Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ran over black hornets nest bush hogging

Several years ago I was walking in the woods in N Wisconsin to check a deer stand with my Lab. He thinks he finds a large ball in the grass so he attempts to bring it to me but no it was a mud dauber Hornet nest which proceeds to attack him. I see him jumping up in the air and rolling to stop them, not knowing what he got into I call him and see the swarm of hornets on and chasing him. I take off running and the swarms comes after me fortunately I had a wool shirt jacket on and pulled it over my head. Those buggers chased us for 200 yards. I was stung 8 times and my lab maybe 15 or so, we both took some benedril. The next morning was cool to I made a torch (rag soaked in Gas) and returned the favor. I have also shot nests out of trees with my 12g, it works but they get pretty nasty if it isn't cool out

That could be sketchy. Does it seem to have a single entrance/exit hole? If so, the foaming spray stuff should be fine. If there are multiple entrances / exits, it could get sketchy. I haven't run into one of THEIR nests in or on the ground, "just" yellowjackets. I don't usually find the hornets to be quite as aggressive until riled but their sting is a lot worse and it doesn't seem to take a whole lot to rile 'em up.

Foaming spray is probably the safe / sane way to go, but there could be other options?

1) Tannerite.

2) Dispose of excess 2Fg and cannon fuse?

3) If there's no fire risk, soak an old towel in gas / diesel / kerosene, toss it over the nest, and light it.

4) If there is a fire risk, do almost the same, but after dropping the towel over the nest, put a 5 gallon bucket over that.

5) Maybe fipronyl (??) mixed into some raw meat placed near the hole.


Watch out for secondary / "back door" entrance / exits. I fought a yellowjacket ground nest one year that I couldn't seem to kill. Turns out there was a second hole 15 feet away .. connected. I didn't figure it out 'til a skunk dug out both holes. Lucky I didn't get stung. I hit 4 ground nests in that same 6 acre hay field mowing that year.

Had a nest of Yellow Jackets in a wood retaining wall I just couldn't
kill. Guess they were back in there, off to the side or something.

Finally soaked a rag with gas and put hi on a piece of all thread.
Shoved that against the hole and propped it there with firewood.

2 days later I moved it, haven't seen yellow jackets there since.

I had fairly good results with a push mower sitting over a YJ nest last year.
Didn't want to gas it being dead center in our little front yard.
Right at dark-thirty I fired the mower up, tied the kill handle on and let is sit over the nest for about 20 minutes.
I believe the few that survived decided to go elsewhere and start over.

While reroofing a house, I found that a foam cannon like this (https://cdn.protoolreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Chemical-Guys-Big-Mouth-Foam-Cannon08.jpg) filled with Dawn dish soap and attached to a 4 GPM / 4k PSI pressure is the perfect weapon for the little buggers. Unlimited cheap ammo supply, sprays a cone of fire 8 feet wide 30 feet out and the dish soap clogs their pores so they drop out of the air instantly like hit by lightning. Great practice for pigeon shoots!

I believe the dish soap allows the water to wet their breathing pores.

If you can identify the entry hole to a ground nesting wasp nest the rest is easy. Mark the hole. After black dark head out with a funnel and a cup or so of gas. Stick the funnel in the hole and dump the gas in as a chaser. Done. Experience not conjecture.

Awhile back I watched a youtube video of a guy using a drone to destroy a hornets nest with the blades of the drone. Kind of creepy how many hornets came out of that nest.......

Your from Canada's you must have a lumber jack video

I ran into a small hornets nest about the size of a grapefruit and 6 feet off the ground. They
were small (3/4" or less) and solid black. Never seen these before. Mean buggers and one
nailed me on the ear and it took a week for swelling and pain to go away.

I became a little more tolerant of black hornets when I watched them hunting mosquitoes. They would fly slowly, just above the grass take and grab the mosquitoes as they flew up from the grass. Another interesting interaction was seeing a robber fly take a yellowjacket out of the air. GD

are we talking ground hornets are above ground nesting? when I was a kid we ran over a ground nest bailing hay. it was with a doors and windows open tractor. We got attacked and had to bail out of the tractor leaving it running at full throttle with the hay swather running as well. my dad got a leather jacket, gloves, 3 pairs of pants and rescued the tractor. We had to come back with the sealed cab tractor, ran the front tire over the ground nest back and forth, then soaked it with diesel.

for hard to reach hornet nests in trees etc. we used 12 gauge 8 shot and blasted them out of the trees.

Hornets…big nest in a tree (usually) basketball size. Enclosed structure of gray looking newspaper type material

Yellow jackets….hole in the ground


Wasps….little clump of open paper comb, size of palm of hand- some bigger- some smaller


I’m not aware of what imaginary insect universe some of yall live in.


Bumble bees…different entity off topic

Carpenter bees…different entity off topic

Big giant yellow mfkers that fly at night and bounce off if your porch light…different entity

Honey bees…different entity

Cicada killers…different entity

Sweat bees…different entity


JFC…log off NATIONALFILE and ConservativeTreehouse.com
pick up a dayum book and go outside

Fipronil for yellowjackets is amazing.

I thought bee killer won't work on wasp\hornets nor vice versa?

Had bees in large numbers at my old lease. You would hear a swarm hum past you on breezy days. Had a tree I called the humming tree where I guess they made a home in a knotted out hole. Stayed clear of it.

The wasps would find refuge by the hundreds in the folds of your camper trailer awning poles in cold weather. Would tumble out in a baseball sized ball when extending the arms. You could kill so many the ground would stink in the morning.


Never seen a hornets nest- those pics give me the willies.

The European Hornet is the only true hornet in North America. The bald-faced hornet, yellow jacket, and paper wasp are all wasps.

Busch can is for size reference only don’t know where it came from

For the bee expert to figure out I already know what it is

I saw some coming out yesterday, got to get them