Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] yellow jackets vs honey bees

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] yellow jackets vs honey bees
  • Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:28:55 -0400

On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 17:31:14 -0400, you wrote:

>You must have much more aggressive yellowjackets than we do! All fall when
>grapes are sitting out at farm stands, the yellowjackets will be all over
>them. All you have to do is shoo them away, but don't trap and squeeze
>them. I have never been strung by a yellowjacket when being careful.

I never had until last week either. I was watering some plants with the
hose, and accidentally got near a yellow jacket nest. I was only stung
once, fortunately - it got me on my hand.

My daughter, when very young, about 6, ran through one of their nests and
they attacked her. She came screaming into the house, and there were
hundreds of them all over her; in her hair, inside all her clothing, even
in her shoes.

We thought we'd see her die on the spot from an allergic reaction (she was
a child with a lot of allergies, and is an adult with a lot of allergies
too).

We somehow got them out of her hair and away from her (using just our hands
- it was a Saturday; my ex-husband was also home so at least there were
two of us there to cope with it).

We ripped her clothes off, and I picked her up and ran into the bathroom
with her and slammed the door shut. I ran cold water in the tub and put
her in it to soothe her stings and I calmed her down (not easy at that
point; she had been absolutely hysterical of course, poor kid). My husband
managed to get some insect spray and kill all the wasps in the house
(hundreds).

My daughter was NOT as badly stung as we had feared. She only had about 20
stings in all. No allergic reaction. 20 wasp stings isn't pleasant, but
it was a heck of a lot better than we expected. It was in the late fall,
in the end of October, and I guess the wasps were all half-asleep for the
winter, or she'd have been stung an awful lot more than she was.

But really, it was like a horror movie there for a while... exactly like a
horror movie.

We have quite a few of them around our present house (outside), we leave
them alone if they leave us alone. Which they usually do.

Pat
--
http://www.entire-of-itself.blogspot.com/
In Pennsylvania's Northern Tier, northeastern USA.

'Be the change that you want to see in the world'
Mohandas Gandhi




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page