Have to take a few days off ( not by choice )

So, yesterday was a pretty standard day, cleaning exterior glass on some condos and the last lower had a heat pump in front of it so I had to lean over the top of it to reach the top pane…

now the funny thing about ground dwelling yellow jacket/hornets is; they aren’t very active around 8 am BUT, if your standing on their nest they wake right up… as I finished the glass I looked down to find around 50 wasps (no lie) on my shirt and shorts ( I was leaning forward so the stings weren’t getting into my skin just yet ) felt a couple zaps on my legs and took off running. My hat was thrown left, belt ejected behind me, and my shirt ended up in a hedge in the neighbors yard.

Final tally: 12 stings ( two in each leg, three across my back, three on the left arm and two on the back of my head )

had to wait three minutes for the bees to stop swarming around my belt and shirt, gathered my gear and went to the doc for an evaluation and dose of benadryl.

The wasps did a pretty good job, both knees are swollen up, along with my left arm, back and top of my neck.

I’ve been around a LOT of wasps and have never had an issue before, even paying attention didn’t help me out this time.

I got off lucky with only 12 stings, if I wouldn’t of been leaning forward it would of been much worse.

bee careful out there (pun intended) ,

~Jimmy~

that may be the most insane wasp/window cleaning story i’ve heard to date. you get a “like” for sympathy. fortunate you aren’t allergic.

Those and the red ones are the worst! Sometimes they build nests in bushes too, hate those suckers

I loved watching through the window as these bastards died from wasp spray. Hate those things.



doesn’t hurt my feelings to see those critters dead on the ground either…

those long body paper wasps have always been pretty cool to me… they give me the look, and I move slow and get away from them. we’re both happy.

this is what i dealt with:

oh yellow jackets, we call those. We have em too. My dad got 25 or 30 stings one time when he was hunting from stepping on a nest. They flew up inside his coveralls and he couldn’t get out fast enough.

it’s a bad feeling when you realize what’s happening… the sound I made was 10-year-old-girl-ish…

~Jimmy~

Hate yellow jackets… The other day I was doing a home and I kid you not there was a giant one about 3" and almost an inch wide… I’m not from Texas and have never seen a bee, wasp, yellow flying thing that huge ever… It was like freaking Godzilla 1/2 the size of my hand (and I have big hands)… Anyone know what kind of a yellow jacket looking bee gets that big?

Sounds like a hornet, we have big a$$ ones here. They are pretty mellow, though - as long as their nest doesn’t get whacked. Then, look out brother!

ran into one of these in san diego a couple years back:


my photo…

google " taranchula hawk " for details… supposed to be the worst sting ever.

rescued it from the pool. looking for karma.

~Jimmy~

That’s horrible jimmy! Reading your story literally made me cringe.

If that would have happened to me I would have been naked in about three seconds streaking the neighborhood. I HATE those things!!

I heard a couple beers make things a little better :slight_smile:

Every single person (including me and our office girl) have been wacked by one of those red suckers this year.

Up on a ladder yesterday and I looked up to my left at the next window. There on the window frame about a foot from my head is a Yellow Jacket staring at me. I slowly move my mop toward him and he stood right up on his back legs. I slowly backed down the ladder and grabbed the Unger Speed Clean with a thick wash pad on it. As I slammed it down on top of him, I heard him laugh. The laughing got louder as I pulled the pad off him and he flew away!

I hope I never experience the feeling of looking down at 50 yellow jackets on my shirt and shorts. Have you ever seen a big guy (280 lbs) sprint and scream like a girl? That wold have been me if I saw the 50 on me.

Last year I just walked by a nest and they were on me. Had 6 stings and they itched for 3 days. I have no idea how you only had 12 stings with so many after you. I know it hurts, but it should have been much worse. You made out pretty well considering.

I have had two near misses (actually one yellow jacket got a 1/4 sting before I killed him) this year. I have also been warned twice about them by my wife who saw the yellow jackets swarming by a window while she was inside cleaning the windows. I carefully used my wfp on those spots and did not disturb them at all. I think I would have more stings if it I did not wfp 90% of all exterior glass.

Japanese Giant Hornets get about that size. Supposed to be the largest and most dangerous.

If you’ve got 45 minutes to burn through:

//youtu.be/3io8Ys7KSGY

If you don’t have 45 minutes, jump to 35:22 to see 39 Hornets destroy 30,000 Bees.

Glad I’m not in Japan. I can’t relax too much though; apparently there are African Killer Bees in my area.

Here’s the (somewhat) feel-good version of the Giant Hornet Story:

//youtu.be/KQjWKeIwH6Y

Stick a m80 in and a golf in to plug the hole hahaha

I’ve been running into tons of nests. Bald faced hornets are the ones that really make me cringe. You walk within 5 feet of the nest and they sometimes come out at you.

The other day I was at a house with cicada killers. Huge wasps that sit and chill on a branch or a leaf and when another insect like a dragonfly buzzes by they attack.

Yesterday there was a yellow jacket nest on a wooden gate that the customer never opened. It sagged a little bit so it was dragging on the ground while you tried to open it, so I started kicking it gently on the bottom (where the nest was). I was able to get away fast enough while running backwards though.

Check out this site, tells you a little about bees, wasps and hornets Bees, Ands, Wasps and Similar

We have a giant water balloon fight at my parents house every 4th of July.

Usually 50-100 people, Cartwrights vs. Millers (across the street neighbors)

Estimated 10k balloons altogether, we fill them for days before.

This year, we learned a lesson

Check the bushes for hornet nests.

There was one the size of my fist in there. I cant imagine what wouldve happened if we totally smashed the nest, but 8 people got it during that fiasco.

LUCKILY noone was allergic

lol, that is funny, I have a ten yr old daughter. lol
glad you are ok