al.com: NewsFlash – Gigantic yellow jacket nests turning up in south Alabama
al.com: NewsFlash – Gigantic yellow jacket nests turning up in south Alabama
Scary stuff. If you go to the read the article, make sure to give them WRONG info on the “to help serve you better” stupidity between page one and two. 😉
Themocracy
I can recall (rather vividly, actually, even though it was only a short view that I got up close) a yellow jacket nest that occupied an area approximately 10 feet tall by 16 inches wide in the wall of a house that had been moved onto some property adjoining one of my relative’s land when I was growing up. I was about 14 or 15, and my cousin and I were checking out the house, and pulled some of the loose siding away from the house. The several thousand yellow jackets in the nest under the siding were not appreciative of our actions, and were not at all reticent in demonstrating their feelings. As far as running goes, fire may be inspirational, but yellow jackets are positively ADRENALIZING. It is, in fact, possible to outrun yellow jackets if you keep going into a house and securely shut the doors…the thought of the nests they describe in the article bring new wings to my feet.
BTW, according to the information I gave them, I just turned 100, and live somewhere in Maine…
I vividly remember an encounter of the most unpleasant kind one summer, around 30 years ago now I guess, when I was working at Lake Haven. My job this day was the digging of a new garbage trench in this field back away from the picnic and camping areas. The boss had told me to dig a trench 6 feet deep, 4 to 6 feet wide, and a hundred feet long. Told me that that should hold most of the summers trash. I figure that I get a day to learn more about the backhoe. Started digging and had a trench 20 or so feet long and to depth and width when I took a big bite and something kinda yellowish brown flowed out of the ground started up around the bucket and arm. To this day I have no memory of getting off the backhoe or running the 2 hundred feet away where I stopped to kill the few that were on me before hauling ass a LOT further away. The backhoe was still running and the cloud was almost solid around it when the boss came back down the road to see what the hollering was about and found me still killing the little bastards that were on me. Don’t remember how many stings I got, only that it was over a dozen. The boss went back a few hours later and got the backhoe. Later after poisoning the nest we found it was about 9 feet long and over 3 in diameter. The previous owner has dug his trenches the other way and I had dug into the side of the previous years trench where the yellow jackets had not even had to dig a hole to nest in. Just move in and eat.
I posted about last years mishap with the dozer and the yellow jacket nest. Nasty little critters.
Fire is inspirational, but adrenaline is UPLIFTING!
About like the guy in Iceland reportedly standing next to where the ground split open and a lava eruption started. The lava flowed something like 100 yards in less than 8 seconds. The man (a tourist from Denmark, IIRC) OUTRAN it.
I don’t know if he got any Olympic, NFL receiver, etc. type of offers…..or a hernia…