Distraction!

[turnkey4099]

Today I'm in the process of falling a mediuim size tree (24" DBH). Trying to aim it to just miss my fire pile from a previous tree. Have my undcut in (after some modification to clean up dutchmen. Working on the back cut and am just nearing the point it should start to move when I get nailed three times with wasps, one right on the back of my neck. Immediate thought was RUN! followed instantly by "I can't quit cutting now!" did finish falling it and didn't get hit again. What a poor time to get stung.

Harry K

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

Tree came down OK though? Was the nest/hive in the tree itself?

 

[BostonBull]

You have to be careful what bees/wasps you run from/ Certain types like bald face you are better off standing still and getting hit once or twice. Running and flailing your armsoften provokes them more as they dont like fast movement.

 

[carvinmark]

I've been stung more times this year than ever before. Hurts for them being so dam little. Glad you didn't get hurt.
Mark

 

[SteveH]

Last year I dropped a small tree [12"] across a very steep hillside in some raspberry brambles. When it hit the ground, it disturbed a underground nest of bees and they took me pretty good til I could get away. I never did finish cutting up all that trunk, though I got a lot of it.

 

[Urbicide]

Last week I was cutting up a dead cherry that had fallen onto a walnut. I had the cherry on the ground and was bucking it up into manageable chunks. I felt a rapidly growing burning sensation on my head just underneath the bill of my hat. I kind of swiped at it with my glove and tried not to dwell on it since I was running the saw.:censored: Wrong move.:censored: Next thing I realized I was getting popped at various other body parts and it was time to break camp.:censored: I was probably a sight to be seen hurdling over obstacles as I tried to put some distance between my attackers and me. (I did shut the saw off before I began my evasive retreat.) :censored: The little buggers decided to tag along for awhile.:censored: It is amazing how much energy one has when you are being stung.:censored: I thought of Tom Hanks "Run Forrest Run!". :censored: Assessing the damage while trying to psyche myself out of my discomfort, "pain is good", I counted six stings.:censored: 20 minutes later I crept back to the cherry tree I had been cutting. There was a swarm of pissed-off yellow jackets emerging from a small hole in the ground. This hole was directly between two pieces of cherry that I had just cut. I finished out the day working about 500 feet away from that nest.

 

[turnkey4099]

Tree came down OK though? Was the nest/hive in the tree itself?

Tree came down o.k. Not quite where I had planned but well within my error range...i.e., it hit the ground.

Never saw any more wasps, no clue as where they came from. Had a cuppa plasma and went to limbing out the log with no further problems.

Harry K

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Cider vinegar folks. Apply it to the sting. It REALLY works. A cotton ball, paper towel, toilet paper, whatever. Saturate something and hold it in place for a few minutes.

 

[mbopp]

35-ish years ago I was clearing a lot with a bulldozer & hit a yellowjacket nest. By the time I got the 'dozer stopped & bailed out I'd been nailed 3 or 4 times.

 

[Adkpk]

You have to be careful what bees/wasps you run from/ Certain types like bald face you are better off standing still and getting hit once or twice. Running and flailing your armsoften provokes them more as they dont like fast movement.

I got it from a baldface hornet 2 weeks ago. Sucker got me right in the ear. The top of the ear under the temple. I screamed out. One side of my face hurt all day. I mean really sore. Then 8 hrs. later healed. Bladface hurt when they sting but the pain is only for the day. Yellow jackets can last long time.

 

[CaseyForrest]

I was loading out topsoil we had stripped the previous summer. The truck driver and I were taking a break. I was still sitting in the cab, with the door open talking to the truck driver, and I see this yellow jacket come out of no-where, land on my hand, and proceed to sting me. I'm thinking WTF, where'd that come from?

I look down at the ground, and the truck driver is standing in the nest I just disturbed with the bucket. I only got stung once, he didn't get stung at all!!!

I found 3 more nests in various piles that same day. They have been very bad this year. Must be all the global warming.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Bladface hurt when they sting but the pain is only for the day. Yellow jackets can last long time.

'Bout 5 minutes, 15 tops if you apply the vinegar.

 

[ShoerFast]

A few years ago, scouting an area for places to set hunters come fall, I fallowed a ridge out to a nice spot were the draws on both sides meet. View in every direction and a great place to make a ground blind. Right centered on that ridge was a huge Ponderosa that had broke about 1/4th the way up, it was still hanging on, a natural "A" frame, very safe and a lot of natural camouflage by the top and limbs to sit on in every direction. It did have one catch, about 7' up, on the underside of that snag, there was a big ol hornets nest, one of those Chinese lantern looking nest. Gathering brush and stuff to toss into the top of that tree to hind a hunter better, every time something hit the branches you could just hear them bastards revving up.

So the last thing I was to do was smack that nest and spread them wasp down the mountain side, they would move on by hunting season. I studied my escape route better then if I were planing to fell a tree. Broke off a sizable Louisville , quietly snuck up to the nest on my best side, wound up looking for a spot in the second level of bleachers over center field, the swing and a hit! Wasp , nest and me every were, just as I turned to run, I stepped on a branch that popped up and tangled my legs, tripping me hard and solid, right under the point that the broken top half the nest was still attached,,,,,, dripping wasp right down on me!

I have no clue how I got out of there, it would have been one hell of a video I'm sure, the first thing I do remember is still running, with wasp trying to get the gain on me, but fewer every patch of dense overgrowth and brush I popped through, not a sting, but never did put a hunter in that ridge that season!

 

[Mike G]

Knocked a whole nest down when i was bout 8. The damn yellow jackets had built up under an overhaning creek bank. I crawled down to get a ball that went astray, and as I climbed back up, down the nest went. The best way to describe getting stung over 20 times at once is electricution. Thankfully my dad was right there and was able to lend a hand in yellow jacket extermination. Im really careful now about where i tread in the woods . It is really amazing how somthing so small can cause so much #@!$%**#@#!!

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

I have no clue how I got out of there, it would have been one hell of a video I'm sure, the first thing I do remember is still running, with wasp trying to get the gain on me, but fewer every patch of dense overgrowth and brush I popped through, not a sting, but never did put a hunter in that ridge that season!

Great story! Would have been a lot more fun to watch than to DO! :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[SmokinDodge]

I found out when I was about fourteen that an angry swarm of yellow jackets are significantly faster than a John Deere tractor. After six stings they left me alone and I was able to finish raking hay. My Dad did ask me later why the windrow was so wild in that part of the field............................

 

[turnkey4099]

I got stung cutting wood one other time. Fell a big tree early in the morning and the fresh sap seemed to draw the things. They were crawling all over the rounds. Wanted to load so I tried (gingerly) setting a wedge to break one up to a size I could handle. Didn't seem to bother them so I tried a few taps with the maul. Still no reaction so I layed into it. I would brush them away from where the wedge went but that was all the mattered. I even smashed a couple with no reaction.

Got stung only -after- dragging the load 21 miles to town, stopping and dropping off the saws for sharpening at the fix-it, crawled back in the pickup and leaned back. that did it, the familiar red hot needle right in the back. I guess trapping him against the seat back was more than he wanted to put up with.

Had several more instances of working in a batch of wasps on fresh cut wood. Never had any hint of a problem. Must make 'em drunk or sumpin.

Harry K