Today was a learning experience, plain and simple. I am done for the day, eating Benedryl like candy, wondering what happened to one of my gloves, and just being happy that things didn't go worse and that I am not truly allergic to wasps/bees.
I had spent about 3 hours at my folks' place mowing, when I came across a large burrow (armadillo) that posed a real hazard to the tractor on which I was riding. I didn't see it in the tall grass and dropped the right front wheel down into the hole which was a really rude experience. No harm done and the tractor has a bucket and we have a pile of dirt so I decided to fill in the burrow. After the first bucket of dirt, I drove over the burrow to pack it in and realized I would need more dirt and headed back to the dirt pile. I got the second bucket of dirt and was backing away when I noticed a swarm. So I scooted forward, zoomed, got video (because it was interesting), and got the tractor turned around and was headed to dump the 2nd load of dirt when I saw the bugs swarming out of the bucket and many coming down at me and that is when the stinging started. Apparently, I had picked up the nest or part of the nest in the bucket.
I punched the accelerator to a whopping 12 mph (according to GPS) and took off through the woods, dumping the bucket as I went, thinking the yellow jackets would remain behind. They didn't. I made it out of the woods without turning over or crashing and got into the open field and then to the smoother hay field out in the wind, now a good 200 yards aways and was still getting hit. Finally, the assault seemed to stop and I decided to head back to the barn. Somewhere along the way, one got under my glove and got me in the hand and several minutes later as I was pulling up to the barn, one (a rider?) got under my mask and stung me on the face.
I found this description online that seemed to fit, but "aggressively" really does not seem to express the tenacity of these little guys at all.
Yellow jackets often nest underground in rodent burrows, so if you see lots of flying insects emerging from a hole in the ground, they're probably yellow jackets. By late summer, a colony may contain thousands of individuals that will aggressively defend their nests from intruders.
I had no idea they ground nested. I have never seen ground nests before. I have been stung by them before, but never with such intensity as they did today. I don't doubt there were thousands of them. The Youtube video gives some idea, but there are actually a lot more shown in the original video than what you can see in the Youtube video.
So if you didn't know, particularly if you are allergic, yellow jackets in late August do not take kindly to having their ground nests dug up and they have a very nasty disposition about it.
I think will have some more Benedryl...
I had spent about 3 hours at my folks' place mowing, when I came across a large burrow (armadillo) that posed a real hazard to the tractor on which I was riding. I didn't see it in the tall grass and dropped the right front wheel down into the hole which was a really rude experience. No harm done and the tractor has a bucket and we have a pile of dirt so I decided to fill in the burrow. After the first bucket of dirt, I drove over the burrow to pack it in and realized I would need more dirt and headed back to the dirt pile. I got the second bucket of dirt and was backing away when I noticed a swarm. So I scooted forward, zoomed, got video (because it was interesting), and got the tractor turned around and was headed to dump the 2nd load of dirt when I saw the bugs swarming out of the bucket and many coming down at me and that is when the stinging started. Apparently, I had picked up the nest or part of the nest in the bucket.
I punched the accelerator to a whopping 12 mph (according to GPS) and took off through the woods, dumping the bucket as I went, thinking the yellow jackets would remain behind. They didn't. I made it out of the woods without turning over or crashing and got into the open field and then to the smoother hay field out in the wind, now a good 200 yards aways and was still getting hit. Finally, the assault seemed to stop and I decided to head back to the barn. Somewhere along the way, one got under my glove and got me in the hand and several minutes later as I was pulling up to the barn, one (a rider?) got under my mask and stung me on the face.
I found this description online that seemed to fit, but "aggressively" really does not seem to express the tenacity of these little guys at all.
Yellow jackets often nest underground in rodent burrows, so if you see lots of flying insects emerging from a hole in the ground, they're probably yellow jackets. By late summer, a colony may contain thousands of individuals that will aggressively defend their nests from intruders.
I had no idea they ground nested. I have never seen ground nests before. I have been stung by them before, but never with such intensity as they did today. I don't doubt there were thousands of them. The Youtube video gives some idea, but there are actually a lot more shown in the original video than what you can see in the Youtube video.
So if you didn't know, particularly if you are allergic, yellow jackets in late August do not take kindly to having their ground nests dug up and they have a very nasty disposition about it.
I think will have some more Benedryl...
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