I recently got a call from a lady who told me bees exploded out of the ground in her yard and started swarming her. That’s way more excitement than this old man wanted.
She was at a Hillsdale football game and said that she heard that several bee-like insects had attacked these people and died somewhere. Pretty wild, right?
My own mother had a close call on her way home after visiting my sister during this season. As they were driving through Norwalk, some yellow jackets flew through the car window she was stung and almost died.
Mother had a terrible reaction to these stings. The doctors called it Anaphylactic Shock. She was really lucky, and if she had waited 15 minutes longer, my mother might not have made it.
Personally, I do not believe in fooling around with any of these insects. Fall is also Yellow Jacket season. The older yellow jackets feed their larvae in the nest meat, either other insects or whatever they find.
On Oct. 3, 2023, 59-year-old Kentuckian Michael Wayne Alsop passed away from a combination of bee stings and Yellow Jacket stings. According to the Harlan County coroner, “Alsop moved a bag of potting soil, disturbed a nest, and received 15 to 20 stings from bees or Yellow Jackets. It seems that Alsop had some underlying health concerns.”
If you encounter these pests, you have to be extra careful around them. I’ve been stung multiple times by honey bees, even though I have some underlying health issues, the reaction wasn’t even close to being that severe.
Most bee stings lead to mild reactions and are annoying at worst and uncomfortable.
However, a sting can be fatal for patients with an allergy or for people who have been stung multiple times. For those of us with this kind of allergy, we need to keep an EpiPen nearby to counteract the toxins Yellow Jackets and bees can deliver.
My mother responded poorly to the Yellow Jacket sting and it turned into a medical emergency.
Dr. Natalie Bonthius teaches survival medicine.
“The toxins in bee venom can trigger everything from severe sickness, heart attacks, pulmonary hemorrhages, neurological problems, and acute kidney failure,” she said.
Fortunately, only 5 to 7.5% of the population are sensitive to bee stings.
What worries me the most is from September and October these insects become most active and aggressive. From what I have been taught, in the spring the Yellow Jackets have a different diet.
They feed mostly on fruit to build themselves up. As the season progresses, they begin to feed on other insects building up for the winter and feeding their larvae. As the season gets cooler they include protein in their diets.
As an experiment to confirm their change of diet, I have attracted them by placing moist dog food outside. This experiment proved their carnivorous nature and desire for protein to build up their larvae.
I recommend calling professionals for Yellow Jackets this time of year, because they can attack with a vengeance. The time of year changes their behavior, and they can be deadly.
Western Yellow Jackets, or Vespula spp., also known as meat bees, can be found nesting in the soil, among stones, or in houses. One consistent housing method you can see is hexagonal chambers where the young grow, and the chambers have a paper-like quality.
Usually, a queen occupies the nest for only one year. You may first see these bee-like hornets crawling into small holes in the ground, with small mounds of soil near the hole.
Yellow Jackets have thin waists and range from 1/2” to 1”, with a yellow base and alternating yellow and black markings on the abdomen, plus black markings on the head. The head is slightly smaller than the abdomen.
Yellow jackets hold their wings tightly against their body at rest and have smoky gray to black wings. One of the Yellow Jacket’s serious qualities is that they can sting you multiple times and not die, unlike honey bees.
The pheromones this insect injects will draw other Yellow Jackets to the sting site. This is another reason why you really want professionals to deal with this insect.
Yellow Jackets have been here for a long time and they are not eager to move on. Be aware of them, if you feel overwhelmed in deciding whether to deal with them yourself or getting a professional, the safest option may be to have a professional help with the extermination.
Hope you have a good stroll through your garden, and if you have any problems, let me know and I shall do what I can to help. My e-mail address is ericlarson546@yahoo.com.