The American Beagler Forum

Things I learned this weekend

A guy bought some round bales of hay last year and never picked the last six up. He sent a guy to pick them up Sunday. I was running picking them up and loading them with a rear mounted hay spear on an open cab tractor. It was hot and I had been moving hay around all day. I was wearing shorts, and had shed my shirt a couple hours earlier. (Several key pieces to the the story).

These bales had been outside for 3 years, and were mostly mulch. If he wanted them, I was glad to load them to get them out of the way. I backed into the fifth bale and pulled out. As I ride through the gate, I get stung on the chin. I’m swatting, grabbing and cussing. I thought, “Uh-oh, I must have stirred up a yellow jacket nest”. I hit the fuel on the tractor to wide open, straightened the tractor out (because I was headed for the fence after I gave up driving for a few seconds to swat bees), and ducked down to drive out of the fury of bees. Now, anyone that has ever drove a tractor knows that when you hit the fuel on a tractor, it makes more noise but doesn’t really speed up.

“Owwww, uhhhhgg, dangit, ahhhh” I’m still getting lit up and it is getting worse.
I look back at the hay bay to realize there is a swarm of yellow jackets all around that bale. Now remember the key pieces I was telling you a while ago. Yep, there I am wearing shorts, no shirt, in an open cab tractor, with a bale of hay about 6 feet behind me that apparently made a fine place for a nest until I ran the hay spear through it. Once I realized that I was carrying the problem with me, I did the most logical thing. I hit the kill switch and ran through the barn yard like my head was on fire.

Here is a little fact about yellow jackets that some people may not know. They sting and bite at the same time. I’ve looked down before and seen their stinger dug in and biting at the same time. This allows them to hold on their victim making them harder to swat off. I got about 50 yards away stopped and literally pinched the last one and plucked it from my arm pit.

So now I am stuck with the dilemma of having to go back and get the tractor, which still has the bale of hay on the spear and about 100 yellow jackets swarming. I don’t know if yellow jackets hate all tractors, or just Massey Fergusons, but they were bouncing of the metal and you could see them stinging the seat (the only soft part on the tractor).

The guy that came to pick up the hay eased over and started the tractor, after a few minutes I went over and the let the bale down hard (hoping to smash their entrance). A couple minutes later I hopped on, shoved it in gear, and drove off. You ever seen the scary movies where the victim being chase by the guy with a chainsaw can't start their car, get it in gear, or drive off.
I felt like that victim, and I couldn't move fast enough even though according to by-standers the overall speed I was moving and shucking gears was impressive.
I hopped on, put it in gear, and dumped the clutch - nothing.
Key fact you tend to forget when "under fire" -To start a tractor, you must put the transmission and transfer case in neutral before it will start.
You tend to forget this when you are dodging yellow jackets. I stomp the clutch, yank the stick on the transfer case and dump the clutch. The tractor lunged, and I heard the guy picking up the hay said "I set the brake". So now I'm scrambling to unset the park brake, and finally get moving. I got stung again in the back. The guy picking up the hay said, “Hey Matt their on your hat. I slung my hat, baled off the tractor, then realizing that it was still running and in gear. I ran back and pulled the kill switch.

After a few minutes I load the last bale and David came up with a can of wasp spray. The guy picking up the hay said, “Give me that spray – I’m going to take that bale too.”
He hopped on the tractor backed into the bale, swatted and sprayed, drove about ten yards and sprayed again, backed up to the trailer, dropped the bale and drove off.

He was laughing and said, “Don’t you tell my brother I knew that yellow jacket nest was in there. I’m just going to pull the trailer up in his yard, un-hook and drive off”.
I laughed and he said, “You know he would do the same thing to me”.
He threw a strap over the bales, tightened them and drove off with the windows up.


So what I learned this weekend.

1. Yellow jackets will build a nest in the center of an old round bale of hay.
2. When you back the hay spear into the nest, it would be much better to be wearing a shirt and long pants, and better yet to be in an enclosed cab.
3. You are better off to drop the bale of hay and keep driving opposed to pulling the kill switch, jumping off the tractor and running away like your head is on fire.
4. If your buddy drops your trailer off with a load on it, don’t assume that there isn’t a yellow jacket nest in it.

People talk about hating snakes - I never had a swarm of snakes chase.
I hate yellow jackets.

It happened to me running a bulldozer, dozing around an old barn. I was pushing an old brush pile 3 times the size of the JD 450 I was operating when all of a sudden it looked like the sun went behind a cloud. I turned to look over my shoulder when I got hit. I slapped the first one and then seen the next 1000 yellow jackets swarming the bottom of the right track towards the rear of the dozer. 4th gear full throttle and and blade up in record time. I drove the dozer up and over the corner of the pile and another 50yds till I stopped. I looked back and here they come again. I made it out of there with 1 sting, I don't know how I got that lucky. Seriously there were over 1000 yellow jackets swarming that brush pile. I watched for awhile til I had a good idea where they came from. After dark I snuck in there and found a 1" hole in the ground that was the entrance to there nest. 1 whole can of foaming hornet killer and a stone to mark the hole. The next morning I moved the stone piled some straw and brances over it soaked with a little gas and went to work. Once it warmed up I lit the fire and didn't have anymore problems. Your right about biting and stinging at the same time.... Man it burns

You are indeed a wiser man for your experience...the detail in your story rings true every word...

I have used gas on bees & wasp but never lit it, just the contact with the gas fume will kill them. I discourage anyone on using gas and especially thinking of lighting it. The fumes will surround you and you'll be caught up in the fire. I saw the mistake made twice and you can't get away from gas fume ignition fast enough...I guarantee it !!! The longer it sits, the greater the evaporation of the gas into vapor into the air, the greater the explosion of fire around you. DON'T PLAY WITH GAS !!! The things we've done & seen, you'd say this ole cat has used his nine lives long ago...
If we burn a brush pile, it's with diesel fuel, never gas...

I had a dog dig up a nest a few weeks back......they were all over him, then me and then an inocent bystander dog got lit up. I've never seen a dog do such flips and yeah, you have to pull them off once they get a grip!

thx for posting that sure wasfunny ..a mery heart doeth good like a medicine i should be well for a while now lol!

dang matt,between swarms of bees and electic charged ponds,you have been through it all,remind me not to stand too close to you in a thunderstorm

Yes, Patch I too have been taught by experiance the lesson of using gas to burn brush piles. I was cleaning up an overflow ditch at the front of my lane and decided I'd just go ahead and pile all the brush into it that I could and kill two birds with one can of gas so to speak. I figured that if I got the gas into the middle of that huge brush pile it would burn it completely up from the inside out. I dumped quite a bit of gas into the middle of the brush pile but I ain't no dummy I knew it would ignite fast so as wise as I am I just poured me a nice little trail away from the brush pile to avoid getting burned when it quickly ignited. I got to the end of the little gas trail about 10 feet from the pile, lite the match and stuck it onto the trail. Man that was working like a charm and the flame took off to the brush pile when BOOM the entire pile exploded plumb out of the ditch right on top on me. That explosion not only made a mess of that neatly stacked pile of brush but it also made a mess in my drawers as well not to mention getting holes burned in my good work shirt. I don't know what I was thinking or how that brain fart happened but I sure got a first hand experiance of how the fire wasn't nearly as hot as the mess in my drawers!

The safest way to kill bees is Sevin Dust. Either buy or make some kind of a sprayer to dust the hole. The bees carry the dust back to the nest and within a day or two any bee coming into contact with the dust will die.

I ain't been into a mess of them boogers since I was teenager bushhoggin. I can relate to chasin down a tractor with them suckers swarming and all I can say is Dannnng Man Yep gotta hate them