North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

At 09:31 PM 8/18/2003 -0500, Helene wrote:
> I myself got stung once recently by a yellow wasp living in the ground while
> mowing a neglected section of the orchard with an ordinary lawn mower. I
> quickly abandonned the mower and it was quite an ordeal to retrieve it
> later, still running and still under attack from a cloud of angry wasps.

I've had similar encounters.
Once, I bush-hogged over a yellowjacket nest, and didn't notice the cloud 
of angry wasps on my next pass by.  At least a dozen of them swarmed me - 
most stinging me around the head.   Foolishly, I bailed off the tractor - 
with it still in gear and the bush-hog engaged.  I escaped the 
yellowjackets, but then had to catch back up with the tractor(thankfully 
running in 1st gear) and get back on it without being run over or chopped 
to bits, before it ran off into the woods.
Another time, I was mowing an overgrown area just outside the fenced yard 
at our first home.  Ran over a bumblebee nest in the ground, and after the 
first couple of 'hits', I high-tailed it out of there, leaving the mower 
running - for about 45 minutes, until it ran out of gas.  Went back and 
retrieved it after dark that evening.

In both instances, the nests received a 'present' of a pint of gasoline 
poured down their holes the next evening.  Today, I'd probably leave the 
bumblebees alone, unless they were in a spot where my kids were inclined to 
encounter them, but I've got no compassion for the yellowjackets.

Lucky