I get them all the time while up on utility poles. They like the various terminals that the phone company uses. I swat and panic like a frightened toddler until I can get my spray out. To anybody walking by or across the street they see me but not the wasps so I look like a deranged lunatic on an acid trip.
Wasps the bane of our pool
- Thread starter RMcGirr83
- Start date
jtpipkin
Bronze Supporter
I was on a riding mower when I hit mine - Thank the Lord for the auto kill switch when you come off the seat, 'cause I didn't care what that thing ran into when I made a mad dash off it! Those jokers were EVERYWHERE. I asked a friend in the pest control business how to locate the nest without getting stung. He advised that if I could fit a vehicle into the area I thought they were, to do so with the windows up. I drove back there and I swear there were 10,000 of them when I went over that nest. Gave me the heebie jeebies!You haven't lived until you run a push mower over a yellow jacket nest. I could have qualified for the Olympics in 100 yard, high jump and hurdles all at the same time.
I couldn't retrieve the mower until dark. It just sat there running while they swarmed it.
This is terrible but I still recall my younger brother dancing around when a bee/wasp/ whatever it was got up both of his pants legs. This was way back in time, he was maybe 4 or 5 years old at the time. I was not much older. I'm sure it was anything but funny to him.
mguzzy
Gold Supporter
This thread is going into the land of anecdotes.. keep them coming.! 
I was hiking in the Yucatan and before we embarked I told the other guy to watch out for wasp nests and other nasties... I had previous experience navigating the jungles in the Amazon, this guy was new to it. he kind of blew me off saying he's hiked all over the Alps.. this ain't the Alps. Well, he wasn't the most dainty walker.. he was crashing through the trees like a lineman. So I started to keep my distance. Sure enough his backpack disturbed a wasp nest of some sort and they all went after his backpack. He got hit a few times as well as he dropped his backpack and bolted off into the distance. When he circled back around.. he had this "Oh sheets, that is what your were talking about!" look. We sat there for close to 45 minutes waiting for the swarm to lose interest in his day pack before we could retrieve with a stick... It was a good enough reason to head back to camp for a beer.
I was hiking in the Yucatan and before we embarked I told the other guy to watch out for wasp nests and other nasties... I had previous experience navigating the jungles in the Amazon, this guy was new to it. he kind of blew me off saying he's hiked all over the Alps.. this ain't the Alps. Well, he wasn't the most dainty walker.. he was crashing through the trees like a lineman. So I started to keep my distance. Sure enough his backpack disturbed a wasp nest of some sort and they all went after his backpack. He got hit a few times as well as he dropped his backpack and bolted off into the distance. When he circled back around.. he had this "Oh sheets, that is what your were talking about!" look. We sat there for close to 45 minutes waiting for the swarm to lose interest in his day pack before we could retrieve with a stick... It was a good enough reason to head back to camp for a beer.
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I'll see your one wasp and raise you two chiggers. I was bank fishing with my Grandfather in TN one summer. I found a good spot to stand in some tall grass and spent the afternoon catching fish. Later that night I woke up in intense pain. Both legs from the tops of my boots to the bottom of my tighty whities were a solid mass of bite on top of bite. I counted over a hundred bites on just one leg.
A trip to the doc, shots for the inflammation followed by two days of misery sitting around in my shorts. My legs hurt too much to wear my jeans. And of course you are not supposed to scratch them either. Righttttttttttttttttttt!!
A trip to the doc, shots for the inflammation followed by two days of misery sitting around in my shorts. My legs hurt too much to wear my jeans. And of course you are not supposed to scratch them either. Righttttttttttttttttttt!!
mguzzy
Gold Supporter
I'll see your chigger, and raise you a scorpion and an electric eel.. luckily not at the same time. both felt like someone wacked me with a mallet.
There is a special place in heck for scorpions. I'm not fond of spiders and snakes either but scorpions just freak me out. You have lead an interesting life to know what an electric eel feels like. Now we just need somebody from the south with a good alligator story.
jtpipkin
Bronze Supporter
Best Gator story I know! My alma mater, little ol' Georgia Southern, destroyed them at home in the swamp - 2013! How's that?
FCS Georgia Southern stuns Florida 26-20
OSU stuns Miami in 3 OT. I was sitting on the 10 yard line watching the final score.
jtpipkin
Bronze Supporter
mguzzy
Gold Supporter
An interesting life indeed.... here's my alligator story.. not as cool as you would imagine. I was on a research project in Venezuela and we had to carry our equipment from one little lake to the next through little muddy stream beds. Me and my associate were transporting our rubber boat on our heads, sherpa style, as I realized I just stepped on something that didn't quite feel like a stick. I looked down and saw the imprint of my foot in the mud with a small baby alligator frozen in the outline. It was either in shock or trying to pretend it was invisible. I was like... DANG... we maneuvered around it and it scurried off before I could get a picture.
Nailed 6 nests last night. Dang tractor of neighbors that hasn't been used since the '30s had some nests in the engine compartment, in the cab and in the vents. Hopefully I got most of them. We'll see later today when it hits 100+ and the little SOBs are thirsty again. Hung some traps and they have done absolutely nothing...not a single wasp in either of them.
Wobblerlorri
Bronze Supporter
- Apr 16, 2019
- 2,010
- Pool Size
- 4024
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Liquid Chlorine
Yeah, I got a couple traps off Amaz, hung them up -- three yellow jackets and that's it. Still have big red and black wasps drinking my pool water, despite the borax.
The other day I was in the pool, doing my kicking exercises and holding onto the stairs. I felt the lightest, most feathery touch on my thumb -- looked, and it was one of those big black and red wasps, perched on my thumb, having a nice drink of pool water. I slowly slid my hand underwater and it flew off. Outwardly I was calm, inside I was shrieking WASP! WASP! OMG THERE'S A WASP!!! AND IT WAS ON MY HAND!!!! and flailing around!
Sure do wish they'd go away.
The other day I was in the pool, doing my kicking exercises and holding onto the stairs. I felt the lightest, most feathery touch on my thumb -- looked, and it was one of those big black and red wasps, perched on my thumb, having a nice drink of pool water. I slowly slid my hand underwater and it flew off. Outwardly I was calm, inside I was shrieking WASP! WASP! OMG THERE'S A WASP!!! AND IT WAS ON MY HAND!!!! and flailing around!
Sure do wish they'd go away.
And there's another nest around here somewhere. Must have killed 50 of the SOBs yesterday with the fly swatter. Right arm is a bit sore this am. LOL
Must have killed 50 of the SOBs yesterday with the fly swatter. Right arm is a bit sore this am. LOL
Clarifier shows up today. 55 pounds of boric acid later this week. Must have had 100 of the little SOBS in the skimmers and a few were in the pool this am before it was even hot out.
This sucks. ???
This sucks. ???
mguzzy
Gold Supporter
If there are nests around it will be an uphill battle... those wasp traps work best if they get set in the spring to catch them before the establish their nests.
Got a quart of this yesterday from Amazon. It worked for a while (wasps couldn't fly away got probably ~ 50 of them) and then seemed to stop working. The wasps would land and take a slug then fly away.
Tomorrow the boric acid gets delivered (TA and pH are good right now at 70 and 7.5) so that'll be next. If that doesn't work then I'll try one of these
Or the handheld version that Elon Musk made. Wasn’t allowed to sell flamethrowers so the name is literally ‘not a flamethrower’.