Something to remember about ground wasps and mowing

**Shrek** · #1 07/19/12, 09:40 PM

This season has been a bad one for ground wasps in our area.

Three times this season I have mowed over nest entrances with my walk behind bush mower and today my neighbor got her rider stuck over one.

The first time I ran my self propelled over one this season I did as my father taught me and exited leaving the mower and returned after dark to retrieve it while the wasps slept. this evening I did the same with my neighbors rider only I used the winch on my truck to roll her mower clear of the nest entrance.

The other two times I have hit ground wasps with my walk behind this season I have been able to retrieve it right after the swarm with a simple add on attachment I made.

I have a 30 foot 90 pound dog rated lead cable I clipped to the frame handle and I lariat rope coil the rest of the cable and use a doubled back length of twine tied in a slip hitch to hold the coil to the handle.

The trailing end of the twine I loop around a finger.

When I hit a nest and I exit back my finger pulls the twine releasing the doubled back slip hitch letting the coiled cable drop as I get out of dodge and the dead man lever kills my mower.

Then I go back to where I dropped the end of the cable and wasp spray the mower to drive off the swarming yellow jackets from long distance, reel inmy mower , rehang my retrieval cable and move to another area of the tall hay to mow and hope I dont see any more wasps.

At sundown I go back to where the nest is and if I can see the entrance I pour a gallon of gas in it to kill off the nest.

So if you find yourself with a mower stuck on a wasp nest, wait until after dark to retrieve it or if using a light weight push or walk behind mower consider outfitting it with a 30 foot long leash you can lay out without thinking as you run so you can retrieve it and move on to another area.

NewGround · #2 07/19/12, 09:50 PM

poisoning with gas in now frowned upon... What other remedies are you folks using? It has stopped the guy on the loader from working in several areas at my place...

Raeven · #3 07/19/12, 09:54 PM

There is a fellow where I live who will come and get nests of all kinds -- ground, paper, mud -- for free. He sells them to various universities who use them for research.

If you can locate this guy in your locale, he is worth his weight.

vicker · #4 07/19/12, 10:18 PM

Go back at night and turn up a 5gal bucket of wet sand over the entrance. Leave the bucket.

arcticow · #5 07/19/12, 10:19 PM

Jay, I have cut into a few nests of yellowjackets in the ground with a scythe... not enuff cconfusion to the nest to make much getaway room!!!

Ramblin Wreck · #6 07/20/12, 08:17 AM

I got hit on the leg a couple of weeks ago going through a gate to the barn. It took a while to figure out where they were coming from, but the wasps had actually built a nest inside the gate (coming up from the bottom of a metal tubed gate). There's also a big hornets nest in the round bale barn that I hope I can just leave until Winter. They're not very aggresive, and I think we're going to square bale the next cutting anyway...so no activity there until we start feeding hay in the Fall/Winter.

The installation of my culvert based root cellar was delayed a year or so ago because of a yellow jacket nest inside an old red maple stump I needed to dig out. I was using the skid steer, and that's not a place to get trapped with any kind of swarm coming at you. There's no easy/quick way to get out of it.

starjj · #7 07/20/12, 03:46 PM

I have the same problem with wasps building in my metal farm gates. I got stung last year on the ankle just once thankfully. This year they have built twice in my front gate. I have just used wasp spray but I need to duct tape the hollow ends where they are going up into the gate.

**Shrek** · #8 07/23/12, 12:00 AM

My battle with the wasps waged on today but I avoided them little kamikazes as I doused their nest entries with wasp killer.

My maintenance guy told me that medicated body powder with menthol and eucalyptus has some of the same stuff wasp repellant does so before I ventured into enemy territory I dusted my arms, clothes and shoes heavy with it and I didn't get stung.

Looked like I was whitewashed and smelled like a hospital but was sting free as they stayed a few feet away as I emptied a can of killer into each hole I found as I mowed the deep growth down a little patch at a time.