I bought a couple of trail cameras to try before buying more to take to Tanzania.

I went and put them up in one of our animal compounds.

I put them up and was on the way out.

Suddenly, I got swamped with wasps!

I got bit on my ears, neck and arms.

I ran as fast as I could to get away.

I don’t know how many bites I got, but it was very painful!

I did not get any sympathy.

My wife said the wasps that bit me might be dead now!

This morning I went to the chemist and bought DEET, sun lotion and mosquito repellent.

These I will mix as usual for the tsetse flies.

I will report on the trail cameras once I have used them a few days.

I hate wasps, it seems like they build a nest beside every barn door, under every tractor fender and in every deer stand and I manage to disturb almost all of them. I keep cans of wasp spray handy.
You might have some really interesting photos of you fighting wasps on those game cameras!

The cameras were facing the other way, and quite far from where I got whacked.

Saeed, I am sure your mother told you not to play with wasps.

But ohh no you are a slow learner.

Saaed, how does your mixture do in keeping the tsetse flies away? DEET alone did not work for me. I think they like me for a change in their diet.

There is nothing that works 100% against them.

But, I found my mixture works as well as any commercial product.

Also, it seems they do like some people over others.

Sitting in the truck with Ray, he gets covered, and hardly any on me.

I think they avoid kind, handsome, young looking hunters.

Once I swallowed one while driving.

I stopped the truck and drank a gulp of Tabasco.

So world might have gotten around the tsetse fly community that I eat them.

Saeed, your wasp experience is a good reason to get a Sawyer Extractor first aid suction kit. It is a plunger with a large selection of cups to fit most any size bite or sting. After getting stung, you put the suction cup over the bite and push down the plunger until it locks. There is enough suction that it’ll pull your skin up into the cup and you’ll see the venom come back out through the wound.

Instant relief!

I’ve been stung by wasps several times where I had the kit handy, and each time it reduced the pain to nearly nothing. Of course, you have to use it soon after the sting to get best results.

It also comes with a cup for snakebite. I hope to never have to use that one.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
The cameras were facing the other way, and quite far from where I got whacked.

Oh well, maybe next time.

We have an irrigation system for our lawn.

We went with a new irrigation company this year. They sent a guy out to open the system for us.

He showed up one morning, opened one of the distribution boxes, and nearly pissed himself as a dozen yellow jackets buzzed out in an angry mood.

I believe he would have beaten Usain Bolt in the first 10 yard dash away from that box.

He wasn’t stung, but he was scared half to death. He couldn’t leave fast enough, all the while promising to come back the next day.

I drowned the nest in a stream of wasp killing insecticide. No wasp survived.

We never heard from the irrigation guy again. Not the next day, nor after several texts in follow up.

Wasps don't bother me. I've been stung by so many over the years. The first time when I was a little kid I got hit by 17, so after that they are nothing. Have been nailed many times since, but I think the fact that I'm not scared of them results in not getting stung.

Would love something that works on tsetse's and don't say skin so soft. That stuff stinks, as in smells.

Saeed, what's your mixture?

Going to southwest Tanzania in a couple of months. Been there before and they are brutal.

I think we all realize just how we can still run when we bump into nest of bees !!

It’s the yellow jackets I don’t like...

quote:

We have an irrigation system for our lawn.

We went with a new irrigation company this year. They sent a guy out to open the system for us.

He showed up one morning, opened one of the distribution boxes, and nearly pissed himself as a dozen yellow jackets buzzed out in an angry mood.

Mike: I opened one of my irrigation boxes in my backyard one afternoon only to discover an entire beehive in it, honeycomb and all! Needless to say, I waited until evening and then poured a mixture of water and liquid dish soap on the entire hive, bees and honeycomb. Killed all of the bees and ruined the honecomb, I cleaned it out the next morning. I've had to kill a number of hives in the yard over the years to keep the grandchildren from getting stung. We do have Africanized bees here in Las Vegas, so I don't take any chances. I really hate to kill them, but hiring a beekeeper to come and take them, etc. is too expensive. We have plenty of bees because we live next to an agricultural area in Northwest Las Vegas with orchards and vegetable fields, etc, and many of us also have our own citrus and fruit and nut trees as well.

Bees are a different matter. Like you UEG, I would hate to have to kill even one, much less an entire hive of them.

But wasps? I would kill every bloody one of them if I could.

Same for mosquitos and ticks, but of course that goes without saying.

quote:

But wasps? I would kill every bloody one of them if I could.

Same for mosquitos and ticks, but of course that goes without saying.

Yep

I would rather be stung by honey bees than tangle with wasps or hornets as they can and often sting multiple times.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I think they avoid kind, handsome, young looking hunters.

What absolutely kills wasps dead is gasoline. Kills them on impact. Put it in a horse sprayer. A bit of a fire hazard though.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
What absolutely kills wasps dead is gasoline. Kills them on impact. Put it in a horse sprayer. A bit of a fire hazard though.

Yeah, but think of how much fun it would be to pump while having something to ignite the spray. Red neck flamethrower!

For Yellowjackets just make a bee trap. Take a small cube of meat, hang it a little off the ground from a branch and put a container full of water underneath. The bees eat the meat until they get too heavy to hang on so they fall into the water. Always used this in camp during an early season elk hunt.

This is my mixture for tsetse flies for this year

Ben’s 100% DEET, Picaradin and SPF 50 sunscreen. Got it.

I try using approximately 50% DEET, and the sun [protection and mosquito repellent in equal amounts.

quote:

I try using approximately 50% DEET, and the sun [protection and mosquito repellent in equal amounts.

So, that would actually work out to about 25% for the sun protection and 25% for the mosquito repellent in the total formula as I understand your recipe.

Where I hunt in Nw Namibia there are quite a few mopane bees. Although they don’t sting or bite, their buzzing sounds exactly like an American mosquito and they fly up my nose or my mouth if it’s open. The best defense is a Montecristo Cuban cigar, which instantly repels them. An added bonus is I like a good cigar occasionally. Of course if we’re stalking game I extinguish the cigar to be relit when the stalk is done.

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:

quote:

I try using approximately 50% DEET, and the sun [protection and mosquito repellent in equal amounts.

So, that would actually work out to about 25% for the sun protection and 25% for the mosquito repellent in the total formula as I understand your recipe.

I have discovered that tsetse flies are not too particular.

In various formulas it seems as long as you have 30-50 DEET, the rest can be in any amount.

So, fine, it repels tsetse flies, but the California state legislature demands to know, does it cause cancer in fruit flies????

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
So, fine, it repels tsetse flies, but the California state legislature demands to know, does it cause cancer in fruit flies????

It does, gives them brain cancer.

The good thing has no effect against anyone in California, as non have any brains.

quote:

So, fine, it repels tsetse flies, but the California state legislature demands to know, does it cause cancer in fruit flies????

Are you asking where is the California Proposition 65 Warning that is on every single imaginable item created by God?! I'm surprised that it's not on California birth certificates, driver's licenses and of course, their death certificates!

40 0dd years ago driving in California there were so many signs to vote for proposition this and proposition that.

I used to think what a bunch of nuts, voting for things that make no sense at all.

40 years later now, I can see the results

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40 years later now, I can see the results

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40 years later now, I can see the results