Getting My Tractor Off a Hornet's Nest - The Exciting Conclusion!

[@MikeRothmann-fh6nh]

Here in South Texas we have Killer Bees. I believe the tractors our county shreds roadsides with have a system that sprays a soapy water cloud over and around the driver. All the driver has to do is hit a switch and i comes on. Soapy water kills most bees and wasps on contact so is should work for hornets. Gives the driver time to drive out of the danger zone. Was going to make one for my tractor but I sold in and got one with a cab.

[@bobwollard9105]

Mike, I am so glad that you made it out of this event safely. Kudos to your wife and daughter for their creativity.

[@bobdavis6103]

Thanks for sharing Mike! Special kudos to your wife who put her life in danger coming to your rescue!

[@tonytango6676]

On the Canadian prairies, we like cabs on our tractors because of winter weather, including the snow off the yard.

[@learoser1339]

Out of the box thinking. Good on you. I hope you are ok after that ordeal❤

[@markchoate9021]

Mike, you have a very creative family.

[@diamondharp]

I can’t justify the cab either, but I did it anyway. We live in central west Texas. Almost every year someone is killed due to a killer bee attach within 15 or 20 miles of our place. I decided it is just not worth the risk. The A/C is wonderful, and I can run the bush hog mower in 100 degree weather and be comfortable and stay clean. I have had my cab tractor since late May of this year and I love it. I have found that I am using it twice as much as my open station tractor that I have now sold. It is expensive, but oh so nice!

[@MLJenkins]

Wow I never thought of killer bees, luckily we don't have them up north. That's my take on the cab, very expensive, but I find myself using the tractor a lot more, especially in hotter/colder months when I usually did not use it.

[@woodyholland9865]

Bought a bee suit from Amazon for less than $50 and it works on bees, yellow jackets and hornets. Do not keep it on the tractor but get the heck out of their area first and go back at night when they are calm and dispose of them with your choice killing method.

[@dancrimmins107]

Ran into a hornets nest once in open cab, they were angry as hell, hundreds chasing me. Ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to swat them. Ran inside the house after stripping off most my clothes. At least a dozen bites and they are VERY painful. Borrowed a bee suit from a keeper and sprinkled Sevin dust down the hole at dusk. All gone. Traded in the open cab for a cab that week and will never regret it. The heat is nice in winter and AC in summer, plus no cough at the end of summer from inhaling dust while mowing. Pay the extra for a cab.

[@davidhayden6724]

Wonderful and innovative solution! Glad you're OK Mike.

[@JonStratford1234]

I ran over a yellow jacket nest a few weeks ago bush hogging, and got stung on the ear. I’m fortunate I got away with only one sting. That night my wife and I went out with about three gallons of soapy water and took care of the nest. Next day I bought a bee suit. Hopefully it will be enough prevention if I happen to hit another nest before I finish my mowing for the year.

[@Eric-fv4jx]

Here in Texas I've heard stories of bumble bees coming outta the ground to attack guys shredding their Fields.

[@myhooptie]

I remember sending you that I have hit 2 more nest since then one was a Bumble bee nest they are worst then the Hornets. I wish I had a video of them to show. I love my Cab tractor.

[@randymclaughlin7676]

I have a full bee suit, and as I watched the first video, that's the first thing I thought of.

[@cliffordbray6165]

This doesn’t have anything to do with these, but I’d like to ask a question on LSMT 125 2023 just a tractor. Where do you grease it at? I’ve looked. I do not see any place grease I’m wondering if some hidden.

[@johnkummer7578]

Mike, Glad you are ok, but just another reason for a cab. LOL

[@mmielcarek3046]

We would find those if we were plowing a hay field. Even found that if you were just driving over it with a mower for hay they didn't attack you. Now I have plowed up a nest with an 8N and a Ford 1600. You see it come out of the ground and you lift the plow out of the ground and step it up out of the area. I generally find them bouncing off the hood of the tractor. We would mix up gas and oil in a pump oil can or even a pump up sprayer to spray the entrance of the next. If it touches them it kills them. Don't know about hornets but bees usually don't fly much in the dark.

[@109jacosta]

The ground bees were bad this summer. I mowed over a nest .Nothing runs like a Deere but a mad bee flies faster!

[@MLJenkins]

I hate to tell you Mike, but your wife was not beating the hornets off, but rather taking advantage of the situation. 🤣I hit a ground hornets (yellow jacket) nest about a month ago with my B2601 with the belly mower. They were pretty angry, but the one thing I will tell you from my experience is DO NOT STOP. They naturally don't seem to like to be around the diesel exhaust and noise of the tractor, so I have never had them come after me. But if you get on top of them, yes they get upset. Every time I have run over them I just keep going. I've done it many times. You can sometimes get a second pass over the area if you are lucky. What I've done is once I identify a nest, meaning they are all stirred up and you see them in the air, is I avoid within about 30' of the area, then make my final passes in a higher gear over that area. You have to really be careful because if you get stung and panic, your mind will try to get you off the tractor and you could jump off with it running and get crushed. A seatbelt helps with that, but I've never once had them sting me while actively moving over a nest (also don't swat at them that seems to also make them unhappy). Granted, I've never went over the nest a second time once I found it, except like I said on the last pass back to the house in high gear. If you were mowing very slow, I could see it becoming a problem, but under normal mowing conditions you can usually get away quick enough. I really doubt there is anything you are going to get over your head quick enough to help you, because the entire rest of your body will be exposed. The best you can do is move yourself, on the tractor, away form the area as fast as possible. Now, bald faced hornets are a totally different story, and I've never dealt with hitting one of those above ground nests of theirs. You're probably screwed if that happens, as they will chase you down from what people tell me, as they are naturally more aggressive than ground hornets aka yellow jackets (at least we call them that here). Btw I have a cab, I am still indifferent about it, especially because it makes being in the woods more unnerving worrying about breaking glass. Overall I think I'd buy one again, just because it makes mowing much more pleasant not having to wear hearing protection and getting to listen to the radio and being in the AC or heat. But those cabs do have small air gaps in some places, like where the linkages for the 4wd, gears, hydraulics, etc. come up into the cab. Maybe some manufacture's seal their cabs better, but Kubota if you look around those linkages you can see light in some places. I wouldn't trust sitting on top of a nest like that guy did in that video, no way in heck.

[@scruffy4647]

When it’s warm out, I can’t clean my gutters from all the red wasps. They’ll swarm all over me and sting the heck out of me.

[@bradw3313]

Maybe mount two large volume hornet spray cans next to operators seat. We don’t have too may ground hornets here (land of gumbo in south Texas), but we do have killer honey bees. We’ve had guys shredding get swarmed and bail off only to get hung up in the shredder and killed….bad thing is they don’t sell a spray for honey/killer bees but all insect sprays work on insects. I can say I’ve been attacked by yellow jackets and took o over 20 hits as a kid, which required being packed in ice at hospital ER. It’s a serious situation and ya got to see them before they see you to have an escape avenue.

[@pauloconnell7668]

I have honeybees and bee suits for PPE. Not too expensive and very effective against yellow jackets etc.

[@bradgreenlee7462]

Maybe cab tractor?🚜

[@steventhomas524]

Been there, done that. Very similar situation. Those buggers attack (keep attacking), sting hard, and the sting keeps stinging. Wow. What a nightmare you've made me re-live. LOL Glad things are well.

[@mikeadler434]

👍👍

[@roadrunner3563]

That's one thing I worry about. Usually bumble bees though.

[@jaclynalley809]

thanks to Reagan and her mom

[@samsdoinstuff]

Great story! Except for you getting stung, of course. I had a similar need for a homemade bee suit, but I used a motorcycle helmet for head protection 🤠👍

[@matthewtaylor2185]

Hornets are no joke! I had my run-in with them this year when they made a big nest up on our wood shed. I bought a bee suit Tempo dust is brutal on them, acts fast, and they are pitiful at night time! Really put up no fight at all.

[@patriot4258]

The cab is a good idea however my tractor is cab less

[@cst270]

Ground Bees or Yellow Jackets not Bald Faced Hornets.

[@randyellington6458]

Carry a can of Raid. You usually don't have to spray them, just show them the can and they'll leave you alone.

[@patrickcorbett8361]

Mike...thats quite a crew you have there....that was informative , and your reproduction of the horror movie " When Bees Attack " was 4 stars !! I loved it 😊 pc

[@gregwiegersma6288]

I have a bee bush hogging video also safe in my cab. So many more reasons to have a cab worth every penny to me .

[@dfgyuhdd]

Been there. Just go back after dark. At idle your engine is consuming very little fuel. If you absolutely must kill the engine just stop air from entering the engine or exhaust from leaving the engine.

[@johncarson5436]

I have a hornets nest the size of two basketballs hanging from a branch on a small tree a few feet from my front door, had it there all summer, my head ran into it while I was bushhogging my front lawn with a kubota tractor, one hornet stung me pretty good and I got out of there fast. I just use the side door to get into the house now and I am waiting for some cold weather to knock them all out. I have a lot of animals and I did not want to use poison spray to kill the hornets so I just left the huge hornets nest there. Had to keep the goats away from that small tree with the hornets nest, they usually eat leaves right where that nest is, those hornets would have killed some of my goats. All my cats and dogs stay away from that area, not sure how they sense the danger but they do.

[@jakeschisler7525]

Me, I'm deathly allergic to bees. I onetime at work picking small castings out of a box outside and a hornet went down inside my glove and stung my hand. I started swelling up. They didn't get the stinger out. When I got home my hand and arm got huge. My wife at the time looked at my hand and removed the stinger and the swelling went right down. A few weeks ago there was a large wasp nest in a window of my building and I tried telling myself to walk around the other way to spray them but I didn't listen to myself and started by the window and out they came stinging me next to my ear. Always second guess yourself. Last night my wife and I were sitting on the front porch and up in a recessed light there was a huge wasp on the screen i had put on before to keep the bees out. I keep a plastic container on the porch railing with soapy water in. I stuck the container over the light trying to get it to fall in. He wouldn't do it and after awhile my arm was getting tired and so I told my wife to turn on the other light and turn this light off and he fell in the water. He's dead now!

[@AnomadAlaska]

The first time you get into a yellow jacket nest inside a cabbed tractor you will forget about the extra expense. Ask me how I know... Same goes for poison ivy, rain, snow and briars. Comfort is my reason. I want to be all cozy like I am in my truck.

[@randysavage8963]

Had this exact same experience with yellow jackets moving round bales thankfully they only attacked the bale

[@AndrewCatozzi]

carry spray bottle mix dawn dish soap and water or super soaker pistol

[@keithnavarro2930]

I feel just terrible that we don't have them hornets here in Minnesota. Yet. OK. that was a lie. I don't feel terrible about that.

[@tonytango6676]

Given that I live in Manitoba north of you, I was chuckling at your comment.

[@beefitter]

We do have those hornets in MN. This time of year the hornets have big populations and are not happy to see you. By early Nov they are usually dead due to starvation.

[@timsenjem8337]

I remove brush for a living in southern MN and have been battling ground yellow jackets allot this past month or so

[@keithnavarro2930]

@@timsenjem8337 I must be lucky. I spend lots of time outdoors. I haven't seen any.

[@jsifers6498]

I have a huge bald face hornet's net ( bigger than a basketball) on the back of my house about 8' up. They even seem to fly at nite. Lol! Think ill wait cold weather

[@alcopower5710]

We have them somewhere on the property.....if we leave the porch light on very long will always have a few flying around.

[@clane1700]

Funny but not funny! Thanks Mike!

[@alvinbrown3756]

buy a bee suit

[@johncarson5436]

what about your legs, pretty sure hornets can sting right through those pants you were wearing

[@JIMHunt-f2h]

2 4 D Spray

[@DeereX748]

Hornets???? Those are yellow jackets, which are a species of wasp. Nevertheless, they are nasty and hurt like the dickens Maybe "hornet" is what they get called, just like their arboreal nest-building cousins the bald-faced "hornet", but the only true hornet in the US is the European hornet which is much larger and generally builds in rotted trees and sometimes in enclosed walls of outbuildings. Oddly enough, these hornets are usually called "Japanese hornets". They hurt like the bejeebers too. Glad you got your tractor back, though.

[@comlbbeau]

Absolutely. To add insult to literal injury, when disturbed, the yellow jackets emit a pheromone that summons and riles up all their yellow jacket buddies en masse, and now you've got a real problem.

[@cst270]

Or Ground Bees aka Black Bees. Not Bald Faced Hornets.

[@MLJenkins]

I thought the same, we call them yellow jackets here, and a hornet is a bald faced hornet. However, I have also heard in other areas yellow jackets called ground hornets. Bald faced hornets you can usually see before you hit them, unless you are brush clearing through thick woody areas. I've never ran into bald faced hornets with a tractor, as they are my greatest fear.

[@edfromnc7660]

I don't think a bee suit or just a hood will help. By the time you see them it' too late, they would be all over you. I think the best thing to move away quickly, once you leave the area around the nest, they should (maybe?) loose interest.

[@lonniechartrand]

Nope! They will follow you quite a ways!!! Don't ask me how I know! 😁