Today I attacked a yellow jacket nest under an old pine tree stump and wiped them out (I hope). If there is one thing in my life that I can promise you I AM afraid of it is yellow jackets. Several times since we moved to the swamp I have been popped by those rascals, and it is not at all like a bee or wasp sting, like a pinprick. This is like someone hit you hard with something, and the swelling is horrible. The swelling turns hard like you got hit with a baseball thrown really hard. Try having ten or fifteen of those at one time.
When we got the new Basset we decided to subdivide the yard with another fence so that we could separate our two older dogs, who get pretty grumpy at times. Putting up that fence forces the dogs who are in there into the vicinity og that tree stump, and the last thing I want is a blinded or dead puppy because of the yellow jackets, so they had to die.
I watched them struggle out of the holes after spraying the nest, and I will tell you that if I had just known how freakin' huge those things were I don't think I'd have had the nerve to have sprayed them. I guess the ones who have been hitting me were the 2nd or 3rd stringers, because folks, I saw yellow jackets half the size of my thumb crawl out of those holes! Holy smokes! Talk about terrifying. Anyway, hopefully we are safe from their menace until some more move in and build another nest. And then they will get me again, I'm sure.
Yellow jackets are the most dangerous creatures that I know.
Mickey Lake
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