They are common in the area and they looked a lot like those and there is a similar looking wasp that isn’t so pleasant either. They were also not being so nice and swarming all over the mower even though it was well off the nest entrance.
I had a bumble bee nest in an area of the yard that I just left alone one summer cause bees are awesome and it was out of the way and I read that they would most likely nest elsewhere next season.
Yellow jackets are common in Western Washington, and I’ve never seen anything other than yellowjackets take up residence under the eaves of houses. They’re a goddamn menace.
Several years ago, there were several colonies on my property making it impossible to use the back yard at all, so we put out a few dozen traps and just kept trapping them through the summer, fall and winter until all the colonies collapsed due to worker shortage.
Have we determined which assault rifle is best to use against them?
I’d go with a 6mm mauser for distance.
Yeah, that sure does sound like yellowjackets. Hate 'em!
That has been my experience. I had a huge hive of bumblebees under the staircase in my barn and when you went up and down the steps they buzzed. I always liked them, but they moved out… the next tenant of the same space was a rat, which I did not like. It also moved out, once it finished eating the bumble nest.
You were planning to use a gun indoors when a shovel was perfectly capable of doing the job? Wouldn’t that risk causing a dangerous ricochet, or in the very least damage your floor and/or wall?
naw, they still harass you. spread your garbage over an acre. eat all your tulip buds just before the bloom. shit on your porch. rip the side of the above ground pool. mr. grizzly popped open our LOCKED freezer in the carport and ate 15lbs of blueberries that were hand picked and supposed to last the winter. 
animals can be right bastards, but i don’t think they mean anything by it, they are just doing what they do.
we have bears (black and grizzly), mountain lions, deer, elk, skunks, racoons, weasels, bluebirds, crows, ravens, squirrels, bunnies, etc. all been spotted in the yard. never once have we needed a gun of any kind.
the kind of guns you are likely to see open carry wouldn’t be much help anyway.
glad we don’t have any problem snakes here in british columbia. where i grew up in colorado was another story.
I understand this is part of ranching and farming, but if you don’t change the equation on your end you’ve only bought yourself a season or two tops because this isn’t really a solution. it isn’t like future animals won’t exploit the same weakness in your farms or ranches defense, especially since you as the rancher/farmer can’t be on watch 24/7. dogs, good fences, motion sensor lights and motion sensor
sprinklers, etc. are much better solutions then guns.
you’ve done something wrong if you have to resort to using a gun.
on a side note, skunks are much more likely to get your chickens then bobcats. bobcats are very solitary and skittish.
Well sure, but they were going after your food, not you as food. And don’t get me started on deer–those bastards are worse than rats.
By the way, did the grizzly eat the berries and then take a deuce, or the other way around? Cause I think one scenario is funnier than the other :D.
The only animal on that list I find truly scary are mountain lions. Once habituated you are considered food. Even habituated bears tend to leave humans alone, and are really just interested in goodies that are easy.
LOL. separate events. I don’t recall if the berry thief left a deuce in the carport.
I had a friend in middle school whose home was broken into and the thieves left a deuce in the toilet (unflushed) and on the parents bed.
i agree. that and if you are attacked by one you’ll be the last person to know. they are fast and quiet. a bear will charge you. a mountain lion will hunt you in stealth.
Oh yeah. I remember at orientation before going on a week long hike in the rockies in NM, the rangers all said
“don’t worry about the bears. None of you guys are quiet enough to startle them. And they just want whatever food you got. Be scared of the big kitties. If you’re lucky, you’ll never see one. If you’re unlucky, you’ll see one for an instant as it drops from a tree and crushes your trachea.”
Five years in Ames, the only snake I ever saw was a garter. Were you in the far west of the state?
I’m in Austin, so Central TX. I’m a birder/amateur naturalist so I spend time outside searching for wildlife, otherwise I wouldn’t have spotted any of them. The creek in the neighborhood does have the rare report of a cottonmouth/water moccasin, I got lucky spotting one.
Saw lots of those when I went camping in the Missouri state parks. Even more fun is noticing one swimming nearby while floating down the river in nothing but an innertube and swimtrunks and tee shirt for clothing. Fun times. Not sure what a gun would do as they would be pretty hard to hit in that circumstance.
Also they just want to leave you alone as YOU ARE BIG GIANT THING THAT CAN STEP ON ME
I should’ve been more specific, I was asking about the rattler you found when you were a wee thing.
Oh, that was actually in Iowa. I spotted the rattlers in TX out near Georgetown in the middle of nowhere.
I always thought red wasp = hornet, and run like hell/go inside.
I could look it up, but doesn’t the new law specifically refer to handguns, which would/could have otherwise been concealed? My recollection is that rifles, carbines, shotguns etc. could not be (easily) concealed, and were not the issue (except where any and all firearms are prohibited). This is why (before OC) we had people going into Chipotle with rifles, but not with handguns, no?
I keep thinking of Love and Rockets when a panther attacked Heraclio, and Israel pulled it away and threw it off the precipice.
