Here in central Ohio, the Bumble Bee's have started building there underground nest for the winter. And of course I found it by running over it with the lawn mower. Didn't even know it was there until about 2 dozen of them suckers came boiling up out of the ground! Didn't get stung though!
Bumble bees or those nasty yellow jackets? My son hit three nests of them this week while bulldozing a yard for a finish grade. He said the cloud of wasps was 25' wide. Thanksfully they were all enclosed in cabs and could just keep working. The homeowner knew he had at least one nest and in the process of trying to eliminate it he spilled some gas on the pile and eventually the whole mound (one of several) went up in flames...ooops! Evidently there were quite few more than one.
Capt Kirk, Thanks for the heads up about ground bees this time of year. They can become aggressive now. My goodness Carolyn! A 25' swath of bees! Thank goodness your son & the other workers were protected. We just dealt with a ground yellow jacket colony in....(drum beat)....my COMPOST PILE of all places. I discovered it when I up ended my little red wagon full of clippings on to it. One of the bees got me on my upper arm & boy did it hurt like the dickens. It still hurt & was swollen into the 3rd day. Workers were coming to help us with the pool, which is next to the compost pile. So, I bedecked myself in our son's rubber rain suit, thick socks over the ankle, hiking boots, hood up, & proceeded out in the dead of night with a red film over our flashlight (supposed to fool the bees?).Brave husband was in shorts & tee shirt, bare feet. We blasted the nest with foaming bee spray, then ran like heck. No more yellow jackets.
