Has anyone ever seen one of those big ginormous paper wasp colonies, like bald faced hornets, anywhere in the brazos valley?

Or seen an underground yellow jacket colony? Which are also ginormous....

And im not talking about the ones on your soffits that have 30-40 wasps... im talking thousands...

I've got a wood pile in my back yard and I've seen things buzzing around an area... I threw a chunk of wood at the general area and a cloud of flying things came out... of course I ran and couldn't tell what they were... I'll wait till its below freezing and throw on my bee suit and take the wood pile apart to see whats there... im just curious if anyones ever seen hornets in a big paper nest around this area.. just not sure if there is a nest in the wood pile or an underground chamber under the pallet the wood is sitting on.

I know they're around... I once had an empty bee box in my back yard and I found a queen hornet who had just started her nest inside the box... looked just like a normal baby yellow jacket nest except she had started the paper shroud around the base...

she died.. mainly cause I squished her... bees eat nectar and pollen... wasps eat bees... so im always keeping an eye out...

I don't think we have wasps that live in the huge paper colonies like you see on TV. We do have yellow jackets that burrow their nests.

Cause a bee suit isn't impervious to stings... just helps deflect...

I've been stung about 40 times through a pair of sweatpants and a suit, in about 5 minutes... really angry hive..

Throw a Tyvek on over it.

Throw some diesel fuel on it and light that sucker up!

I spend a lot of time out in the woods and around old houses and barns. Only thing ive seen around here is red wasp, yellow wasp that make same nest as red wasp, and a bumblebee nest. Never seen a big paper hornets nest or ground hornets. Those seem to be more common in east TX.

We (Harris and all surrounding counties including Brazos) 100% have ground nesting hornets that can easily number in the hundreds.

I have ran into two nest like you are talking about. Ground Yellowjackets or Guinea Wasps some call them. They will light you up to. The ones I am talkin about are maybe an inch long yellow and black. They were in the ground both times and had a large hive underground. Had one a few months ago in the dirt of a fallen tree. I was throwing sticks and limbs on the left stump to burn it and one hit me on the ankle. I thought a scorpion stung me. Went back to get another load and noticed them swarming around the entrance hole. Waited till night and lit it on fire.

I remember several years ago, KBTX or maybe the eagle had an article on a man that died in College Station while mowing his grass. They had a picture of the nest and it was one of the big cocoon types that they estimated had 2,000+ wasp in it. Usually we have the ground hornets that were mentioned earlier that can have hundreds. Probably the main reason so many people buy tractors and dozers with cabs now vs 20 years ago.

maroon barchetta said:

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I figured air conditioning was the reason.

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true... but it does help with critters...

I've got 10 hives out on my brothers farm in Kurten and the guy who mows his hay goes right up to within 2 feet of the hives... and they're ANGRY when that happens.. but he's just happy as a clam in his ac tractor...

Try this method:
https://www.facebook.com/obeyuntodeath/videos/1250781119409215