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Posted: **Fri Nov 14, 2008 6:44 pm**

I saw that first one in an email I received last night. These guys are stupid. I'd bet some money could be made calling local bee keepers with the bee population having had the troubles they've been having lately.

Posted: **Fri Nov 14, 2008 7:09 pm**

Vince wrote:I saw that first one in an email I received last night. These guys are stupid. I'd bet some money could be made calling local bee keepers with the bee population having had the troubles they've been having lately.

Same thing crossed my mind. Been thinking about getting a hive next spring, so I've done some research... a comb that accessible was perfect for relocation.

Posted: **Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:20 am**

Wait, so the thread just dropped off for a year?

What happened to the hornets?

Posted: **Sat Nov 15, 2008 9:07 am**

I called in a UN negotiator and he decided I didn't need all of my crawl space, that I already had enough and it wasn't fair that the hornets didn't have any. Now they live there and I get stung sometimes but whatever, I guess. I don't want sanctions from the UN if I make a move on them. Plus they don't pay any of the mortgage.

Nah, just kidding. I nuked the hell out of them with bug bombs and removed the nest in January or February when it was really cold out. I'll post pics of that when I find them.

Edited By GORDON on 1226759081

Posted: **Sat Nov 15, 2008 9:23 am**

This one is linked because it is a large close-up of the hive where you can still see dead hornets. The cavity that is toward the camera is where there was 4 levels of... regular-looking wasp nests deep inside the nest, except very large. Approximately 6" by 10"... big enough to fit between the floor joists. The rest of the hive was just like a shell around that inner core.
http://www.dtman.com/covert/images/Removing4.jpg

Posted: **Sat Nov 15, 2008 12:35 pm**

Man, that is fuckin' sweet.

You should stencil dtman.com on it or something.

Posted: **Sat Nov 15, 2008 12:49 pm**

Heh, it is currently out in my garden deteriorating over the window.... to be plowed under in the spring... and then nourish my tomatoes which will, in turn, nourish me.

I eat my enemies.

Or, to borrow from the Aadams family, I gladly feast on those who would subdue me.

Edited By GORDON on 1226772091

Posted: **Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:03 pm**

What was the pucker factor like as you approached the nest?

Posted: **Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:06 pm**

Eh, slight, but there. I was mostly worried about rolling around on dead ones.... but I was still a bit wary about handling it bare handed.

Hell, I was till a bit wary about handling it after it spent the summer in my garage.... "What if some eggs hatched???"

Posted: **Sun Nov 16, 2008 2:34 am**

Seems like the only eggs left in abandoned nests are fertilized queens, I think? Not attack drones.

Posted: **Sun Jul 18, 2010 2:05 am**

Drinking because I'm done pokering for the night.
Drinking, so please excuse any nonsensical posts I might make.

Saw an ad for that Vex Con (crazy exterminator from Dirty Jobs who landed his own series) show that involved a big wasp nest. Show airs Wednesday at 10:00 on A&E.

Also... I did this recently.

I sent the picture to a woman and she asked me, "Did you light the bottle rocket?"
I hereby declare that to be the stupidest question ever.
Who would go through the trouble of gluing a scorpion to a bottle rocket and *not* lighting it?

Posted: **Wed Aug 04, 2010 7:16 pm**

Big ass pear tree in my back 40 dropped a branch today, I just went out to investigate and see how much of a pain in the ass cleanup was going to be. Maybe 6" diameter at the break point, 15 feet up.

It was still slightly attached to the tree, so I rocked it and broke it free, and dodged all the big ass pears that were dropping on me.

Wait a minute, that isn't a pear... was that a cicada?

Nope, hornets. Or something.

Took 7 hits.

Didn't stop to investigate, I still have no clue where the nest is, they were just big and black and a lot of them and their stings hurt like hell. I don't see any stingers in my flesh, so I don't think they are bees.

I was yelling at my son to run as I was vacating the area behind him, waving my arms around my head like a spaz, and he is laughing because I look so stupid.

Now it's fucking on. I am not the man with whom to fuck, hornets.

Edited By GORDON on 1280964182

Posted: **Wed Aug 04, 2010 7:42 pm**

Is there any such thing as a hyper aggressive horse fly? It was all a blur but I am almost positive these things were big and black.

I probably just didn't get a good look. I'll figure it out when I go back in a day or two.

Posted: **Wed Aug 04, 2010 8:37 pm**

Horse flies will bite you, sure. But their bites aren't even in the same league as the string from a wasp/hornet.

Posted: **Wed Aug 04, 2010 8:43 pm**

I'm swelling around the stings and they itch. Heart is sort of racing. I figure if I didn't die from the venom in the first hour, I'll be fine.

Probably.

I mention "hyper aggressive" horse flies because these things were attacking me all the way to my back door, probably 50 yards from the tree.

Edited By GORDON on 1280969065

Posted: **Wed Aug 04, 2010 10:16 pm**

I've never heard of horse flies swarming to attack anything outside barnyard animals. Even then it wasn't particularly aggressive. The nastier bees/wasps/hornets will do that type of shit, though.

Posted: **Thu Aug 05, 2010 7:44 pm**

I can just about make out the veins in the back of my right hand, again.

Whew.

Posted: **Thu Aug 05, 2010 8:37 pm**

Sounds like poison boomstick time.

Posted: **Sat Aug 28, 2010 4:46 pm**

There are some big-ass aggressive horse flies out here. For weeks (earlier this month) they'd follow my car up the driveway and bump into it, like attacking wasps.

When I get out a couple will buzz me, but I've never been bit.

I got stung by a wasp on the finger earlier this summer. It hurt at first, and had a little swelling, but then it itched. A horse fly is non venomous, so I doubt you'd get the itching.

I had a wasp infestation in my shed, but I used a can of Raid fogger, and that wiped them out.
Whatever happened to the bugs? Did you get your sweet sweet revenge?

Posted: **Sat Aug 28, 2010 5:31 pm**

After a thorough investigation, I determined the insects were swarming the rotting fruit, there wasn't actually a nest there. To get the branch out from under that tree, and the fallen fruit zone, I had to gently tie a rope to it, play out about 40 feet, nd pull it out with my tractor. I estimate 100 bees and wasps were swarming when I agitated the area.

Welcome to Thunderdome

Hornetacolypse.