Here are a couple of anecdotes I can relate to y'all about my run-ins with yellow jackets. Yellow jackets will seek out any hollow area that will give them shelter, a piece of pipe behind a shed, a hollow tree, or a rotten stump will all be prime real estate for those little yellow and black terrorists of the insect world. As my garage had grown more crowded, and my old 102 has been demoted to parts tractor and lives outside now, it has also become a perennial encampment for yellow jackets as well.
Growing up, we had an in the ground pool with a retaining wall and steps to the pool area made with old railroad ties. Well, a few of those ties were rotten inside, and I had just removed the generator from the old 102 and set it on the railroad tie step to hose it off before doing some work on it. Just as I turned the hose on it, my brother warned me about the yellow jacket nest, and boy they were pissed!! I got stung about 5 or 6 times and jumped into the pool more or less fully clothed, and was afraid to get out of the water.
A less traumatic run-in I had with them happened the first year I lived at my new house. My garage was complete, except for the roll up door, and in the nice September weather I decided it might be a good place to make my homemade wine. I brought and processed the grapes and got the primary fermentation going. Normally you would loosely cover the fermentation containers, which were plastic storage containers with snap on lids, which I thought was a good solution. The activity was already attracting a steady stream of the unwanted visitors even before I even crushed the grapes. Once the must (the term for the crushed grapes) was put to bed and left to ferment, I hosed down the area as well as I could to minimize how loud the dinner bell would ring to the yellow jackets. I also had one of those high voltage fly swatters. It wasn't worth a darn to catch flies, the flies were just too fast, but I could kill those distracted yellow jackets with impunity by the dozens and watch their wings go up in smoke. Made for some fine entertainment!!
The next afternoon, I opened the tops of the containers and found at least a dozen yellow jackets floating on top of the must, having drowned or overcome with carbon dioxide and alcohol. I fished them out and decided to take some Saran Wrap and seal the edges of the lids. Next day, I discovered they chewed through that and and still managed to get in. I think I finally ended up using Duct Tape to keep them out.
The wine turned out OK but I did notice some beeish aftertaste.
Growing up, we had an in the ground pool with a retaining wall and steps to the pool area made with old railroad ties. Well, a few of those ties were rotten inside, and I had just removed the generator from the old 102 and set it on the railroad tie step to hose it off before doing some work on it. Just as I turned the hose on it, my brother warned me about the yellow jacket nest, and boy they were pissed!! I got stung about 5 or 6 times and jumped into the pool more or less fully clothed, and was afraid to get out of the water.
A less traumatic run-in I had with them happened the first year I lived at my new house. My garage was complete, except for the roll up door, and in the nice September weather I decided it might be a good place to make my homemade wine. I brought and processed the grapes and got the primary fermentation going. Normally you would loosely cover the fermentation containers, which were plastic storage containers with snap on lids, which I thought was a good solution. The activity was already attracting a steady stream of the unwanted visitors even before I even crushed the grapes. Once the must (the term for the crushed grapes) was put to bed and left to ferment, I hosed down the area as well as I could to minimize how loud the dinner bell would ring to the yellow jackets. I also had one of those high voltage fly swatters. It wasn't worth a darn to catch flies, the flies were just too fast, but I could kill those distracted yellow jackets with impunity by the dozens and watch their wings go up in smoke. Made for some fine entertainment!!
The next afternoon, I opened the tops of the containers and found at least a dozen yellow jackets floating on top of the must, having drowned or overcome with carbon dioxide and alcohol. I fished them out and decided to take some Saran Wrap and seal the edges of the lids. Next day, I discovered they chewed through that and and still managed to get in. I think I finally ended up using Duct Tape to keep them out.
The wine turned out OK but I did notice some beeish aftertaste.
