- Local time
- 5:46 PM
- Joined
- May 14, 2011
- Messages
- 18,608
- Reaction score
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- Location
- On the Ridge, TN
They are the one critter on the planet I'm actually allergic to - not born that way, but rather I've beenalso had yellow jackets last year behind a shutter about 6 feet from the front door....... I called an exterminator for that one
stung enough dozen times over my life that my body can't handle their stuff anymore.
We get mega-nests of those out here sometimes, big enough for the UT entomology people to want
to come out and do their little "forensic" extraction, like archaeologists or some such.
That time, the nest was so huge it never shut down (24/7) and they would attack any animal or vehicle
that passed it on my road...
Exterminator came out loaded for bear, followed by me knocking them off his back, followed by my wife
knocking them off MY back. 45 minutes and an empty tank of pesticide later, it was done.
I got the satisfaction of watching the HUGE queen abandon ship out a back entrance, covered in white
Savin dust like a powdered donut as she flew off. Bug guy said "she's dead, she just don't know it yet".
A week later, I get a call from UT wanting to come out and excavate - apparently the bug folks called
them and reported what we had done.
When a couple hours of their labor produced an intact nest from the ground, it was HUGE - think a football
shaped thing almost as wide as their pickups' tailgate!
They said probably 25k yellow jackets, maybe more - "the largest in this part of the state ever".
Gee, lucky me eh?
Yellow jackets are ******** with stingers.