Swarm of yellow jackets in potting soil attack, kill 59-year-old Kentucky man

[Granite3]

Damn rOm, sounds like my story.... not allergic thank God. Threw me in the bathtub with 2 boxes of baking soda.

I was 8, had over 75 stings, they gave up counting stingers.... The veterinarian that lived up the road came down, covered me in that purple spray we used on the livestock.

Still have a near irrational fear of that type of insect. Finally got it to a manageable level in college.

 

[Lowrecoil]

I don't know if I've ever told this story but when I was a child, we lived in a subdivision and the lot next to ours was wooded and undeveloped for most of my life. My brother and I would play in it all the time: bike trails, rope swings, forts...all of it. There was this one tree with a thick branch that extended over a big rock and we attached a rope swing to it and would climb up the rock, swing on the rope, and fall into a huge leaf pile we would make every fall.

Well, we hadn't been in the woods much and then we went on vacation...so it had been awhile since we used the rope swing. Random school day and I came home and wanted to swing. I landed in the leaf pile and immediately began getting stung. They had built a nest in the pile and I guess I landed right on it.

I don't remember much about the day but Dad pulled my two front teeth out trying to get my shirt off to beat them off me. He poured gasoline on me. I just remember being very swollen and hot and cold at the same time. I remember this big red NC State blanket and being wrapped up in it in the back of our Buick on the way to hospital. They pulled 33 stingers out of me at the ER. To this day I carry an EpiPen.

I know palmettomoon hates them, but

Spoiler

I was bushhogging a field and ran over a nest and 6 got me before I realized what had happened. There was a small cloud behind me attacking the bushhog so I consider myself very lucky. Could have been way worse for me. Alone in a field with no phone.

 

[palmettomoon]

I think I need to go buy some tobacco to keep in the car/string trimmer bag. That's what my grandmother used on me when I got lit up under my left arm (30+ stings) when I was about 8.

 

[Lowrecoil]

I think I need to go buy some tobacco to keep in the car/string trimmer bag. That's what my grandmother used on me when I got lit up under my left arm (30+ stings) when I was about 8.

I dipped in my younger years and all the male elders in the family swore by that and mercurochrome.

 

[10thmountain]

I don't know if I've ever told this story but when I was a child, we lived in a subdivision and the lot next to ours was wooded and undeveloped for most of my life. My brother and I would play in it all the time: bike trails, rope swings, forts...all of it. There was this one tree with a thick branch that extended over a big rock and we attached a rope swing to it and would climb up the rock, swing on the rope, and fall into a huge leaf pile we would make every fall.

Well, we hadn't been in the woods much and then we went on vacation...so it had been awhile since we used the rope swing. Random school day and I came home and wanted to swing. I landed in the leaf pile and immediately began getting stung. They had built a nest in the pile and I guess I landed right on it.

I don't remember much about the day but Dad pulled my two front teeth out trying to get my shirt off to beat them off me. He poured gasoline on me. I just remember being very swollen and hot and cold at the same time. I remember this big red NC State blanket and being wrapped up in it in the back of our Buick on the way to hospital. They pulled 33 stingers out of me at the ER. To this day I carry an EpiPen.

I know palmettomoon hates them, but

Spoiler

Similar story happened to me . I stepped on a nest in a neighbors yard , my dad chucked me in their pool to drown the yellow jackets. It worked . My mom got me home and pulled the stingers out and put damp cigarette tobacco on the wounds . I healed up and was good as new in a couple of days . This was in the late 1970’s

 

[Ga G Man]

I have found many nests in stumps, crosstie walls and pine straw beds around the farm and home. I found the best way to get rid of them (after you have located the nest) is seven dust. I tape a paper cup on a broom handle, fill it with about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of dust and pour it in and real close around the nest opening at dusk (the jackets return to the nest at dark). The next day there will be dead yellow jackets everywhere around the hole. Seems the dust gets on the little suckers as they enter or exit and they in turn carry it deep into the nest and kill all their friends .

Works for me every time with no gasoline.

 

[Timber Cruiser]

I got a good one too. Was out doing tract recon in Wilkes Co. one day. Bigger than a basketball sized hornet nest drooped out over the road on a young loblolly limb. Slowly rolled by and gently nudged it with my antenna just to be a dick. They were everywhere. And huge. Just laughed and finished the scouting. On the way out I made up my mind to take em out. Had a great plan. Pulled up pretty close, left the truck door open and approached with the Benelli. One shot exploded that son of a bitch and I turned to run for the truck. Slipped and on the way to the ground, smacked the truck door closed. They’re already getting me. Felt like someone repeatedly smacking me in the back with a wiffle bat with a needle in it. Down through the woods I went inventing cuss words along the way. Finally dropped the shotgun and they left me alone. But then they were all over my shotgun. I came within a gnats ass of leaving that shotgun in the woods. Finally manned up and grabbed it on the fly. Got a couple more on the way back. Hate hornets. And yaller jackets.

 

[rOmiLaYu]

Damn rOm, sounds like my story.... not allergic thank God. Threw me in the bathtub with 2 boxes of baking soda.

I wasn't before. I am now. Found out a few years later when I was caving and got stung on the head. A few minutes later, I was having trouble breathing. 12 benadryl later and at the ER, I left with a script for an epi pen.