Yellow jackets are making bear hunting tough this year.

[jrebel]

I have never seen it this bad in my lifetime. The yellow jackets are horrible this year in the NE corner.

Hundreds swarm you anytime you stop moving.  Skinning my nephews bear was full on dangerous!!!!   We need some cooler weather ot archery season is gonna be a pain.  You can’t hear anything but buzzing….   If you have allergies to bees….make sure you have your epi!! 

[hunter399]

I have never seen it this bad in my lifetime. The yellow jackets are horrible this year in the NE corner.

Hundreds swarm you anytime you stop moving.  Skinning my nephews bear was full on dangerous!!!!   We need some cooler weather ot archery season is gonna be a pain.  You can’t hear anything but buzzing….   If you have allergies to bees….make sure you have your epi!!

I'll second this. +1.
Haven't been bear hunting.
But them yellow jackets are bad this year.

[Southpole]

We’ve gotten lucky here in Northport but our friends place in Entiat is awful. I risked my life trying to fillet a bunch of fish, got stung a few times. Go to any hardware store right now and that’s all that people are talking about.

[Feathernfurr]

Got tore up by some while bt scouting about a month ago. Had them swarming my truck on the bear opener. Could definitely do without them.

[92xj]

I concur.   It’s the worst I have ever seen by orders of magnitude.   At our place, east of you, it started right after that first super hot weekend a few weeks ago.   They just exploded in numbers.   You step out of the cabin or trailer and there are 50 within 5 feet of you.   The buzz is deafening.   Unfortunately I had to resort to traps to help tame them a little for the kids.  Would fill the surface area of the 2 11x20” pans of water/oil within 8 hours, dump and repeat. Left the traps up last weekend and the neighbors dogs came over, destroyed them and ate the rotten meat hanging. Hopefully they have severe diarrhea and got stung a bunch, I hate those stupid dogs coming on my place

[bornhunter]

Crazy. This time last year we were covered with yellow jackets.  Have seen just a couple so far this summer in west Lewis County.

[birdshooter1189]

I haven't noticed them too bad this year yet around my place on the west side. Last year they were terrible around my house. I put up a few of these traps and I killed hundreds of them this way. I would put apple cider vinegar in the bottom of the trap, or a piece of rotten fruit, or a piece of meat.  When the trap filled i'd submerge it in a bucket of water for about 20 minutes to kill the bees, then I would open it and clean it out and re-bait and put the trap back out.

I never noticed a single honey bee or mason bee or other good bees in the traps. It seemed to do a good job at just attracting the yellow jackets and bald face hornets.

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[jrebel]

We hang the yellow jacket traps and fill them in a day around our cabin.   Empty and repeat…..there is no shortage of bees this year.  2018 was a relatively bad year…..but the last 4-5 years has been very mild. 

It’s so bad this year, if I was allergic to bees……I wouldn’t be in the woods.  It’s BADDDDD!!

[MeepDog]

If only there was some sort of predator that would dig up yellow jacket nests for food. Sounds like you need a new bear spot, they aren't doing their job. 

[jrebel]

The bears are stumping hard this fall.  All the berries are burned up.  My nephews bears stomach was full of ants, bees and grubs.   The wild plumbs and choke cherries in our area are 3-4 week early and the elderberry bushes are full of berries but not ripe yet.   It will be a retesting year for bear.  I’m thinking calling could be very productive in a month or so. 

[elkinrutdrivemenuts]

It has been bad over here as well.  I did find a new trap set up this year that really helped tame them, grab a small tray and some chunk chicken (probably any meat will work), and soak it with a tube of flea and tick treatment that contains Fipronil.  They eat it and some die quickly, others return to the hive and spread it to their buddies.  I noticed a big change after a couple days.   

[nwwanderer]

They are clean up crews but one will placed stomp could save pain.

[baldopepper]

If only there was some sort of predator that would dig up yellow jacket nests for food. Sounds like you need a new bear spot, they aren't doing their job. 
Actually skunks dig them up. Had a big nest near me and went out to treat it but was already dug up.  Checked into it on line and found that skunks do this and I do see em around often. Two edge sword as skunks are also rough on game bird nests.

[hunter399]

It has been bad over here as well.  I did find a new trap set up this year that really helped tame them, grab a small tray and some chunk chicken (probably any meat will work), and soak it with a tube of flea and tick treatment that contains Fipronil.  They eat it and some die quickly, others return to the hive and spread it to their buddies.  I noticed a big change after a couple days.

We where gonna give that a try .
Heard about it last year.
Currently we are getting fruit off the backyard trees.
Draining a back yard pool . To try get a few out of my backyard.

[HikerHunter]

Last summer, I had multiple yellow jacket nests on my property, worst I had seen it in a long time. But this year hasn't been bad, I'm westside though