Wifey was out eating dinner on the front porch, weather around here is pre-fall like for another day, then the 90s come back for next week. She said the yellow jackets were pestering her pretty bad, I've noticed quite a few of them when I'm grilling, so I knew I had a nest somewhere nearby.
Stood on the porch and looked at the drop-off towards the neighbors, a normal place for ground yellow jacket nests. I need to weed wack this weekend, so I like to check out my area before wacking, as the last three or so years I've found nests by braille. Not nice when you have epi-pens in the house because of your bee sting allergy.
Low and behold, noticed some bees streaking into the concrete wall that supports the front porch concrete pad. Have a few cracks I've been meaning to fix, they were in there. Guessing only a few hundred bees in this one, so it just got going. Just happened to have 1/2 a bottle of carpenter bee/ground bee spray with a nice long nozzle like a can of WD-40. Stuck it in the hole and sprayed. Had to quickly get out of the general area as the hole errupted, most just tumbling out to the ground (it was about 2' up the wall).
Just happy I found them before they found me. Normally will only get one nest in the yard, but the last few years I've had several at a time. At least I feel good weed wacking on that side of the house and won't be going to bed with 20+ stings on my legs/arms etc (and my wife waking me up several times overnight to make sure I'm still breathing).
Edit: well, no activity this morning for my nest, but less than 15 feet away in the neighbors yard I see another one, this one has tons of activity so a much larger ground nest.
Stood on the porch and looked at the drop-off towards the neighbors, a normal place for ground yellow jacket nests. I need to weed wack this weekend, so I like to check out my area before wacking, as the last three or so years I've found nests by braille. Not nice when you have epi-pens in the house because of your bee sting allergy.
Low and behold, noticed some bees streaking into the concrete wall that supports the front porch concrete pad. Have a few cracks I've been meaning to fix, they were in there. Guessing only a few hundred bees in this one, so it just got going. Just happened to have 1/2 a bottle of carpenter bee/ground bee spray with a nice long nozzle like a can of WD-40. Stuck it in the hole and sprayed. Had to quickly get out of the general area as the hole errupted, most just tumbling out to the ground (it was about 2' up the wall).
Just happy I found them before they found me. Normally will only get one nest in the yard, but the last few years I've had several at a time. At least I feel good weed wacking on that side of the house and won't be going to bed with 20+ stings on my legs/arms etc (and my wife waking me up several times overnight to make sure I'm still breathing).
Edit: well, no activity this morning for my nest, but less than 15 feet away in the neighbors yard I see another one, this one has tons of activity so a much larger ground nest.
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Gonna be some gifting this season!
