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  • From: Richard Moyer <ramoyer AT gmail.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Was Insect Pressure, now stinging insect removal
  • Date: Thu, 31 May 2012 11:45:11 -0400

Kathryn,
You may have already acted, but here's our experience:
Yellow jacket and wasp stingers penetrate certain bee suits (as can a honeybee that is squished), but all these stingers are length-limited.  I've dug out and destroyed multiple yellow jacket nests (the toasted grubs are tasty), but only when I have multiple layers such as long sleeve cotton dress shirt, thick cotton sweatshirt, perhaps another thick cotton workshirt, then the beesuit.  Or coveralls then beesuit.  If your beesuit too small, borrow a bigger one.   (Visualize the Michelin Man.) Trick is multiple layers thicker than the stingers, and making sure ALL beesuit entrances are sealed.  Yellow jackets have not stung me through this while their nests are being destroyed, each layer of nest being cleaned off and put in a bucket w/ lid. 

At daybreak on the coolest morning possible, you should be able to suit up early w/o heat stroke.  The insects are quit a bit slower when temps are cool, though will get excited.

Open the vehicle doors, perhaps also the hood, then see where the insects are going in and out on their normal pattern.  Or one can pay an exterminator to open the doors and watch where the insects fly to and from.  Normal flight patterns will occur fairly quickly; insects to their nest (and money to exterminator).  If opening happens to disturb nest, insects will show you where that is and take a bit longer to settle down.  

One may pay someone to poison their truck cab, but then what protective gear should be worn by whoever drives the truck at haying, and what if the nest is on the other side of the cab, in the engine compartment thereby insulated from the cab?

There are OMRI approved yellow jacket traps, which may help, but perhaps not quick enough for haying time.

Agreed with another comment that a stream of hose water works well, and the insects don't follow it back to the sprayer.

In summary, if one has the gumption and equipment to work with bees, one can work with other stinging insects.  But during planting season, there may be more money than time for certain unpleasant tasks, and hiring others makes sense.

Richard Moyer
SW VA




-------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 30 May 2012 12:34:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: KAKerby AT aol.com
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Insect Pressure
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <35afe.16ddf8d4.3cf7a609 AT aol.com" target="_blank">35afe.16ddf8d4.3cf7a609 AT aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Sort of a similar situation here that I just learned about yesterday.
We're getting ready for hay season, and the big cab-over-engine flatbed we use
to move hay bales is now very much inhabited by either wasps or hornets.  I
 don't want to go the "wasp bomb" way, but we can't get close enough to
tell even  where the nest is.  Might be way up in the engine compartment, or
they  might be flying through a vent to/from the cab itself.   Unfortunately,
the windows are rolled up and we can't get the doors open  without getting
stung to even see if they found some entrance/exit into the  cab.  I'm not
sure how to proceed with clearing this vehicle other than the  so-called bomb.
 Any ideas?  If they were honeybees, I'd be delighted  to have another hive
and I could vacuum them while wearing my bee suit in  perfect safety.  But
hornet and yellowjacket stingers go right through  those suits.  I'm not
looking forward to this particular farm  project.  Not at all.  Time for an
exterminator?
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
Ruminations - essays on the farming life at  frogchorusfarm.com/welog.html


In a message dated 5/30/2012 7:54:33 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
barkingcatfarm AT mindspring.com writes:




  • Re: [Market-farming] Was Insect Pressure, now stinging insect removal, Richard Moyer, 05/31/2012

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