re: Yellowjackets are underrated

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Mowing the yard and running over an underground yellowjacket nest is one of life's most miserable events.

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This happened to me once. It led to my mower rolling down a hill, and me later having to lay down cover fire with the leaf blower to retrieve an AirPod.

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They're 2nd only to bumblebees.

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I tangled with them sum bitches. I ran over a nest with a lawn mower. It felt like someone came up behind and was punching me in the back. They chased my arse down Airline Hwy in Bossier City. I thought they never were going to stop chasing me.

About six of those bastards stung me in both lips when I was a kid. My lips became very swollen. I looked like Tyrone Shoelaces of Basketball Jones fame.

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There's a little yellow and black paper wasp too, smaller than the guinea paper wasp, that we sometimes called a yellow jacket. They aren't aggressive at all, though, and will hang out in a nest and just watch you all day/Summer. I've been stung twice by one of those, and both times by accidentally laying my arm on one.

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Can’t think of what you are referring to. Any pic or other ID info?

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Run over a nest of them while driving a tractor in the sweltering hot of summer. They will make you leave the tractor while it's still moving forward

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Yep. Been there, done that.

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This happened to me once. It led to my mower rolling down a hill, and me later having to lay down cover fire with the leaf blower to retrieve an AirPod

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I find red wasp stings burn but subside quicker than yellow jackets, which hurt more and leave you sorer for longer.

Put my hand in a work glove once and I feared a spider had bitten me until I threw the glove off and a fat yellow jacket queen fell out. Stomped it good.

Also, while on patrol in Vietnam, our point man fell against a tree and knocked down a huge hornets’ nest. I never heard battle-hardened grunts scream like that. We thought we had been ambushed and were about to open up in all directions until we heard “bees, bees” from the fleeing Marines. Our Corpsman was the worst to feel their wrath.

It was funny, but not.

My shed hunting ends when it gets warm. Heat is one factor along with snakes and ticks but it’s the unseen ground hornets that I want nothing to do with

Yep was cutting my yard along the fence and didn't see a small nest on it when my elbow brushed it. Got popped 3 times. Hurt like hell.

Helped dad get the pontoon boat ready one year. I noticed a couple of yellow jackets coming out of the compartment near the back of the boat. I tried opening the door and got zapped twice. I decided to nuke the compartment.

I grabbed two of those home fumigators. I snuck up on the door and sprayed the sentries with some long range hornet spray. When those guys were dead, I pulled the pin on two fumigators and opened the door and threw them in shutting it quickly and running away like a little girl.

After a couple of hours, I opened the door. There was a damn yellow jacket nest in there the size of beach ball. There were hundreds of dead yellow jackets in the boat. Had I known that’s what was in there, I’d never had done what I did. Dad and I went and had celebratory beers afterwards. Not sure I would have died, but if those frickers had attacked when I opened that door, I’d have been in a world of hurt.