Wasp Nests???

[OLPDon]

I seen listed on eBay Wasp Nests for black powder shooters. What's up with that.
Don

[R.M.]

You put some over the powder, under the patched ball, and it will prevent the patch from burning through. Never tried it myself, but have heard about it.

R.M.

[versifier]

Works well as a patch when loaded loosely. I tried it several times in a .36 & a .54 with rb's. Pillow ticking is a lot more convenient. BP shotgunners use it, too. It won't burn, so it makes for safer shooting in areas of high fire danger. It helps if you wait until it's really cold before you harvest it, and only the outer layers of the nest are usable. Just out of curiosity, what kind of bids were they getting?

[fourarmed]

Paper nests make excellent wadding between powder and shot in ML shotguns. Using them in rifles is new to me.

[OLPDon]

Here is the Link http://cgi.ebay.com/Paper-Wasp-Nest-for-Black-Powder-Reloading_W0QQitemZ170039665021QQihZ007QQcategoryZ 7308QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Going over like a lead balloon!!!!!
Don

[boogerred]

do the ones that have been soaked in the 20 ft wasp spray bring any more money?

[Topper]

do the ones that have been soaked in the 20 ft wasp spray bring any more money?
Now that's funny :mrgreen:

[pjh421]

That doesn't look like the nest of the paper wasp. It looks more like the nest of mud dauber wasps. In that case, couldn't you just jam your muzzle into the dirt and call it even? It would save postage.

Paul

[kenjuudo]

Hornet's nest is what it is, stuff works well with heavy charges under a patched ball. Peal off a few layers, tear it to about the size of a quarter and lightly seat it over the charge before running the patched ball down. You can see a slight difference in group size.

[44man]

It also works good for a wad in a BPCR round.

[versifier]

Paper and potter wasps, and their cousins, yellow jackets and white faced (aka bald faced) hornets all build nests of very similar material. The hornets generally prefer nesting in the ground, but they will nest in trees when there are a lot of skunks around. (Skunks dig up their nests at night when the hornets are not active and eat the adults and larvae.) Wasp nests tend to be bigger and higher up. I believe the nest at auction is a paper wasp nest.

Mud daubers actually build rows of small tubes out of mud and saliva into which they stuff a stung and paralyzed insect and lay an egg. The larval wasp feeds on the insect after hatching. Mud daubers are usually considered a beneficial insect as they are believed to use a lot of bugs to feed their young that would otherwise damage crops.

Unless you actually see the nest, or kill one and get a chance to look at the little bugger up close, it's kind of hard to tell them all apart. Wasps usually investigate things in teams, and if you kill the first one, then you have the rest to deal with - ask any house painter! All will hornets and wasps will swarm if their nest is disturbed during daylight hours. In my working days as a carpenter's helper, painter, then electrician I was usually the one who had to remove the nests where we were going to work. When possible, I would spray the nest the night before and remove it in the morning. Boy was I happy when they came out with the 20' spray. Before that it was a can of Raid and climb the extension ladder. :( I had several friends back then who were into blackpowder that I would save the nests for. I got curious to see what they did with them and that is what got me into muzzle loading.

We get all species of them in the northeast. Lucky us. [smilie=1: According to the books, the west coast has only about half as many species living there, but I don't know if that is balanced by greater numbers of those that do live there. :mrgreen: It is a comforting thought. :-D

[waksupi]

It is a proven fact, that stepping into a nest of ground hornets, can make a grown man leave a perfectly good chain saw, often still running, and do an admirable 500 yard dash. Also, you can get 8 seconds of saddle bronc training, in short order.
I tried hornet nest wadding for shotgun years ago. It will work, if properly tamped, but is definitely a make-do measure, and not for good patterns from smoothbores.

[44man]

Running from wasps, yellow jackets or bees is a no-no. Stand perfectly still! The only one to watch is the white face hornet, it will still get you.

[versifier]

It puts me in mind of an incident I witnessed some years ago. The local road crew was filling pot holes in early summer. One of the guys, a rather large man in the neighborhood of 6' tall X 300lbs had to answer a sudden call of nature. The brush was very thick and tall along that stretch, so he unhitched his overalls and backed into the bushes. When finished, he pulled up the straps of his overalls and happened to "scoop up" a softball-sized hornet's nest into his pants. We were driving along and saw this huge man come bursting out of the bushes across the road in front of us, yelling incoherently and tearing his overalls off while sprinting as fast as he could for the safety of the dumptruck cab. The nest was left lying in the middle of the road with a cloud of the little buggers smarming all around it. The rest of the crew was helpless with laughter. They counted over 50 stings on him, those that showed anyway. :-D We offered him a ride home for first aid and fresh clothes as it was on our way. It was probably a strange sight to see going by with him in the back of our pickup holding on to the ladder rack (he COULDN'T sit down) riding down the road in his underwear covered in red welts. Must be at least 25 years ago and they still kid him about it.

[beagle]

The perfect "wasp nest getter ridder of" is a M1903 Springfield with military blanks.

Creep up on the nest and shoot about 14 inches away from it aiming at center of mass.

There are no survivors.......

Get's a lttle messy but a hose takes care of that./beagle

[kenjuudo]

The perfect "wasp nest getter ridder of" is a M1903 Springfield with military blanks.

Creep up on the nest and shoot about 14 inches away from it aiming at center of mass.

There are no survivors.......

Get's a lttle messy but a hose takes care of that./beagle

I had a slightly different approach, two cousins I hated, one with a garbage bag, the other with pruneing shears. The plan was one cousin slip the bag over the bald faced hornets nest, the other cut the branch. I would heroically dart in with the can of Raid and do the buggers in. We would sell the nest to the second hand shop in town that had another on display for $30.

ALMOST no survivors....(my butt eventually healed)...stupid big city cousins...

jim

[waksupi]

Running from wasps, yellow jackets or bees is a no-no. Stand perfectly still! The only one to watch is the white face hornet, it will still get you.

44man, these durned yellow jackets and ground hornets don't care if you are a moving target, or not. And it is hard to remind myself to stand still, when being stung. Kinda like the folks that tell you to play dead if a griz gets on you. I tell them, they bear may catch on, as I am screaming, and filling my pants, that I ain't dead.

[boogerred]

ive never seen one of those down here. our most common stingers are yellow jackets, honeybees- domestic,wild,and africanized; and bumblebees(the fuzzy,black and yellow ones). i ran a dozer here 10 yrs clearing land and all the bees will come after you.the yellowjackets just fly around unless you swat em. BUT-ive never fought a mad bug and felt like i won!

[Shepherd2]

A couple years ago I parked my tractor at the edge of some woods and went off to do something. I came back about a half hour later and the front of the tractor had yellow jackets all over it. I looked around and saw that I had stopped right over a nest in the ground. Since I needed that tractor to bale hay later in the day I had to get it out of there.

I eased up to it in slow, slow motion and got one foot on the step and slowly got my other foot on the clutch and pulled the gear shift into neutral all the while giving thanks that I hadn't set the parking brake like I normally do. I got down and eased around to the back of the tractor and pulled it backward about 15 feet.
I left and came back in about 10 minutes and the yellow jackets had left although there was lots of activity around the nest.

I did get 2 or 3 stings as I recall but I got the hay in before it rained that night. I was back up there a couple days later and saw that skunks had found that nest and a couple others.

[georgeld]

Don't know what kind of wasps I have around here. But, the last three or four yrs I've busted up and stepped on, sprayed no less than thirty nests of them.
First one was inside a roof mounted swamp cooler in the summer. Pulled the panel off and there they were.

Bolt hole in the side of a pipe fence post was the last one, Gate post no less, couldn't have been a line post no one ever messed with.

What's the secret of getting rid of them for good? Spray kills them dead in an instant. But, they keep right on rebuilding somewhere else nearby. So far, I've been stung twice this summer is all. Once here, the other time was renailing a gutter spike from a tall ladder and didn't know they were there til too late. Was in a short sleeved shirt and got me on the elbow.

Lot's of yellow jackets around the pasture yrs ago. Bronc ride about got me over it once, but, so far, have been lucky in all my 62 yrs and never been stung by one myself.

Some yrs ago was driving about 60 down the interstate with the windows open and wing vent turned to pull the hot air in when I saw one of those huge bumble bee's coming in the wind. Wasn't quick enough to turn the window and dodge it.
Right in the vent and stinger first on the collar bone. Made a panic stop and bailed out ripping my shirt off and the trk was still rolling down the hwy. Only got me once, but it was down my shirt. Wasn't many buttons left that's for sure.

Had a golf ball sized lump there for months, damn it hurt and was sore. Was a long ways from anywhere when it happened, so no ice or anything else to put on it.

Dad has told about catching a black hornet in a hankie one time and throwing it all out the window in an instant. It nailed him on both a finger tip and the thumb both in that short a time. Just grabbed and threw it all out. Long time ago, wasn't any sprays in those days.

[dagamore]

georgeld a little bit of tabacco works wonders for bee stings, its one of the few reasons why i keep a pack of smokes in all my first aid kits (i dont smoke any more).

[xpshooter]

I just seen on tv where the african bee's will target dark spots and also go for carbon dioxide, so they will naturally go for your eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, then when you open your mouth they get in there. They said the only thing to do is run. And not to go under water, because when you come up for air they will get in your mouth. I am not sure if this is what other species target or not.

[snowtigger]

Here, we have the advantage of long, cold winters. We have two kinds of wasps, the Bald-faced hornet and the yellowjacket.
They both nest in the ground in winter, with the Queen being the only survivor.
In the spring, she will build a small nest and raise a few young. This takes about a month. Then, she will go on the nest, while these go to work building nest and gathering food. As the summer progresses, there are more and more workers.
If you kill the queen before the first batch matures, you have eliminated the whole nest. I have done this for the past ten years or so. In the spring I go on a hunt of sorts.
They hover around trees, looking for the small insects that feed on the sap, and flowers. It works best in the cool evening when it is quiet. You can hear them buzzing and locate them.
We have had several bad years here in a row. There are hornets everywhere, except around my house. People remark about this lack, and are all ears when I tell them how I do it. If they are skeptical, I send them to the local Extension Service. They reccomend the same thing. It works. I don't know if it will work in warmer climates, but it works here.:-D

[Junior1942]

The best (but not the safest) way to kill ground-nesting yellowjackets, etc., is after the sun goes down throw a cup of gasoline into the entrance hole. Do NOT ignite the gasoline. I repeat: do NOT ignite the gasoline.

The heavier-than-air gas fumes will ooze down into every crevice of the nest and kill all of the insects. Three nights later, do it again and it will kill all of the hatched larva. End of nest.

[Shepherd2]

Last year we had a yellow jacket nest in the lawn about 15 feet from the house. I came in from my chores about dark and gave them about a1/2 pint of 87 octane. Not 1 yellow jacket in sight the next morning. I didn't know about the follow up treatment but next time I'll do it.