Yellow jacket refuge :)

Burnham

Woods walker
Joined
Mar 7, 2005
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Western Oregon
We, like many around here, have had an above average yellow jacket population this summer. It was a mildish winter and we've had unusually warm and dry weather for most of this season...ideal for the troublesome critters. Many places they have been really bad...here at home just somewhat bothersome.

We like eating lunch on our porch, or to take our cocktails and appetizers there in the early evening...that's when they have been worst. So I set up our camping gear mosquito net. Worked a treat.
 

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  • #5
They don't, so far. If one did, I suppose I'd just open up the netting front and wave him out.
 
They don't, so far. If one did, I suppose I'd just open up the netting front and wave him out.

Just,razzing yah. I'd hate to have yellow jackets so bad that I'd have to stay in a net. I almost did when I had a shake roof but since a asphalt shingle roof went on two years ago no more yellow jackets. Or atleast a whole lot fewer.
 
On our honeymoon in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia, yellow jackets were frequent visitors at our breakfast time on the deck of the cabin. We found they really liked scrambled eggs, so wound up offering them their own portion off to the side where they would congregate. Meanwhile we stole our own kiss or two or 100!
 
A squirt of Windex kills 'em...but the refuge is much more romantic :)
 
Haven't seen a YJ this year yet...as a matter of fact no stinging insects for a couple months...starlings all left also ... rabbit population down this year...groundhogs missing...no muskrats...I'm starting to wonder if they're all being toxined out by the surrounding commercial enterprises.
 
You know what will do in either yellow jackets or hornets? Magpies. I've seen them rip a nest down and eat the maggots or larvae or whatever the next generation is called. Seen it more then once right on the overhang of my shop. Seems desperate but I can't see that they would be in this land of plenty?
 
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  • #19
And coyotes...love them digging out and eating the y jacket's ground nests. Spicy tidbits, I'm thinking :).

Ha ! By the title, I though that it was about a new habitat for these poor little critters !:D

Saw that one coming, M-A. Hence the smiley in the title :).
 
I had those little bastages build a nest under the track of one of my antique D4 Caterpilars .They about ate me up so I bailed out over the side .Not good, the old dozer had a hand clutch .There it went clanking away towards the road and they ate me up again when I jumped back on to disengage the clutch .:(
 
Soapy water works surprisingly well. There is usually two nests. I am sure that most climbers have rapelled down from a tree only to land right on a nest. (At least in calif.)

Fun to watch a climber disconnect from the climbing line, shed gear, and run away. Faster than superman switching clothes in a phone booth!
 
Tom's guys cut into a hive of honey bees in a big oak.One had to go to the hospital .They waited until after dark,loaded about 8 foot of 30" log into a dump truck and dumped it on my burn pile .I cooked them,hive bees and all .
 
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