Well, after a nice cool winter and a too short spring, the #$$%#$ hornets have shown up again. So far I can identify yellow jackets, cicada wasps and mud daubers plus one type of red wasp that I don't know what it is. I understand that the only real hornet in these parts is the bald face hornet and, Thank the Good Lord, I have not seen any of these or any of their nests.
Today, I got bit pretty good while mowing the lawn. I opened the small side gate and drove my mower through, did the front lawn and then, when I went to close the gate, I got bit on my forearm...felt like a red hot poker. Fortunately, the demon insect did not pursue me and was more intent on getting back to the bolt hole on the tube frame of the gate where it was trying to build a nest. I managed to get a lucky shot in with a 2 X 4 and smashed him pretty good. Went inside for some ice on the bite and now I am looking at a dime size welt with a red center bullseye. It was a red wasp which I have never been bit by before but it sure hurt! Will go out tomorrow and tape over that extra bolt hole so they don't come back again.
The yellow jackets are the ones that usually get me; they build their nests under the eaves of my outbuildings, in the holly shrubs or on the branch of one of my many trees that I have to mow under. Nothing I hate worse than passing one the sheds with my eyes down focused on the blades and getting hit 3-4 times on the back of the neck.
I know that when God put the Hebrews into the Promised Land, he left some of the Canaanites there to make sure the next generations would learn how to make war, so He must have had some reason to put so many of these flying demons in East Texas. Whatever the reason, the hornets and wasps are right up there with scorpions and spiders in my book and only a little behind the snakes. Nothing I seem to do in terms of spraying, pruning and trapping seems to reduce the population at all, and I just have to be extra careful and eyeball each outside area before I start to do any work.
If someone could come up with a hornet coronavirus I think we could make a mint.
Today, I got bit pretty good while mowing the lawn. I opened the small side gate and drove my mower through, did the front lawn and then, when I went to close the gate, I got bit on my forearm...felt like a red hot poker. Fortunately, the demon insect did not pursue me and was more intent on getting back to the bolt hole on the tube frame of the gate where it was trying to build a nest. I managed to get a lucky shot in with a 2 X 4 and smashed him pretty good. Went inside for some ice on the bite and now I am looking at a dime size welt with a red center bullseye. It was a red wasp which I have never been bit by before but it sure hurt! Will go out tomorrow and tape over that extra bolt hole so they don't come back again.
The yellow jackets are the ones that usually get me; they build their nests under the eaves of my outbuildings, in the holly shrubs or on the branch of one of my many trees that I have to mow under. Nothing I hate worse than passing one the sheds with my eyes down focused on the blades and getting hit 3-4 times on the back of the neck.
I know that when God put the Hebrews into the Promised Land, he left some of the Canaanites there to make sure the next generations would learn how to make war, so He must have had some reason to put so many of these flying demons in East Texas. Whatever the reason, the hornets and wasps are right up there with scorpions and spiders in my book and only a little behind the snakes. Nothing I seem to do in terms of spraying, pruning and trapping seems to reduce the population at all, and I just have to be extra careful and eyeball each outside area before I start to do any work.
If someone could come up with a hornet coronavirus I think we could make a mint.