The girls noticed a huge hornets nest just off Corie and Austin’s driveway earlier this week. As often as we’ve walked by it this summer I can’t believe someone hasn’t been stung.
Corie and I have stogged all over the area looking for medicinal plants and wildflowers. And just the other day Matt ran the bush-hog along the edge of the road to get the weeds that have grown so tall they’ve fallen over. Bees adore him so it’s amazing they didn’t swarm him.
It’s the second big hornets nest we’ve seen down at the big garden this summer. The other was easy to see since it was dangling from a limb right above a pile of wood Matt split earlier this year.
Many years ago there was a hornets nest in a pile of brush in the backyard. I found it one day when I inadvertently threw a watermelon rind right in the middle of it. Before I even turned to walk back to the kitchen the hornets had zeroed in on my face. I had several stings around my nose and lips.
Pap once told me finding many nests during one summer meant a bad winter.
Last night’s video: The Family History and Stories of Opal Corn Myers 36.
Tipper
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It is going to be a cold winter , below freezing every night in January and February, this coming winter here in NE TN. I’ve had two Yellow Jacket nests in my yard this summer.
Hornets ! Yikes !
Praying for you Norman !
I keep hearing and reading about a nasty, cold, and snowy winter for the east coast. It has been a long while since we in Boston have had much cold or snow. I know you’re hoping for a big snow to sled on!
Prayers up for Mr. Norman. I very thankful y’all were not attack by one of the worst insects my family has ever encountered. My son was a teenager when he got bitten by hornets that were under our front porch area, under ground, by his bedroom window, that was partially under ground too. Our porch was a cement slab. He had them in his bunk bed, it was next to the wall and sunken window. I guess they came in where the edge of the window was. It sounds kind of weird but maybe someone knows what I’m talking about. Poor guy was itching and hurting with those bites. Hope y’all got an exterminator out there in your area. It’s worth it, believe me. We did and never had that happen again. My daughter had a window the same as her big brother, she never had the hornet problem. Her window flooded during a torrential downpour. Another expensive problem that was fixed. I’ll never have a house with such windows again. Y’all many blessings and love to all, today, tomorrow and always. J
Hmmm these posts have me wondering if folks used to keep hornet nests not for decoration but to keep new nests from being built. I don’t recall ever having heard that idea but if it were around I would expect they used it back in the day. I have – however – heard of folks bringing an “empty” nest into the warm and getting a big surprise.
My old friend and classmate Charlotte stepped on a yellowjacket nest a few years back and was stung all over. It caused a brain bleed and now she is in a wheelchair and can’t speak. Needs prayers!
I remember going to WV. from Calif. We had moved there a few years before. My momma didn’t want her sons working in the mines like my Daddy had since he was in 3rd grade. So we would go back every couple of years for a month. So it was just turning into winter and awful cold. We were at my Uncles farm, and I spotted a HUGE hornets nest. I asked my Uncle could I have it to take to my class in Calif. So he put it in a big poke(bag) for me. And put it in the station wagon. And I took it to my 6th grade class. So my teacher took it out of the bag and said he was going to cut it open so the class could see inside it. I said I don’t think that’s a good idea….. But did he listen to me? As he began to cut open that hornets nest I moved over by the door. Those hornets were not in cold WV but in nice warm Calif. Well you can imagine what happened. Those hornets were alive. I was the first one out the door. I don’t think my class ever emptied out that fast. The janitor came and took care of the hornets.
When I got home I told my Daddy what my teacher had done. He laughed so hard then he said why I never heard of such a thing. He said my lord, you can get an education but what good is that, if ya ain’t got no sense.
Still laugh when I think back on that day in my class 60 years ago.
We have a couple old ones hanging in our house. One of those we found on a camping trip. After a quick run to a near by Dollar General, we bought garbage bags and wasp/hornet spray.
We made quick work of covering it and spraying in the bag. Did I mentioned we did it at night. Scary, but we both made it without a sting.
They say hornets return to the same area every year, and that has been true around my house. They love to build in my pear trees. Years ago, when you invited your readers to ask Pap and Granny questions, I will never forget Pap’s answer when I asked him how to remove a huge nest I had found so that I could keep mowing under it. He said they will eat you up! I took his advice and left it alone. Someone told me the nest sells for a ton of money on eBay.
When I was about 6 or 7 years old a group of us boys were playing in the woods. We found a hornets nest and didn’t know what it was, so as young boys do we started throwing sticks at it. We quickly found out what it was.
The biggest baddest hornets produce the biggest baddest bait!
Those stings on your face sound scary and very painful! I’m so sorry that happened to you. I’m glad that everyone was kept safe this year!
Back in the late 70’s when I was cutting my own wood for heating our house I had finished cutting my wood into two foot sections and started to pile them up so they cut be seasoned for the next winter. After I had thrown my fifth or sixth piece of wood onto the pile I felt a sharp pain on my back. I was wearing a loose t shirt. I thought I had brushed up against some thorny bush but after I felt the same sharp pain three or four more times I stopped and looked around. It seemed I had been throwing the wood onto a ground hornets nest and they were telling me in their own way they did not appreciate it. Fortunately for me I had already packed up my chain saw and gas in the car before piling the wood. I must have run the four minute mile back to my car to escape the hornets. As I came off of my property a neighbor saw me running and saw the look of pain on my face. She asked what the problem was and I told her. She told me to wait a minute. She returned from her cabin with some ammonia and washed my stings. It did help. Another experience with stinging pests was in my barn in early October. I had not been in that part of the barn in a while and to my surprise I found a large wasps nest hanging from the roof. The solution was simple. I waited until the next morning when the temperature was around 40 and I went in with a large trash bag and took it down and removed it another location. Very good post Tipper.
Not getting too technical but that’s a paper wasp nest and while hornets, wasps and Yellowjackets are ALL considered wasps, the hornets are much more aggressive. If Matt bush hogged over a bald face hornets nest it may have been a different story! Bees are fairly benign in comparison and the best pollinators! I carry an EpiPen and will have to use it with wasps. Bees only if I was stung multiple times.
I brought one home once in January. Really cold. Hung it up over the bar and was admiring it when I saw something looking back. I grabbed the nest by the tree limb it was on and threw it out the door. Dozens of hornets came boiling out!! I leave hornet’s nests alone now.
We have actually not seen a hornets nest anywhere around our home and woods this year. I have just thanked the good Lord that we haven’t had the swarms of yellow jackets that invaded last summer. We couldn’t walk through the yard without them being everywhere. The kids couldn’t play in water because, there they were. We definitely couldn’t eat anything outdoors because they would surround you, and make the little ones squeal with terror. It was that way in our whole area, and everyone said it was because we were having a drought. Despite the many rains we had earlier this summer, our rivers are now very low. I hope this doesn’t bring back the yellow jacket swarms for the Fall. I always heard the old saying, when hornets and yellow jackets build their nests up high, it’s gonna be a bad winter with deep snow.
We found 2 nests this summer as well. I sure hope your daddy was wrong about the bad winter. The cold last winter about did me in.
So glad nobody was stung. Does where the nest is mean a bad winter? Guess we will find out.
I’ve heard that when hornets built high in the trees it meant a lot of rain. Down near the ground meant dryer conditions.
We stayed at the Appalachian Farm House in Jonathan Valley near Cataloochee one year. They had as a “trophy” a Hornet’s Nest on the porch in a corner. We loved staying there as a VRBO guest. We were fortunate enough to stay a two weeks! What a thrill to be among the mountains and a Dairy Farm next door. The cows greeted us every day! Thank you for your post Tipper and for the photo. Here is my album:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/VU5ukmMS7RCFFiAy8
Good Morning Christine,
Thank you for sharing your beautiful album and giving those of us in different parts of the country a glimpse into your little piece of Paradise. It was bittersweet……..going from the joy of hills and mountains, fields of cows, the bubbling creek…….to the tragedy of floods and the cows losing their pasture. I hope many were recovered and returned safely to their farm. The scripture passages were lovely, and so appropriate.
Thank you again…….God Bless You!
Jackie
I tried to view your photos but something weird popped up. I think it was asking me to join something. I couldn’t risk it.
Beautiful place! We spent part of our long ago honeymoon in Maggie Valley.
beautiful pictures of a beautiful area….
I will say this and now get “ate up” by hornets. I have only ran across a few hornets nest in my lifetime and don’t think I have ever been stung by them. It is yellow jackets that have been my problem when bush hogging, plowing, or cutting grass. I heard a man say “a stirred up yellow jacket nest is a sure fire short term cure for making you forget about arthritic knees!” For excitement try stopping and getting off a tractor and getting away while being stung be yellow jackets. Many of you know how much I miss my wife, one thing I laugh and tell about her is this – she was watching me through the storm door one day cutting grass with a push mower when I ran across a yellow jackets nest, I got stung about 7 times while trying to get away. When I went into the house my dear loving wife only said “I didn’t know you could run that fast!” I never let her live that down-how I miss her. I did get her back, she got stung by a wasp on the top of her foot and was jumping around, I told her I didn’t know she could dance like that. She didn’t think it was a bit funny.
I have just read the old post about dog days and rusty nails. Looking back, it seems like I kept a sore foot many times during the summer from sticking a nail in it. I only remember going one time to the doctor for a shot, we would just wrap a kerosene soaked rag around it and go on about our business. Kerosene soaked rags were the “cure all” for all cuts smaller than amputation.
lol. thanks for sharing that.
I stepped on what I thought was a bee and my foot swelled and I limped for at least two days. then I found a yellow jacket nest inconveniently located by the raspberries I was wanting to dig up suckers. so no more barefoot in the clover wet with dew. missing that. put a shiny pot, a pan of water and treats to lure the raccoon and possum that come around and they’re gone from there. now they’re around the front porch where I’m needing to treat the wood before winter. seems like it’s a good year for wasps. ps. I pray for the day you always remember your wife with a smile and the sadness in your heart becomes tears of joy, peace and acceptance. God bless you.
Debra, if you can see the hole to the yellow jacket nest, wait until dark and pour about a pint- quart of gas down the hole, it will them. Don’t do like some idiots and throw a lit match in the hole after pouring in the gas.
Randy,
We also used kerosene on cuts. For a sore throat my momma would give a spoon full of sugar with a few drops of kerosene in it, it worked.
When I was 13 or 14, I dug up yellowjacket nests to get fish bait. I’d wear heavy clothes, gloves, a raincoat, a thick towel for a face covering, and a hat pulled down low. Yes, I got stung a few times, but it was worth it. Randy, I knew a young man in SC who got swarmed by yellojackets while bushhogging. He jumped from the moving tractor and somehow got killed by the mower. I think he fell down or something. It was a tragic accident.
Gene, I know you lived at Anderson, SC years ago. Back in the 60’s, one of my Daddy’s friends was bush hogging in the area of Mt. Bethal Church (Saylors Crossroads) with a M Farmall when the rear tire either hit a broken off power power or the guide wire throwing him off under the bush hog. I have heard both stories. A crippled neighbor would tie a heavy string from the coil wire to his overalls when he was using his Farmall tractor in case he fell off. He had rigged up a “kill switch.”
You should get Granny to crochet some fake nests and hang them around the houses. I did this a few years ago and now they never build a nest near us. We keep ours hanging under the eave of our house all year round.
that’s brilliant! never heard of that idea. thank you.
good morning friends God bless you, my blood pressure is elevated again, the heart doctor said with this infundibulum that I needed to keep the top number below 140, but she said I needed to exercise, after the increase in blood pressure medication, and it’s staying down for a day or two, I took a walk yesterday and it got elevated again, thank you and God bless you thank you for praying, the EMS came to see me and they said there was nothing that the emergency room would do for me, God help God help
praying for you Norman…I know first hand what you are going through