Have you ever dug up a bee's nest?

[chroniekon]

Yesterday I got stung by a yellow jacket while cleaning out a dry creek bed with my backhoe and I started wondering what my exit strategy should be if I was to dig into a nest of them...again. The last time was two years ago on my small farm tractor while pushing a rotten stump with the blade. The tractor is a whole lot easier to get off of quickly than the backhoe is and luckily somehow, I must have turned the key off before my hasty exit. When thinking finally kicked in again I was about a hundred yards away from my tractor, half my close ripped off, both sholders nearly out of their sockets from all the arm waving and thirty some stings.

[mitch504]

Several times every summer.

[RonG]

Spreading topsoil on houselots with a dozer will guarantee getting them riled up every once in a while.The best defense is not moving if you can do it.Nowadays it is common to have a cab on a dozer but I never did until right at the end of my career.Ron G

[jrtraderny]

Yup cut a ground hornets nest in two with the dozer a few years ago.
Was kinda hot around there for awhile....................

[2stickbill]

I hit about three while clearing a tract of land.Two yellow Jackets and one Bubble Bee.Walked through the middle of it and left running.
Seen log trucks hauling bee hives whith bees.Good thing the unloader operator had a cab.

[hammerdwn20]

i dug one up with an excavator. i just threw the next bucket of dirt on them and that took care of them

[lgammon]

keep the machine wide open if you don't swat them and move much they will attack the muffler. try and sit still and you usually only get hit once or twice. smoking a cigarette helps to, the smoke calms them down!

[digger242j]

I hit a yellowjacket nest once, digging with a pick.

Got stung about 12 times...

[2stickbill]

I heard of a operator that was seen on top of his Push Cat cab.Reason was he pushed the scraper through a Rattle Snake den.They were all over his Cat.

[Komatsu 150]

Now you guys know why track machines have high speed reverse.

[ijoker]

Does not moving really work? Or is it as reliable as when you are face to face with a bear?

[AT&SW]

Been there done that. Don't look forward to next time.

[monkey]

I hit a nest of hornets taking out some old stumps with the dozer, I was lucky to have got it neutral before bailing and running like hell. I was not waiting to find out if I sat still they wouldn't sting......it was a thick cloud and they were pissed

[jrtraderny]

Also had an operator dig up a yellow jackets nest, I had to go back after dark and shut dozer down....................

[Rockpile]

I deal with those SOB'S many times each summer. Here are a couple hints. A dog is our "canary in the coal mine". The yellow jackets have evolved to deal with the most common threats to their nests....low slung digging animals....badgers, possums, bears, foxes etc. In Arkansas, they often use hollows in trees also...small hollows, usually in locust. I was hunting once, and stepped on a nest that collapsed down in a circle 24" across. I have never seen one that big before or since.
THEY WILL ALWAYS ATTACK BELOW 36" FIRST.I have looked down at equipment and seen them covering the tires and undercarriage, long before the first sting
You might not notice them on your pants for a minute, until they get up above your waist....BUT A DOG ROLLING ON THE GROUND, WHEN WE ARE IN THE WOODS, IS A SIGN TO BOLT. We like a blue heeler...they will stay around while you are working, and start yipping quick enough to get a good heads-up before you are in trouble.
Yellow Jackets specialize in stinging on joints...knuckles and knees are their favorites.....I have been stung sometimes, by 20 of them, and 15 of the stings are directly on my knuckles.
Okay.....the squeamish need to look away....
The toughest old Texan I knew...I will call him Morris.....was a bridge building foreman. He was an ace operator and tougher than a locust post. One day, Morris was on a D6, when nature made a very urgent announcement that he was to find a place quickly to get rid of last nights dinner.
He was preparing camping pads in a National Forest Recreation site. There were campers at nearby sites, and no porta - potties available. The latrine for the campsite would require that he walk through the whole campground to access it, and he knew he wouldn't make it. Ever the Texan....Morris just pushed a pile of dirt up, set his blade over the bare spot, idled the dozer and climbed between the blade and the front of the machine......He dropped his drawers and proceeded with the rest of the plan.....You guessed right......he had scraped the top off of a yellow jacket nest.
He described that by the time he realized what was happening, he had 100-150 of them attached to his butt. He tried to swat them off, gave up as they swarmed his face, yanked up his drawers with them inside, and headed away from the machine. By then, the pain and the dose of poison was making him light headed, and he knew he could not get back up on the dozer. He headed for his pickup and home. He called another employee, and told them to carefully go and shut the dozer off....and said that he had never been so sick before. He described the shuddering shakes, like he had Malaria, and he threw up for 12 hours. He couldn't hold any whiskey down to blunt the pain, and was not going to go to the emergency room. His wife counted 150+ stings..... about 2/3 on his rear, the rest on his face and hands.
Except for white faced hornets, the yellow jacket sting is the worst in the woods.
NEXT TALE...the dozer operator who pulled up his pants with a brown recluse spider in them and had a lemon sized rotting sore on one cheek for 3 months !!!!!