Wasper
Like most mountain boys I got eat up with waspers, gaugeing their nests off old barns and houses lookin’ for fish bait. They hurt the worst. Not only did we not have many, but us boys went without a shirt on when school was out. We found this abandoned house and it seemed like there was a wast-nest between each rafter and one got me on top of my shoulder and I hit the ground. Boy that hurt! But we’d fill our Prince Albert baccer cans and head to the river. Trout loved ’em so much you had to get behind a tree to bait your hook…
—Ken Roper
Ken is right, wasper stings hurt the worst to me.
I was grown before I realized the correct term is wasp. I was at work one day and said something about a wasper. One of my fellow employees pointed out that wasn’t actually a word. I assured her it was. She assured me I should look in a dictionary 🙂
The manner Ken used the word gaugeing (gouging) is very common to me and I wonder if it is to you?
Last night’s video: 9 Brides and Granny Hite 4.
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Tipper, like several other commenters, my folks always called them wast and more than one were called wast’es. Nope not a word either, but that’s what we still call them. Pure torment to a body for sure. My uncle used a thick rag wrapped tightly on a long pole. He soaked the rag in kerosene and made a homemade smokey torch. He would burn the wast nests from around the eaves of the house and any other place he could find them. My aunt nervously watched from afar scared he might set the house on fire along with the wast nests. He never did set anything on fire except the wast nests and I can never remember him getting stung. The torch was made thick and big, so it covered and smothered the nests when he jobbed it on them. Kerosene smokes quite a bit on a soaked rag. I guess he didn’t know or care the larvae made good fish bait as he didn’t spare a one from the burning. I suspect, but don’t know for sure the smoke might also calm wast’es as it does honeybees. He used a smoke also when working with the bees, but it was made of pine straw just lit enough to get a good smoke with no kerosene. He also used the same smokey torch to clean fence lines and around fence posts. That was before string trimmers or weed burners. He called it something else, but I can’t remember the word he used, so I substitute the word torch.
I’ve had some sickness of late, spent a few days in the hospital, but doing better now. Nothing as serious as cancer. Just want you to know we continue to pray for Granny. We are praying the treatment plan works well and the mass can be removed and Granny can get well. She sure is a sweetheart. We love seeing her on your blog and on your YouTube Vlogs.
TexasFarmGirl-sorry to hear you’ve been sick. Glad you are feeling some better! I’ll be praying for you 🙂
We always call them waspers. And yes they sure do hurt just like all the other bees that sting. Say hi to Sweet Granny!
I grew up at Ivy Log and it was “wawspers”
Well, I can certainly relate to the “wasper “ word. I was a teenager at my friends house when I asked her to pass the okrie. Everyone laughed and said, you mean okra? It was then I found out the actual name of my favorite vegetable.
I like to hear folks say waspers but we always called them wasps. I agree with Randy about the yellow jackets, how they nest in the ground, and you don’t know you have stirred up a nest until it’s too late. My husband was cutting grass several years ago and he was near the ditch bank and boy he stirred up a large one and got stung several times.
Last night was another great reading. Each week just keeps on getting better. I also love the old names. Once again, thank you for picking this book. It’s so enjoyable! Prayers for Granny.
I’m very familiar with waspers,but not gaugeing. Those hateful things stung me many times when I was a kid. I just couldn’t help but do battle with them whenever I discovered a nest.
This made me laugh because my father used a different term for wasps; he called the SOB’s wasps. That was what I grew up with, and I’ve been stung more than once, but I just call them little bastards. Like father, life daughter.
Gauging/gouging a wasp nest is a new term to me, but not getting fish bait that way. We got them any way we could, sometimes with a hoe or, for the higher ones, a cane pole. My specialty was digging out yellow jacket nests, always done after dark and after administering some Black Flag spray or, more often, a little gasoline from a drink bottle jammed into the opening to the nest. For entertainment, we would shoot at high-hanging wasp nests with our slingshots. When somebody nailed one, the race was on to outrun them. That was the fun part.
In my experience bait that had been obtained using gasoline or insect killers wouldn’t catch fish. They smelled it and stayed away. Maybe that was just my experience. Maybe it worked for other people.
Wasps make good fish bait?
The larvae inside are great fish bait. We didn’t make that clear.
Mathematically speaking if waspers are bad then hornet=wasper³. Yeller jackets=sweat bees and it takes 100 of either to equal 1 wasper. Bumblebees have no equal!
Yeller jacket larvae are too small for ordinary fishermen. Expert fishermen claim to effectively use them but expert fishermen are so comingled with expert liars that you can’t believe anything you hear.
If you can catch any of the three, yeller jackets, waspers or hornets, at just the right time before the adult stage, you have the very best of baits. Their bodies are completely formed but are still the color of the larvae. They are tough enough that they will stay on the hook at least until a fish can get to it. The problem with this is that you must take the whole nest with you (minus the adults). If you are in a boat and you forget about the nest for even a few minutes, you are in danger. Those little demons will start to chew their way through their paper hatches and start drying off. As soon as they are dry they will begin to fly. At that point you are sunk (or wished you were). Where are you gonna run? While you are fighting the first few, more will emerge. If you have not learned to swim (or walk on water) yet, you’d better learn quickly.
The good thing is, if somebody decides to take your abandoned boat, they’ll leave it right where they found it.
The wasp larva in the nest makes great fish bait.
Hi! I don’t recall the term gouging in regards to wasper nests, but we did and mostly still do call them waspers. If somebody was real mean, we’d say they was “mean as a stri-ped wasper”.
Pop said don’t bother them and they won’t bother you. I was putting a trailer hitch on my truck and one flew in and politely stung me on the arm as I watched. That aint right!
Pop might have been right but there is a difficulty in knowing when you are bothering them. The only way I have of knowing is when one stabs me and injects his venom right under my right eye and it swells closed and my whole face and neck swells up. “Yep, I musta bothered him!”
Been there. Done that.
Thanks, Tipper and Everyone Else, for the wasper stories.
Tipper, I beg to differ with the person who insisted that ‘wasper’ is not a word because it is not in the dictionary. As I read somewhere, “Words always precede their appearance in a dictionary: they go from invention, to local, tribal, or technical use; spread via popular adoption; become conventionalized to at least one meaning; then, perhaps eventually, become officially recognized in a dictionary.”
So… ‘wasper’ is indeed a word. So is ‘wasp.’ And so is… OUCH!
P.S. Have you considered publishing a dictionary of Appalachian words? It would be a fine companion to your cookbook.
This reminds me of 1 of my childhood adventures. It’s a very vivid memory from when I was around 5 or 6. My dad was on staff @ a private boarding school and I was climbing one of the metal fire escapes attached to one of the barracks. It was 4 story bldg and I was very close to the top platform when I stepped on a step that had a very large wasp nest under it. They swarmed and attacked my legs…..instead of going down, I chose to go up to the top platform. I said I was an adventurous child….maybe not the sharpest tool in the shed! I was on the top platform crying & hollering for my dad….or anyone…All the while swatting & being stung. Dad finally came out and told me the only way out of this situation was to go back down the way I went up. Finally, I ran down the metal stairs…and yes I got stung some more. When my dad took me to his office he counted in excess of 20 stings. Did I go to a Dr or a medical facility or even the school infermry….NO…Dad took out his pack of Camel unfiltered cigarettes and applied a mixture of tobacco and spit to each sting. When done, he looked me in the eye and asked…Well, what have ‘we’ learned today? Look where ur stepping, I replied. Then I was sent out to continue playing. A lesson that has stuck w/ me to this day!
My husband always tears down wasp nests with his hands to get rid of them in his shed. He’s gotten stung a few times for sure. They do hurt like heck. The last time I got a wasp sting, one landed on the back of my neck when I was still working at school. Ouch!!!
The other thing that caught my attention was the mention of a Prince Albert can. My dad used Prince Albert and also Half and Half tobacco to roll his own cigarettes when I was a kid. Thankfully, he quit smoking many years ago, but I remember those red, metal cans. He used to send me to the little gas station/convenience store across the road to buy it for him. The owners sold it to me—a kid—back then. They knew it was for my dad.
My father used Prince Albert to roll his own. He would use Half and Half if he couldn’t get Prince Albert. He said Half and Half was nasty. I asked once why it was called Half and Half. The answer, “because it’s half horses#!t and half clover!”
Brenda, my mama would take the PA can and, with snips, cut the tin into narrow strips, wrap them is rags and use them as curlers for my hair.
Edna – I love how our parents just used what they had available to make whatever they needed.
I’ve heard folks refer to wasps as waspers and have used it myself, but like you I got corrected by others. I don’t recall heard or using gaugeing used for gouging. Growing up we said poked a lot, like we poked a stick in the washer nest to carry it out or we tour the nest up to get inside it. It’s always interesting to learn how others say words that mean the same thing.
We’ve always pronounced it “wast”. Been stung many times especially when I was young, I just couldn’t leave a wast nest alone. It was a challenge to knock it down without being strung.
Been a good while since I heard “gouging” but I sure know it. We used that word for poking somebody in the ribs. And it is the best word for knocking down wasp nests. Have to poke that little stem where it attaches and not the nest itself. And yes, fish love those wasp larva.
If anyone thinks wasper stings are the worst, just wait till a hornet stings you. I read that a large percentage of people end up at the ER if they make one mad and he sting more than once. Mad as a hornet takes on a whole new meaning if you invade their privacy. They build their nest in the same area year after year, Unfortunately, somewhere in my yard has been their favorite building site for way too long. I remember writing to ask Pap how to remove a huge hornet’s nest from my pear tree I had been mowing under all summer. He said, “I’d leave it alone, cause they will eat you up!” I’ve always heard that waspers are more aggressive in the fall, but I don’t want to find out if that is true.
Yes, “gouging” is very common to me. And also yes, wasps stings hurt THE WORST!! Loved your read last night, you are THE BEST storyteller, I don’t know how you read all that slang without a hiccup (other than it’s not slang to you at all, I smile big as I say that.) Can’t wait to hear more of the story next week! Happy weekend Tipper, I’m still so happy your hubby gets to be home with you (like mine is with me!)
Fire ants, wasps, honeybees, yellow jackets all hurt especially if several get you at the same time. I think hornets are worse than any of those. I got stung on the side of my nose once by a hornet and turned around several times trying to get away from the pain. The big hornets with a yellow stripe around them are really mean
When it comes to obtaining fish bait I wouldn’t have thought to use the words gaugeing or gouging. We always just knocked wasper nests. The word gouging was reserved for your eyeballs I think. Something about running with knives and forks in your hands, I think. It’s been such a long time since I could run that I have forgotten the rules!
As far as the wasp versus wasper controversy I would like to add a third. I called them waust nests (think wall without the ll and instead st added). Even since I learned to speak popular English I still have trouble saying wasp nest. Those words seem like the same two poles of two magnets, they just don’t want to stay together.
Gouge is a commonly used word here in northwest AL. Even my small grand children say gouged and “jobbed” (meaning to POKE, JAB, OR GOUGE at something). Neither can I say that I have heard of young’uns “gouging for wasps” , although I have heard of them being used for fishbait. Around here, a wasp or referred to as “wost” (plural would be pronounced “wostez”).
Ken may have been country as cornbread and hillbilly as a hoedown, but he sure had a way with words and an exceptional gift for description and expression. Gouging (his spelling wasn’t always spot on but as Tipper notes that’s what he mean here) out wasp nests, usually with a long cane pole, meant a quick poke and then run like hell was on your heels because it was in the form of furious inhabitants of dislodged nests. You could wait 10 minutes or so, return to collect the nest and its grubs, and if lucky avoid being stung.
As for the appeal of those wasp larvae for trout, it was pure poison. Ken’s comment about hiding behind a tree to bait one’s hook goes right to the heart of a wonderful man. Mercy how I miss him and his comments straight from the mountain book of wisdom.
Jim, is it still possible to sign up for your email list? If so, how does one do it?
Robert-I added you to Jim’s newsletter list 🙂
Good Saturday morning Tipper. It’s football time in Tennessee
I have gouged lots of things in my lifetime but certainly not a-wasp or yellow jacket nest! If you do you’d better have your running shoes on!
Tipper, do you ever buy seeds on line. e.g. Burpees?
Thank you for all you do. Continued prayers for Granny Louzine and family. Love you all.
Brenda-I’ll check out Burpees 🙂
I’m very familiar with the word as I was repeatedly warned not to gouge my – or anyone else’s eyes out with the sticks I was constantly waving around and playing with. To this day, I still appreciate finding a “good” stick. I, thankfully, haven’t had many wasp stings but I recall one VERY clearly. I was just a kid, playing dress-up with my cousins on Mamaw’s front porch. I was pulling on an old pair of pantyhose she had given us and a wasp got trapped inside one of the legs. It took out its frustration on the back of my fat little thigh and I regretted it every time I sat down for the next few hours. The place was still sore and itched like crazy the next day. I’ve had countless yellow jacket stings, though never more than one at a time. The worst was between 2 toes when I stepped on one barefooted. That one made wearing a shoe to school the next day a misery. I can remember Mamaw knocking down dirt dobber (dauber) nests from up near her porch roof. All these “dead” spiders would be laying in the porch floor and if you came back later they’d be gone because they were really only paralyzed. At least that’s what Papaw told us. To tell the truth, I was Team Dirt Dobber because I was terrified of spiders.
Wasper stings are the worst, especially the red ones. One time when I was a kid, we were walking through a field and I stuck my finger inside a small pipe and got stung by one. We stopped at our little country store and Mom bought me some penny candy from behind the candy counter to help ease my pain. Mud daubers build nests behind our shutters all the time. And, I don’t care what people say, I still call them waspers to this day.
The man from GA is correct in that refined (and not natural sugars from fruits) will contribute to disease. I’m a sugar fiend and getting off my addiction has been tough! I still like it in my coffee, but now I get Florida crystals Tubinado cane sugar. It’s delicious in coffee! Did you say wasps? Yikes-I’m outa there and fast! I’ve been attacked by yellow jackets when I was small and they were in a wood swing so I got stung til my eyes swelled shut but mommy nursed me back and burnt them yellow jackets out too! If you wait til sunset those devils advocates don’t have a chance! I’d say calling them WASPERS OR four lettered names is fine cause that’s what they are! I’ve got a cross breed going on here in Bluefield, WV of black wasps and yellow jackets. It’s truly the weirdest thing you’ll see. They’re black with yellow rings around their bottom half. Maybe trout love wasps and I know trout is delicious, but I’d wait til night and get all the little bringers of pain I could muster. We use gouge here as in “When I pay my taxes and utilities, I know I’m being gouged!” I’m not kidding about feeling gouged… prayers and blessings to all but especially dear and wonderful Granny Louzine!!! Oh yeah, I got a dryer not working for a birthday gift. I guess goodbye 500$!!! If it ain’t one thing it’s 10 more!!!!
Sadie- Happy Birthday:)
My in laws would call them “ wasts “.
Best fish bait there was way back then, gave you an excuse to chew tobacco so you’d have it ready for the bee sting.
My hubby and I have chuckled several times about Hubbard, I think is the correct spelling, and his descriptions of what happened with him and his antics. If you lived back then or later as we have, you can understand some of his lingo and how he relayed it to the reader. When I hear the word quilt, I can imagine ladies and/or men sitting and doing the stitching. My MIL and 3 or her close friends ‘put in’ a quilt for her to gift it to us when we got married. Put in, as I am sure you are aware, it what they said when they started to do the part that attaches the front to the back. We still have a picture of their handywork that was placed in the local paper of them doing just that. It is for sure a treasure. I also think that is why we are enjoying your reading even if it is fiction. Thanks for this step back in time. God Bless you guys and still praying for Granny
cake looks Good, wasp will sting you, hurt like H E double L, I can’t have sweets destroys my triglyceride health, fuels cancer!!!
I was just talking with someone yesterday about the number of times I have been stung in my life by wasp and other bees. To me the worst is yellow jackets, they nest in the ground and by the time you know you have stirred up a nest it is to late. Many times I have either plowed up a nest or stirred them up while on a tractor or lawn mower. I don’t panic but show a lot of “respect” for anything that stings. I have never intentionally stirred up a nest but sure do like throwing gasoline on them. I have never heard stirring up a nest called gauging. I would have been dead many years ago if I was allergic to bee stings and fire ants. The only good thing I can say about stirring up a nest of bees is they will make you forget about arthritis or your pride real quick if they get inside of your clothes. The same thing is true about fire ants and pride, they will make make you “shuck” your clothes off quick, fast, and in a hurry! I love Ken saying liking them so well you have to hide behind a tree to bait your hook.
Randy, I’m allergic to bee, yellow jacket, wasp, hornet, and fire ant stings. I keep an epi-pen handy. I’ve only experience anaphylaxis once, but that was enough.
I want to know where there’s so many trout you have to hide behind a tree to bait your hook. 🙂
Robert, my brother in law almost died from a bee sting a few years ago. Until that one time he had never had any problems. He was told if you have an allergic reaction to bee stings you will also be allergic to fire ants. I would also like to find a creek full of trout like that.