young he had to move a stack of wooden pallets at work. He reached under and grabbed a couple of them... he grabbed a big nest of guinea wasps.... nuff said. They are the smaller ones that are brown and yellow.
J
They are all bad to me.
My dad is 90 this month. He told me that when he was young he had to move a stack of wooden pallets at work. He reached under and grabbed a couple of them... he grabbed a big nest of guinea wasps.... nuff said. They are the smaller ones that are brown and yellow.
J
yes you CAN get away with that iIF as you stated move SLOW!..any quick movements around them AT all,and you can kiss your ass goodbye!..move slowly away,and then FREEZE!..make like part of the terrain around you,and chances are excellent they will pay attention to business and not even notice you!..i have done the same thing with hornets and wasps either in the ground,or in a building!..moved in very slowly,spray them,and move slowly away!..generally if you use the right stuff,..(ortho) hornet and wasp spray,you can get away with this because the crap wipes 'em out the nest so fast,they are gone before they can react!..kills on contact!
(h.h!)
j.t.
(h.h!)
j.t.