Hornets, Yellow jackets, and Wasps, a very, very bad year this year for them around here!
And not just in our area but most of North Idaho from what we've found out. In fact when Stacy stopped at Wal Mart to buy some new bait for our traps, Wal Mart was sold out and across the street at Home Depot, she was lucky to get there when a new shipment of traps and bait was being opened. She was told by the clerk that their shipments have been selling out in less than a day and as quick as a half hour as so many people are having problems with the bugs! And hospital and doctor visits have increased dramatically too due to stings according to the news.
It has been both hotter and dryer than normal locally this summer so mosquitoes were way down, a very good thing!
But now in late August when the "skitos" would be low anyway, the Hornets, Yellow Jackets and Wasps, and yes we have all three types on our place!, have been going crazy quietly building nests all over the property.
We had to start fighting back in earnest after Stacy was stung three times by Hornets when we uncovered a large nest when we weren't expecting one while cleaning up some trash. We had company for a week that stayed in our trailer so we cleaned up around it and had to uncover it too and found how many nests had been built in the RV cover. I had gloves on and also was just barely stung on my right little finger through the glove after spraying the nest but missing a straggler in the fold of the cover when I went to pull the cover off, it would have been bad if I hadn't had gloves on! They even chewed holes in the cover in various places to gain access to inside the cover for nests. Now, I tried the 'WD-40' urban legend treatment on my sting and it helped a lot. Pain was greatly alleviated and the swelling wasn't too bad although I think that's more from not a direct hit to my finger.
We bought the last can of the Wasp and Hornet spray that shoots out a 15 foot stream to get those high up nests and we bought new and then re-baited the traps like the ones in the photos below.
The trap above is an expensive new type ($15.00 each!) that's supposed to catch all types in either the trap above or the trap below. After one afternoon you can see that the lower part seems to be working great, I guess the other types didn't read that they're supposed to be going swimming in the top part too!
The photo below is the older type of trap that are all over the place in our area and we had several of them already that I had bought a couple of years ago.The one below was just re-baited and it's also working well. We've also tried putting canned cat food in this type of trap in the area at the bottom of the trap where the scent baited cotton would normally be. That also seems to be working well.
It's also really kinda spooky in the evenings around sunset if you're outside
when the breeze stops and it's quiet, not only are hundreds of hornets flying around bumping into your legs just above the ground combing and scavenging the ground for food and water, but the entire forest has a low buzz sound from all the
insects that are in our forest. I'd say overall millions would not be an understatement!
Photo below, two days ago while we were covering back up our trailer after the company had left, Stacy was stung yet again, this time by a Wasp. She was getting a ladder and didn't notice the hidden wasp nest and disturbed it while pulling out the ladder. Then she didn't notice the wasps that were still on the ladder she had gotten and one got her on the forearm just behind her glove. She had, before this one sting, never had a bad reaction. Even the Hornet stings she had gotten about a week and a half ago, although very, very painful for her on her legs, had not been too much of a reaction.
This one sting, again from just two days ago however, big reaction! We immediately tried the WD-40 trick on her sting but it did not help her at all. Stacy even went to the doctor yesterday because we were so concerned by the growing swelling redness on her arm. The photo below was taken just this morning after the doctor had treated it the best he could yesterday afternoon. The swelling has gotten progressively worse working down towards her hand and encompassing her arm around her wrist area.
Stacy was told that now, she, like me, has to be considered allergic and should seek medical treatment especially if stung anywhere near the head, heart or neck. She even got a prescription for the Epi-Pens that we'd get just for me, so now we can share.
So we'll fight!!! And next year we'll get a better jump on the 'winged menace' by putting out all our traps in the early spring instead of thinking "it's not so bad this year" like we did this year to find out almost too late just how bad it had become! The trap makers recommend setting out the traps in early spring when the queens just start to become active and are looking for new nesting areas. Catch the queen first and eliminate the problem!
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