Left the master switch on.

[MarkW]

My dozer is at the other end of the property with the master left on.

Pulling a tree trunk and broke a tow chain, got off to look at it, all was ok. Went to the tree and walked into a swarm of very ticked off yellow jackets. Took about 3 stings to realize I'd disturbed a nest somewhere, but I was able to dash in and switch off the dozer on the sprint homeward. Had 14 of the darn critters follow me into the house, so made for a lively few minutes with me and #2 son with a couple of flyswatters. All in all I got zapped 9 times but getting ready to apply 12 oz of anesthetic right now so life isn't too bad.

I'll head back towards dusk and do a search and destroy mission.

[MarkW]

Update-

Went back and found the nest, I hadn't even driven over it, just a couple feet to the side.

The little SOB's, normally I'm a live and let live sorta guy but I can honestly say they started it this time. My wife had walked down there earlier on her evening sojourn, told me she put the hearing protectors back on the dozer as they were a hundred or so feet away. I'll go out in an hour after it is dark and pour about 1/2 cup of gas into the hole and cover with dirt, that will eliminate them by morning.

[kedorland]

Makes my day seem dull.

Trust you'll have a high body count.

Kevin from Iowa.

[MarkW]

It's interesting because all these stings have been itching a lot today like they were mambo mosquito bites, but there is no swelling just a tint of red on a couple of them, like the web of my thumb. So there must be some reaction to the toxin that gets injected during the sting. Took a hot shower this AM and going to take another one before bed, but it is a rather interesting reaction.

Anyway, to recap I walked back yesterday after I'd taken a shower (since they only targeted me in the house) and a change of clothes, then found the hole. Went back after dark, poured 1/2 cup of gas in the hole and covered it with a shovel of dirt, problem solved. Went back today and finished dozing.

[slwbid]

so much more fun to pour about a gallon or two down the hole. let it soak for a few minutes, pour a trail of gas from the hole to a safe distance away, light the trail and watch/listen to the "boom!" I've been stung so many times by them little basterds, I've wanted to use 10 gallon of gas....but it cost too much

[DrLoch]

I've been stung so many times by them little basterds, I've wanted to use 10 gallon of gas....but it cost too much

Now that's funny.

Know where you're coming from, little bastards got me as well.

I hate snakes... if I were on my loader and one crawled out from under anything and got close to me, i'd make sure it wasn't pointed at the house jump off and give him the loader.

[MarkW]

I agree about the snakes too, that's about the only benefit to working on equipment in the winter! What I hate is working on the crawler and setting a wrench or whatever on a track then knocking it off to the inside. You can look and see it, and it is grabbable but no way am I sticking my hand down there when I can't see anything else- I've watched too many saturday morning cowboy movies to be fishing around down there with my bare hand!

Sometimes if it isn't too much of a bother you can put enough stuff back together to drive the crawler forward 10 feet to pick up your stuff.

[MarkW]

Oh LOL, this thread is 3 1/2 years old, talk about a thread revive!

[CuttingEdge]

I hate snakes myself, but I am so glad I live in Maine. This is the only state in the nation that does not have poisonous snakes. Of course that really does not matter, any snake I see gives me a heart attack.

In our family it is against family creed and NOT kill it.

My wife, she will pick up snakes and everything, but then again she is an import; all the way from New Hampshire!

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

I have told this before on this board, but it seems like a good fit in this thread today...

I lived in the Taconic Mountain region of NY. The next hill over was known as having the largest population of timber rattlers anywhere. Nice.

My hill was full of them, too. One fine late fall day my 350 was off trail in the woods to get a nice oak trunk. I ran over a fallen pine and just as I hit the pivot point....down we went. Pine had been hollow and gave way.

No Big Deal. Keep on going. But. What is that waving in the air above the track as it goes round? Uh, oh! A pinched rattlesnake! Wait. Many pinched rattlesnakes!!

I look back, and that area of the pine log looks like floor in that snake scene from the first Indy movie! And my tracks are loaded with pinched snakes!

So, I ain't going back the way I came! I went in a long curve back to the barn. When I got there, I could see no snakes. But, I ain't climbing down the side! I went over the hood to the nose and then down the blade and *away* from that machine. It can sit outside until tomorrow!

I had several dead snakes still on the trackframe the next day. Good thing I was on the 350 and not the 420. The 350 has more steel between me and pinched snakes than the 420 has!

Stan

[cantbeatadeere]

Now that's a good story---to bad smart phones weren't around then--you could have gone viral on the net with that one

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Yeah, that was 1991 or so. The first PDA phone wasn't until 1996 and it didn't have a camera. That came in 1997. Oh, well. In 1991 there were no websites to upload such stuff to yet, anyway!

Stan

[CuttingEdge]

I would have had a heart attack and died right there.

Back when I worked on the railroad I climbed under a locomotive just outside of Lincoln Nebraska and a snake went to the left and another to the right, and so CuttingEdge climbed up into the cab and did not get down all night.

My foreman at the time kept pet rattlesnakes and was some mad that I did not do anything all night, but like I told him; "I am afraid to death of snakes and you aren't, but you are afraid of heights where as I think of nothing about crawling 400 feet in the air."

That shut him up.

Still Stan my skin is crawling thinking about that. My hat is off to you in remaining calm. When I see a snake I scream like a girl and run as fast as I can...and as I said we have no poisonous snakes here!

[Willie B]

My wife did a scrapbook page; How a redneck deals with wasps.

I discovered a basketball sized paper nest in the tree 10 feet from the deck. It had to go. I glued two lengths of 3/4" PVC electrical conduit into a J. Filling it with gas I blew compressed air in, repeating a few times I saturated the nest.

Electrical taping a propane torch to a ten foot 1/2" EMT I was able to get a lazy 10" flame 10 feet away, just enough to set it afire. The outer burned nicely, killing everybody at home, but leaving some inner nest behind.

Next phase was a shotgun with #6. It cleaned the residue of nest out of the tree.

Later more of them returned, and began rebuilding. I got my son to drive the loader, me in the bucket with wasp & hornet spray. Dressed in sweatshirts, goggles, dust mask, & gloves in August I didn't get stung.

[Willie B]

Your retreat story reminds me of digging a monster boulder out of the road to the sugar house. I had a pile of propane cylinders (100 LBS) I thought were empty. Piling boulders, one fell on a cylinder, knocking the valve off. The noise was deafening! I hit the switch, and bailed off. An hour later I went back close enough to see a visible cloud 2' tall lying on the ground. I didn't go back that day. The odorant was foul for several weeks in the area.