Beware Where You Step!

Well, lookie there!

Thankfully, I found them BEFORE they found anyone because it could have been painful and dangerous!

Do y’all know what this quarter sized hole in the ground is, hmmm 🤔 -

Click the link to watch a short video for the answer -

Can You Beelieve It!

Bees 🐝 but not just any ole bees, nasty yellow jackets! Highly defensive and mean, and just feet away from our front stairs where we come and go, and near where Ms. Trixie goes to do her business 

Suffice to say, they won’t be stinging anyone. We took care of the pending problem and let’s just say, we attacked before them!

Find The Critter

Although, not an individual critter rather a home to critters.

That being said, can you find the critter in the below pic?!

I will tell you, and as you can see in the pics, that this bees nest was built directly over the sidewalk and only about 8' to 10' off the ground, so just over head high!

I've walked that sidewalk many times and only yesterday did I spot this.

I believe this is a bald-faced hornets nest and, although, they're related to yellowjackets in my experience they're not as aggressive.  Well, at least from my standpoint and past experiences, these dudes seem more tolerant than their kin, at least up until they're disturbed then watch out!

One other item worth noting, which may be a good thing here, is that since the DPW of Franklin does a terrible job, in my opinion, of performing regular and general upkeep and preventative maintenance, the limbs from this ornamental pear tree hang SO low that in many cases folks need to step off the sidewalk into the street to get by, therefore avoiding a stinging altercation.

About the size of a volleyball and VERY active with comings and goings -

 

I've sent an email, with pics, to the Franklin highway and grounds superintendent.  Lets see if I get a reply and if they take care of the nest AND the long overdue limb pruning...

I'll Huff And I'll Puff - UPDATE

Here is an update to my previous post back on Wednesday, July 24 titled, "I'll Huff And I'll Puff" -

So, I thought it unusual that after only a couple of days the yellow jackets stopped swarming around their access hole into the wall of my living room.  The first couple of days there were oodles of them flying and buzzing around the area, then there were none.  Also, around the same time, I was no longer finding bees inside my living room. Foolishly, I thought I had won but oh contraire!

While doing some grilling out on my deck this past Saturday I once again spied bees coming and going from the side of my chimney!  However, THIS time they were doing so on the deck side of the chimney, which is the exact opposite side of where their original access hole was!

Those sons-of-bitches found another way in AND out, UGH!

The good news is I have easy peasy access to this new spot with plenty of room to run if necessary 😉.

This time around, I chose to grab my Craftsman shop-vac and using the extension pieces I was able to stand at a safe distance while holding the hose end just below their access hole.  Let me tell you, it was the funniest things to see the returning yellow jackets flying towards the hole AND WOOSH down the hose and into the shop-vac they went!  I stood there for a while, in the hot sun, holding that hose and counting each bee that got sucked up!  I stopped and moved on when I hit 40!

Later that evening, after dark, I performed the same steps I had on the original hole and stuffed cotton balls soaked in bee spray into the holes, then blocked them to prevent access.

There are two holes in the below pic that they were using -

In the pic below, the red left arrow shows where the original hole was and the blue right arrow, opposite, is where their new holes were -

This first video below shows the bees coming and going into and out of the new holes - 

Yellow Jackets entering and exiting

And this video below is poor Trixie limping along after being stung in her left paw, the poor thing!  She was minding her own business, napping next in her bed when all of a sudden she sprung up and ran towards me.  She didn't yelp or cry or whine, not a peep but I knew immediately what just happened and saw her holding her paw up, which still had the bee attached!  Since a single yellow jacket is able to keep stinging and stinging and stinging, I don't know if she was stung more than once but flicked the dude off and squashed it.  I don't think Trixie knew what happened but she was hobbled for most of the afternoon.

Trixie limping after being stung in paw

Although, like the first time, the bee activity has but ended.  There has been a couple outside still trying to get in and I'm still finding one or two here and there inside the house but hopeful I eliminated them this go around, time will tell...

I'll Huff And I'll Puff...

Eating dinner on my back deck the other evening I noticed the comings and goings of bees from the opposite side of the chimney from where I was sitting, so I investigated.

Sure enough the bees or in this case, Vespula vidua, known generally as yellowjackets, had made their way into the wall of my house where the chimney meets the clapboard, which put them approximately just over and to the right of the fireplace mantle from an inside perspective.

This is not the first time this has happened either!  Several years ago, same issue and in the same general area.  I thought I had caulked the holes sufficiently but perhaps time and persistence finally paid off for these pests.  Part of the challenge is the location of their entryway, which is about 25' to 30'  up from the ground, see pic below (the red square shows where one of those grey paper wasp nests was being built.  Using the garden hose, I was able to spray that apart months ago and drove them off!) -

Just like the previous time, when you placed your ear against the drywall, in the general area of where I assumed they were, sure enough the wall was A BUZZ!  Yuppers, you could hear the humming and buzzing clear as day!  

Good news, if there is good news, I had relatively easy access to their entry hole via the window, see above.  Bad news is that I'm dealing with flying yellowjackets that are known for being very aggressive!  So, I waited until dark and made my move.  I presoaked several cotton balls with bee\hornet spray, which I then pushed into their entry hole before using one last piece to block access in or out, easy peasy.  I was hoping the fumes from the presoaked cotton balls would work to kill the bees trapped inside - I believe this worked to some level.

However, and which amazes me because it happened the last time I went through this, with their access hole blocked some of these dudes began getting into the living room!  I must have killed 20 to 30 that made their way in, see pic below, UGH! Why had I not been seeing bees in the house long before hand?

Anyway, my approach seems to have worked and I've successfully destroyed the hive!  It's been several days now and I've not found any more inside, nor do I see any flying around and trying to get in, YAY!  Seems I have some more caulking work to do to prevent this from happening again but I'll wait until cooler weather...

BEE Aware

I stumbled upon and stirred up a yellowjackets nest this morning!  One of those in the ground type of nests.

The bastards caught me by surprise and got me good, really good!

Five stings; one on my right eyelid, one just below my right eye, two on my right forearm and a cowardly one in the back, between my shoulder blades, OUCH!!

The one on my back happened several minutes after the initial sneak attack and even when I was like 30 feet away from the nest area.  Guessing perhaps that dude hitched a ride from the initial attack and eventually stung me.

All in all I was pretty lucky.  Had I stepped closer to the nest, they really could have tore me up.

I felt like, and looked a bit like Rocky after a couple rounds with Apollo Creed...

Stingers!

Bees and flying insect, even ants luv our hydrangea paniculata phantom blooms!  They are oodles of blooms on two separate plants and they're always covered with insects

Paper Wasp -

Tree Wasp (maybe?) -

Tachinid fly -

Black-faced Hornet - 

Black-faced Hornet - 

Great Black Wasp (maybe?) -

These are just some of the examples of the visiting critters!