On 2010-09-06, The Daring Dufas wrote:

How in the hell did we ever survive our childhood?

I suspect it was due to the fact we hadn't learned to drink, yet!

I know it was as a young drinking adult I began to get careless. Had
two firecrackers blow up in my fingers cuz I'd been drinking. One
incident was straight out of a National Lampoon movie, where I lit the
firecracker with my cigar stub, then tossed the cigar!! I'm older and
wiser, now, and luckily still have all my digits, but if either one of
the aforementioned episodes had involved a real M80, I have no doubt
my nickname would now be Lefty.

nb

On 9/6/2010 11:42 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
On 9/6/2010 9:41 AM, notbob wrote:
On 2010-09-05, Steve wrote:

Oh, yes you can....G

Not the original M80s, like back in the '60s. The BATF has
reclassified them as HE (high explosives) and it's class D felony to
be caught with one. There are wimpy bogus M80s and perhaps some
illegally imported one's, but it's not like 1964 when you could
legally buy a gross of the real deal for about $10 in any one of a
dozen states.

nb

How in the hell did we ever survive our childhood? I seem to
remember being able to purchase WWII surplus hand grenades.

TDD

Only as paperweights, with the charge removed, or inert 'training'
grenades. (Other than ones idiots snuck home as souvenirs, of course.)
Way too tempting for kids playing soldier, even back then.

--
aem sends...

On 9/6/2010 11:59 AM, notbob wrote:
On 2010-09-06, The Daring wrote:

How in the hell did we ever survive our childhood?

I suspect it was due to the fact we hadn't learned to drink, yet!

I know it was as a young drinking adult I began to get careless. Had
two firecrackers blow up in my fingers cuz I'd been drinking. One
incident was straight out of a National Lampoon movie, where I lit the
firecracker with my cigar stub, then tossed the cigar!! I'm older and
wiser, now, and luckily still have all my digits, but if either one of
the aforementioned episodes had involved a real M80, I have no doubt
my nickname would now be Lefty.

nb

'Here, hold my beer'
'Watch this!'
'Oh, I've done this a hundred times before'

Anybody remember the others? Foxworthy had a several-minute bit with
them on one of his old standup routines.

And yeah, as I remarked on here before, it is a small miracle that I
still have all my limbs and digits, and both eyes and both ears, and
they all still work, sorta. I try real hard not to do stupid stuff any
more- I don't heal up near as fast or well as I used to.

--
aem sends...

"TimR" wrote in message
...
On Sep 5, 6:23 pm, "The Ranger" wrote:


What's the ratio of soap and water?


Against stinging insects in general, I keep a household spray bottle
handy with a mix of 1:15 soap to water. I use dish soap like Dawn or
something similar. Water alone will not kill them, they are adapted
to outdoor living and rain. However soapy water drowns them quickly.
Hit with this spray, they die FAR faster than with Raid, and I don't
have to worry about poisoning the kids or the dogs.

But I haven't wanted to waste expensive dish soap on nests in the
ground. I just throw in a cup of tide or similar laundry detergent to
each bucket of water.
===================
Be careful of using laundry soap near plants, though. Many have high enough
levels of alkali and chelating agents to cause damage.


What does the soapy water do to exterminate the nest?


Soapy water wets them and drowns them. Plain water doesn't, I guess
they must have some way of shedding it. I don't really know the
physics of this, but I have done it a number of times and can testify
it works.
================
The surfactant in detergents lowers the interfacial tension between water
and their body surface.

On Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:56:00 -0400, lil abner wrote:

On 9/6/2010 10:45 AM, notbob wrote:
On 2010-09-06, The Daring wrote:

Has anyone ever used a power washer to take out a nest? Um, WTF does
"askeered" mean? Does it hurt? 8-)

The term "askeered" is the local yokel synonym for "afraid".

nb
M&ms come in synonym or cinnamon?

Never heard of M&Ms in that flavor. What color are the simaron ones?

On 9/6/2010 9:41 AM, notbob wrote:
On 2010-09-05, Steve wrote:

Oh, yes you can....G

Not the original M80s, like back in the '60s. The BATF has
reclassified them as HE (high explosives) and it's class D felony to
be caught with one. There are wimpy bogus M80s and perhaps some
illegally imported one's, but it's not like 1964 when you could
legally buy a gross of the real deal for about $10 in any one of a
dozen states.

nb

Oh yes, the real deal. Get a gross each year. Just like the ones dad
got in the 60's.

--
Steve Barker
remove the "not" from my address to email

On Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:07:51 -0500, dpb wrote:

wrote:
...

I didn't think powdered Seven was available anymore.

Don't know how to grind up a seven; Sevin(tm) is readily available afaik...

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1367494&CAWELAID=109327346
Sevin is not available in Ontario in any form - I think that is true
across Canada.

Might be available to a licenced pest exterminator, but I doubt it.

On Sun, 05 Sep 2010 21:29:54 -0400, J Burns
wrote:

On 9/5/10 5:21 PM, Nelly wrote:
"J wrote in message
...
On 9/5/10 12:04 AM, lil abner wrote:

There is a law that says you can't use fire to get rid of yellow
jackets???
You don't use enough gasoline to fill a well. A quart or so is generally
all it will take but I have seen a nest that was over 5 ft deep.

Why light it? When you pour the gas down the hole, the fumes will
displace the air, so the fire won't go down the hole. The soil will keep
the heat away from the nest.

I have found that the fumes from a tablespoon of gasoline will kill a
nest. I imagine soil organisms can soon break down that small amount.

But why use gasoline at all when just some boring old bucket of soapy water
could work. That way you also don't have to pinpoint with a great deal of
accuracy the entry hole, either.

This worked for me, but the first time I was askeered and I think I poured
it out too quickly (or ran before I quite finished - I was hardly well
protected clothing-wise!). One more dousing the next night took care of the
last few of them.

Keeping in mind that I doubt the nest was particularly large, either....



That reminds me of a method where you don't have to find the nest. Make
a tripod of sticks a foot or two long, to stand in a bucket or pan.
Hang a piece of fish from it. Add water until the level is an inch or
two below the fish. Add a drop of detergent to the water and leave the
trap where yellow jackets can find it.

They tend to fall in when the try to fly with a piece of fish. The soap
speeds drowning. It may catch so many that it has to be emptied each night.
Soap plugs up their breathing aparatus

In article ,
"Stormin Mormon" wrote:

How in the hell did we ever survive our childhood?

Only those of us that did, did. Some of us did foolish things and got
away with it. Some of our friends did foolish things and didn't survive.

On 9/7/2010 10:14 AM, Smitty Two wrote:
In ,
"Stormin wrote:

How in the hell did we ever survive our childhood?

Only those of us that did, did. Some of us did foolish things and got
away with it. Some of our friends did foolish things and didn't survive.

The fact that I've worn eyeglasses since I was six years old is the
reason I still have two eyes. 9-)

TDD

Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
"Stormin Mormon" wrote:

How in the hell did we ever survive our childhood?

Only those of us that did, did. Some of us did foolish things and got
away with it. Some of our friends did foolish things and didn't survive.

I should have fallen from some trees.
I used about the whole set of trees in two villages.
Statistically I should not be here .

On 9/7/2010 11:14 AM, Smitty Two wrote:
In ,
"Stormin wrote:

How in the hell did we ever survive our childhood?

Only those of us that did, did. Some of us did foolish things and got
away with it. Some of our friends did foolish things and didn't survive.

(Nods and raises an imaginary glass to the memory of absent friends).
Yeah, one of the mental milestones of middle age is realizing that a
significant fraction of the people you ran around with as a kid are in
the ground. And no, I wasn't raised in the 'hood- we were all vanilla
middle class families with good medical care and plenty of food. Some
were lost to 'shit happens' freak stuff or illness, but many were lost
mainly due to a lack of common sense. You lose situational awareness,
and fate comes up and smacks you.

--
aem sends...

Sjouke Burry wrote the following:
Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
"Stormin Mormon" wrote:

How in the hell did we ever survive our childhood?

Only those of us that did, did. Some of us did foolish things and got
away with it. Some of our friends did foolish things and didn't survive.

I should have fallen from some trees.
I used about the whole set of trees in two villages.
Statistically I should not be here .

When I was a kid, I lived in a 5 story apartment building in the Bronx.
I lived on the 5th floor and the entrance door to the roof was never
locked. People used to go up there to sunbathe in the Summer. Of course,
it was a good place to play for us kids and drop water balloons on the
pedestrians below..
One day, when there was no one on the roof with more brains than me, I
took a stroll along the clay tiled caps on the brick edge of the roof.
On one side, the roof about 2 feet below, on the other side, a drop of 5
stories to the courtyard below.
I get chills now whenever I think of it.


--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

Once I marveled at what a wonderful "fence" with majestic blooms our new pampas grass hedge created from septic line water ... no, the roots do not invade the pipes & clog them up. They evaporate more water, so the lines & grass over them don't work so hard.
THEN the ground nesting yellow jackets (that we call Africanized hornets due to their aggressive attacks, even away from the nest) found last year's brown leaves the perfect thatch hut for nests. UGH. Once inside, nothing can get them, then they breed like crazy (1 queen = 5000 workers per year) and in summer, nest begin popping up everywhere like never before.

One was so big, I had no solutions but to burn it and WOW - you'll need the fire department standing ready - like burning a haystack!!! Had regrets later that the pampas fence was gone.

I have spent hundreds of dollars fighting wasp wars since, you name it, I've done it. Best solutions:
1. Spring: Get those queens! Rescue Yellow jacket disposable traps @$5usd employed every 100', best hung from cedar trees, near pampas, materials used to build nests
2. Summer: Traps designed to use fish scraps + drown wasps in soapy water. No garbage nor water (including day sprinklers) to make wasp think this is a good place to nest, easy pickings.
3. Fall: back to disposable traps or make your own apple juice ones

Nest found:
a) if in hole in ground? fill with ammonia or wasp killer at night (red light flashlight they can't see + they all bed down at night except for the sentries) ... country boys pee in these holes day/night
b) on wall, in shrubs? any wasp killer will do - best to buy one that kills your type of wasp, has looong spray, wear light colors, run like hell while shooting down pursuers ... up to 50 yards in daylight
c) pampas? UGH THE WORST Are you lucky? Then they are going in a hole at the top & any full can of killer will wipe them out. Not lucky? Then they are going in under the thatch and maybe a skunk will find the livers you threw in there, maybe not. Other than fire - this is the ONLY thing that works: Raid Concentrated Deep Reach Fogger