# Splitting fresh cut wood and Bees???!



## NordicSplitter (Sep 27, 2014)

A few months ago I got a log load of Pine. Started cutting, splitting and stacking it. Seemingly out of nowhere, yellow jackets were all over it. Last weekend I split some fresh maple and the same thing happened. Today I was splitting some large rounds of maple and pine...once again..Yellow jackets all over it. What it the draw that fresh split wood has to yellow jackets? Anyone else experience this oddity? Thanks


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## Rossco (Sep 27, 2014)

Maybe there's a nest under the splitting area?


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## NordicSplitter (Sep 27, 2014)

Rossco said:


> Maybe there's a nest under the splitting area?


No nest anywhere. I checked thoroughly. I wonder is the sweet smell attracts them...


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## Applesister (Sep 27, 2014)

They get really aggressive about feeding as the season gets later. I think their emergence this spring was delayed so they are making up for lost time. 
Im watching a ground nest in my back yard, normally their hive would get the gasoline treatment but its too close to the house foundation.


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## mepellet (Sep 27, 2014)

I notice a bunch of yellow jackets around when I stack freshly spilt wood. For some reason they like the scent I think


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## Sconnie Burner (Sep 27, 2014)

I've noticed the same thing. I think they are after the moisture and sweet smell of the sap.


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## osagebow (Sep 27, 2014)

I agree Sconnie. Long dry spell here, had to run while spraying the hose yesterday. Yellow jackets were on it like a cheap suit.


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## bobdog2o02 (Sep 27, 2014)

I think this might be a seasonal lat hoorah like was stated earlier, I've been doing some exterior painting for work.  Haven't been able to keep the yellow jackets away from the Ben Moore latex.


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## JTRock (Sep 27, 2014)

Applesister said:


> They get really aggressive about feeding as the season gets later. I think their emergence this spring was delayed so they are making up for lost time.
> Im watching a ground nest in my back yard, normally their hive would get the gasoline treatment but its too close to the house foundation.



I had a ground nest 2 weeks ago. The buggers survived a bleach dump and on the 3rd can of bee spray they finally succumbed


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## Soundchasm (Sep 27, 2014)

I had to walk away from some freshly felled black locust a few weeks ago because a swarm of bald-faced hornets came up out of nowhere.  I was not equipped to deal with it.  I wonder if the scent of a freshly broken tree draws them in hope of finding an ant or termite colony or other delectable insect fare?


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## Pellet_Pete (Sep 27, 2014)

Had the same thing happen splitting yellow birch & cherry last week.  Sweet smell drew them in by the dozen - no stings, they were just scoping out the scene.


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## jrems (Sep 27, 2014)

I got stung about 10 times a few weeks ago. Started splitting some maple and the whole nest of yellow jackets came after me. I found the nest under a log and it took almost 2 cans to kill those buggers.  the nest was underground under a huge log


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## Osagebndr (Sep 27, 2014)

I've been experiencing the same thing. Sweet smell and late season has to be it.dropped a huge maple last weekend and had to wait to process it there was so many and I'm allergic


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## BrotherBart (Sep 27, 2014)

No problem with dry here. Been wet all Summer. But today I walked out into a breezeway full of tiny bees and since I left the door off of the breezeway into the garage open last night the air in there was full of'em too. Never seen that before. Sprayed the air and they went away.


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## Lockpicker (Sep 28, 2014)

JTRock said:


> I had a ground nest 2 weeks ago. The buggers survived a bleach dump and on the 3rd can of bee spray they finally succumbed




Not a tree hugger here. But Why dump chemicals into your ground when nice big pot of boiling water dumped down the hole after dark will do the job.


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## JTRock (Sep 28, 2014)

Lockpicker said:


> Not a tree hugger here. But Why dump chemicals into your ground when nice big pot of boiling water dumped down the hole after dark will do the job.



Because a short time before I had 50 people over my house for a 2 Hand Touch Football game. I was in a pinch and was out spray initially.  The nest virtually exploded after being run over with  my Tractor so I figured you mix bleach into fresh water to make it drinkable so I went for it. When that didn't work I had to run and bu spray


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## goofa (Sep 28, 2014)

i had a nest this summer in my soffit right above our entry door. it was there for about 4 weeks and started getting rather big with the nest spilling out of the soffit for about 18". luckily no stings but we had to call the bug man and he squirted a powder between the j channel and the soffit where they were entering and exiting the nest and within 24 hrs that whole hive was desecrated. but the bug man said that he has been extra busy this year with yellow jackets, they have been out of control everywhere. but he didn't give an explanation  as to why....


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## Fred Wright (Sep 28, 2014)

Yellow jackets tend to get more aggressive this time of year. The scent of sap from a freshly cut tree attracts them as well. If it's any consolation, they'll be gone soon.


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## Cburke (Sep 28, 2014)

Soundchasm said:


> I had to walk away from some freshly felled black locust a few weeks ago because a swarm of bald-faced hornets came up out of nowhere.  I was not equipped to deal with it.  I wonder if the scent of a freshly broken tree draws them in hope of finding an ant or termite colony or other delectable insect fare?


Bald faced hornets are nasty buggers I have had some experience with these Guys and none were pleasant to say the least. Extremely aggressive!


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## NickDL (Sep 28, 2014)

For the ground hives we've used a box fan placed over the hole to kill them as they fly in or out.


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## bobdog2o02 (Sep 28, 2014)

NickDL said:


> For the ground hives we've used a box fan placed over the hole to kill them as they fly in or out.


???  Does that really work?


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## weatherguy (Sep 28, 2014)

JTRock said:


> I had a ground nest 2 weeks ago. The buggers survived a bleach dump and on the 3rd can of bee spray they finally succumbed


 I had a nest on my soffit, good size, took 3 nights of spraying to get them all and even then I knocked the nest down and stomped on them. I hope they're not getting immune to the common spray.


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## TreePointer (Sep 29, 2014)

Spray just kills the ones you spray, like the guards at the entry others it happens to contact; and you're right--it can take a few applications.  Fine powders like Sevin will spread like crazy with the natural movement of the bugs and kills them all.  Well, at least that's what the Orkin man told me years ago.  On the nest of yellow jackets we had in our wall, he used spray to get the guards at the opening, and then followed up with his super extra special top secret powder.  

I've been dumping a cup or two of Sevin on ground nests over the years with great success.

He used a little bellows like this to get the job done:


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## Shawn Curry (Sep 29, 2014)

I've had pretty good luck with the sevin as well, for killing the ground hornets.  Get it right in the hole, and they're gone the next day.  Found 4 nests the hard way this year.  Couldn't get rid of one of them; they built their nest under one of my stacks.  Don't try the gasoline method on that one!


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## NickDL (Oct 1, 2014)

bobdog2o02 said:


> ???  Does that really work?


Believe it or not, it does as long as you can get the fan over the hole. We had an underground hive by my garage, I wasn't risking gasoline or other chemicals. Some woman in Home Depot told my wife about this method. It worked well.


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