Bee careful out there y’all

Ground hornets are fricking brutal.

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Ground hornets are fricking brutal.

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no doubt, stepped on one nest last year and they came swarming after us. Was stung about 7-8 times.

I'm assuming when ya'll are say "ground hornets" you are referring to yellow jackets, correct?

Because around here, in SC, other than yellowjackets the only ground hornet are those big arse, 2" long Cocada killers....that usually don't bother you much.

My neighbor was weedeating 2 weeks ago and disturbed a ground nest with yellow jackets (hornets ?). He was stung 53 times and had to be transported to the hospital by ambulance. Spent 9 hours in the ER and doctor advised he was very close to dying. Only thing that saved him was taking 2 Benadryl before the ambulance arrived. His throat was swelling and he was having difficulties breathing. Next morning he called an exterminator to kill the nest.

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I got stung by some black hornet that had three whitE stripes in it.

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Bald-faced hornet

Years ago bow hunting, in the dark I climbed up an Oak tree using my climbing stand and got prepared for daylight. As the sun came up I was looking down and around looking for sign, essentially looking everywhere except in front of me. Finally after probably 30 minutes I looked straight in front of me and saw the huge hornets nest ~6 feet away at eye level in the tree next to me. I slowly lowered my bow, turned the stand such that the tree was between me and the nest, slowly lower myself down and got the hell out of there. Can’t imagine how bad it would have been to be in a climbing stand & safety harness tied to a tree 20+ feet up being attacked by hornets...the lord protects fools.

I'd like to add that the snakes are still out there. Checking cameras today, I saw movement out the corner of my eye. I was only a few feet from a 2 ft copperhead that I had just walked past.


With this hurricane coming I'm sure it will have them really active and moving.

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...the lord protects fools.

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Was free soloing several years ago on Lake Powell and a couple days from a car or road. Think rock climbing without a rope about 150-175 feet up. It looked to be a real easy way up to gain access to another level of side canyons. When all of a sudden the easy way disappeared due to some sort of hornet look critters buzzing everywhere. They were in my crack... or... technically theirs I suppose. So with no option down I altered course and went straight up to another crack system... that could be used to down climb. As that easy 5.6 or 5.7 got hard 9, suddenly all interest was lost in any of those upper canyons.

Was glad just like you... that they decided to merely demonstrated their presence and not play hard ball.

I got lit up like that bushhoggin, too, in late September about 45 minutes before sundown. Made the first pass around a 5 acre field with no problem. Not much flat ground up here and I had a few little hills to go up and down. The second pass going down the "big" hill, them suckers lit me up. I had disturbed the nest on the first pass and they were clearly upset. I sure didn't see em, but they saw me. Had one layin it to me on the side of my head where my ball cap meets the cap part right over my right ear. He wouldn't let go, either. I mashed the clutch in and raced that tractor to the bottom and pointed it in towards the hill, threw it outta gear and bailed out. Bushhog still swishin away. I looked back up towards the nest and the setting sun and there were thousands of them suckers swarming around like miniature F-16 fighters. That night, a polecat dug out that nest and the hole was the size of a bushel basket. I don't know how many times they got me. Lost count. I swelled up like a puffer fish. I hate them yellow jackets.