OT - dealing with wasps at an outdoor barbecue

Damn, no kidding you coulda been trampled, I've never seen a yellowjacket on horse back. What size horses do they ride? :)

jk

I had a Great Dane (~120 pounds) that would not tolerate wasps. We lived in an old farm house and there were lots of them. When one got in the screen porch he would go after them until they were killed. His MO was to grab them and spit them out in approximately one micro second. Sometimes he would miss the grab but he did the spit without the wasp. This was hilarious to watch. Obviously he knew he was playing a dangerous game but to his dying day he would pursue them until the game was over. Once they were on the floor and had stopped crawling he would put a foot on it and squish it. Then he ate it.

"Unknown" wrote

Once they were on the floor and had stopped

This past summer, I stepped on a dead or dying wasp at 3AM on a trip to the bathroom. It felt like I had stepped on a 16 penny nail sticking through the floor. And then it throbbed every 15 seconds for the next thirty minutes. The spot on the bottom of my foot hurt for a week.

I don't know if it was dead or not. I just know I got hold of the business end.

Steve

Many years ago, I was the first person of the season to take a crap in a cottage out house. The yellow jackets got even. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Um you ever even been a horseback? Probabally not----

Seriously, getting swarmed by "yella-jakets" this time a year is very bad news We have nasty mean "yella-jakets" in these parts that'ill make your face puff up an' put a real wup ass on ya.. (anaphylactic shock) if ya happen to stumble on a nest of em....not like the wimpy west coast types talked about here.. had a man on a fencing crew set off a swarm one day this time of year. In late summer/fall they are very aggressive. His back/neck/face was covered with em they were stuck to his tee shirt with their feet and hard to get off. Stung the hell out of him, had to take him in for medical treatment. That attack could easily have killed a child or someone allergic to stings. I went back and sprayed that nest with a sprayer loaded with diesel/bugkiller. Went back the nest morning to see how it was and some animal had dug it up and ate ever single bee and larve, it was a basketball sized nest..

ED

Gah, two yellow-jacket stories from me.

About 2 weeks ago, my 19 month old daugter held something out to me and said "Da-da". Temporarially forgetting the #1 rule of parenting (don't take ANYTHING from a toddler without inspecting it first) I reached out and took what she had... which was a live, buzzing yellow-jacket Have you ever felt a bee buzzing bettween your fingers, ugh! I promptly tossed it to the floor and crushed it, then checked her out for stings... nothing, whew! I figure one of the cats must have batted it down and hurt it, then she got to it. No damage to either of us.

Story two: Mowing the ivy in my backyard (dang ivy gets EVERYWHERE here in the PNW) and I felt a stinging on my legs, figured that I'd caught a sticker bush I kept going and then finally looked straight down into an underground nest that I'd just run over with the mover! (Metal content, spinning blades) Wow, did I ever move quick then, my (now wife, then soon to be) watched me from the kitchen do the "Bee dance" all the way around the house with most of them follwing me. Had something like 20+ confirmed stings from that one, very glad that I've never had a reaction to them.

-D

I always help wasps and bees that find their way into the house get out again, catching them in my hand or picking them up if necessary.

Leon

Damn, that hurts clear over here, just thinking about it! :)

There seems to be a lot folks who are a little further to the rear of a "back" around. :-) ...lew...

First s*it of the year in a backhouse is always preceeded by a bit of diesel/kersosene soaked butt wipe or corn cob.

Didnt ya folks tec ya nutin?

Gunner, who once sat on a mud dauber net ..and twice on a red ant hill...the same hill...sigh

Gunner

"If I'm going to reach out to the the Democrats then I need a third hand.There's no way I'm letting go of my wallet or my gun while they're around."

"Democrat. In the dictionary it's right after demobilize and right before demode` (out of fashion).

-Buddy Jordan 2001

Okay, so I'm late and catching up, but Grant Erwin wrote on Sun, 27 Aug 2006 19:37:34 -0700 in rec.crafts.metalworking :

Guy I know does this with chicken bones etc. Like you say, Yellowjackets swarm the raw meat, leaved the cooked meat and humans alone, and everybody is happy.

The only times I've been stung was when the critter got in my clothes. Wasp in my collar, and a bumble bee up my pant leg. The bee sting I first thought was a splinter from the railing I was sitting on. I felt sorry for it, "just doing its thing" till I sat on it.

You got to watch out for them commie ants.

John

When I first saw the thread subject line, I thought this had something to do with Black College Reunion Week in Daytona Beach.......

I've only been stung once, on the beach when I was a kid, when I sat on a wasp.

The son of a friend of mine ran off the road into a hedge on his motorbike when a bee got inside his visor. He gave up motorbikes after that.

Leon