Protecting your knees from bees

Friday we had someone take out a nest of 200-300 yellow jackets. I talked with the pest control person a bit and am going to share some information.

First of all, here is the web site: https://www.beecontrolnw.com

There are several bee services in the area. We tried a different one first, but they were slow to respond. So one big vote in favor of Bee Control NW is their responsiveness.

I nearly referred to him as an exterminator, but that is not always the case. If you have a hive of honey bees in your backyard they may do a relocation. If solitary bees are in your house, you might wait a few weeks, break up the homes and then caulk up the holes to prevent return. We want to be careful with our pollinators.

They kill yellow jackets, though. We're okay with that.

In our case, they had moved in under an old stump, and were discovered when the lawn was being mowed. They are often discovered during yard work, sometimes in horrible ways, like maybe you are doing some watering and you don't know that you are standing on top of them until you make a wrong move and get stung twenty times in the knee! (Hence the title, but horrible. How do you even move your knee after that?)

The point of this post is largely to encourage you to take a careful look around and see if there are any nests in your yard, rather than finding out the hard way.

Here is a helpful brief video from the University of California:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY3wmu1KGBc

Yes, we did see yellow jackets flying around the stump, so activity is a good indicator. I don't think I ever saw more than 10 at a time, so knowing that there were hundreds and that they were breeding rapidly was a little unsettling. None of them stung me, so I feel a little bit bad about killing them, but I don't think their non-aggression would have lasted, and I was worried about the dog and the people with bee phobias. Don't judge me!

Anyway, it starts with a queen finding a hole and laying eggs. Bill (Bee Control NW owner) said the queen won't chew her way in. Chewing may very well happen once she has a horde of yellow jackets serving her, but it starts with that hole. Maybe it will be in a wall, obscured by ivy, or behind a light fixture, or under an eave that could use replacing. Just be aware.

This is not only helpful for identifying where you could have nests now, but also can be helpful in preventing new nests. Depending on the type of hole it can be caulked or filled in with dirt or removed or you can put in a cotton ball soaked with Avon Skin So Soft, because they don't like that odor.

Apparently last year was great weather for proliferation and many new queens were hatched. The weather this year led to a late start, which is why we had less than 300 instead of over 1000. Even if the extermination process is the same regardless of the number, not letting them get to thousands still seems prudent.

It is also good to know that nice weather makes it easier for queens to tolerate each other, so you may have more nests in the same area. If you have a nest, you might want to give your neighbors a heads up.

One interesting part of the web page is information on the different types of bees and what can be done with them. I have taken out a paper wasp nest on my own; we needed a professional for this. There are some DIY possibilities mentioned in the video. Use caution and good sense.

For us, it is a relief to have it gone.