Henry Rifle Forums

Mowing the yard the other day when i saw something buzz past my head, circle back and land on my hand. Sudden pain told me i was stung. Swatted the fiend away and looked back to see a gob of a hundred or so yellow jackets buzzing around a hole in the ground in my yard that i had just mowed over. As Yosemite Sam would have said.. " This means war!"
I began to plot my counter offensive. After the unwelcome intruders had settled back into their fortress, i realized i didnt know exactly where the hole was,(which would be critical intel for any sucessful attack.... at least if i did not want any more collateral damage) I finally decieded to conduct a recon mission inside an armored vehicle (my toyota pickup with the windows rolled up) After gathering the critical data on location i retired to my war room to do an inventory of what munitions i had on hand with which to begin an assult on the foreign invaders. I was out of gasoline, so i looked deeper into my available bug fighting stockpile and came across a quart or so of mineral spirits. Having observed the last time i ventured to use this product on a project, that it was quite capable of quickly crossing your eyes if you dared open it in an area with less than excellent ventalition, i felt it had a good deal of potential for this expedition.
I seized it, and after putting on a flack jacket ( my heavy winter coat all zipped up) i headed out to the field of battle to attempt to free my little kingdom from these interlopers. Cautiously approaching the enemy encampment, i observed four guards at the gates to their bunker. Unfortunately for their side, they were slow to take counter measures. I chugged and glugged about two thirds of the bottle down their hole and they were it appeared that it effectively nuked them as NONE managed to rise out and fight. Of course, in any war , one must followup quickly to maintain any tactical advantage obtained on the battlefield, so i got a quart of transmission fluid and poured it in the hole for good measure (to help hold the mineral spirit vapors in place and gob up the escape route.) The campaign appears to be a complete sucess . After three days i have checked and rechecked the hole. Poked steel rods down in it and wallowed them about and still no sign of any enemy combatants.
Long live the mother land !

Great story. I'm glad you won.

Glad you got those pesky rascals. They ain't fun.

A true war story! Congratulations on your victory.

I understand apple juice with boric acid will control them for quite a distance. I saw this on Youtube. I hate those damn things myself.

Just had another case the other day myself. It's best to wait till night time. Old Gas, Kero, or Diesel will also do the trick. A good quart or two, then a shovel full of dirt on top. The next day or two you will get some strays trying to figure out what's going on, then they are gone.

The little devils...

Congrats on a well planned mission! Hate them things too and I try to stay a step ahead of them. I will take my field glasses and survey the area before I cut the grass. My first weapon of choice is the gas can!

Gasoline and a MATCH! Hate em and my Wife is allergic.

Well planned counter offensive sir.
I discovered a large hornet nest in a tree about seven feet above ground. I have been able to coexist with them. If I had those ground dwelling terrorists I would have gone scorched earth.

Grate Story indeed .... thanks for posting it

Saw a trick from TikTok posted via YouTube a few days ago where a biologist working for agriculture went over to a friend's farm where His wife had gotten stung. HE filled the hole with expanding foam which trapped all but a few of the worker bees who happened to be out. They were treated to chemical spray and the problem was solved.

Do you make house calls and do aerial work?

Two years ago I had some of those wasps that make Paper Mache nests build their nest around my satellite antennae.
I first noticed them when my reception quit.
Since it was high up on the house I tried spraying bee and wasp killer out the bedroom window, but they kept
coming back and rebuilding, so, I used a pressure nozzle on my hose and sprayed water on it until it collapsed.
Then whenever they came back I just hosed them down again. They finally gave up.

Sir Henry wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 08, 2023 8:45 am

Do you make house calls and do aerial work?

Hose em down,

With wasps, I usually see one or so flying around and will know there's a nest somewhere. With yellow jackets and hornets, almost always have to get stung before knowing they there.

A well written story.

Thank you for your service.

A friend of mine once saw a nest in a tree and decided to shoot it with a Bow and Arrow. He's a good shot and got that nest dead center. And about 3 seconds later a Bell Hornet came down and stung him on the ear. I've gotten stung many times and got dive bombed by some, but never got stung by a Bell Hornet. They are supposed to hurt like heck. He gave up the Bow and Arrow idea.

A long time ago when I did land surveys, pounding markers into ground would sometimes disturb an in ground nest. We carried a gallon of diesel and a stack of dixie cups. A dixie cup of diesel down the hole followed by a match took care of a nest. Yellow jackets swarming in the flames would at the very least have their wings singed off.

Mags wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 08, 2023 9:53 pm

A long time ago when I did land surveys, pounding markers into ground would sometimes disturb an in ground nest. We carried a gallon of diesel and a stack of dixie cups. A dixie cup of diesel down the hole followed by a match took care of a nest. Yellow jackets swarming in the flames would at the very least have their wings singed off.

And they deserve nothing less.
Don't get me wrong...I'm all for pollinators, but, those Yellow jackets deserve no mercy.

markiver54 wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 08, 2023 9:57 pm

Mags wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 08, 2023 9:53 pm

A long time ago when I did land surveys, pounding markers into ground would sometimes disturb an in ground nest. We carried a gallon of diesel and a stack of dixie cups. A dixie cup of diesel down the hole followed by a match took care of a nest. Yellow jackets swarming in the flames would at the very least have their wings singed off.

And they deserve nothing less.
Don't get me wrong...I'm all for pollinators, but, those Yellow jackets deserve no mercy.

Yellow Jackets are raiders and scavengers, not to be confused with a similar looking yellow pollinator bee.