Good evening Bod Mac the east side of mountains sound like better weather, but not ad bad as death vally ca. Highest temps 134 degrees f.
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We break 100* off and on for about three weeks but it is dry heat in July, and August.
Over 290 days of sun shine.
Bob
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Them there montains really change the weather out your way, SWEM, when you can, i ran out of wood chopping time and getting real low on wood, been rebuilding the body on a 97 4×4 s10 and now i here a back ground rattle, so its time too pull a 4.3 and examan, i have a good lower unit, so i will use the known good heads and put her back too gether before winter, while makei g time too gather heating wood and gasifier wood too chop or chunk. And i have a 2 wd 01 it only needs some front end frame replacement and alinement too drive, the 97 LS is non creuse aquiped,and the 2001 SLS s10 it has creuse control on that model truck.
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Al, the black soldier fly is a wasp-like critter that lays eggs in rotting carcasses. The lavae that grows burrows/tunnels through a carcass really fast and eats basically anything that earthworms don’t eat. They produce thousands of eggs and quickly grow. At a certain stage, the larvae stop eating, lose their mouth organ, and start climbing upwards to separate themselves from the mess to finish out their “gestation”. At that point they look like a little worm-like cocoon shell thing that just wiggles. I forget the numbers, but I think they are something like 86% protein. And since they separate themselves, they basically harvest themselves. Just build a ramp for them to climb up and a bucket to fall into and they harvest themselves as an incredible chicken/fish food. Mix with some greenery and you don’t need any supplements.
Here, where they are native, it is pretty easy to start up too since it’s pretty easy to build your houses and then lure wild flies to lay their eggs their.
They also work very well with earth worm vermiculture since the two species eat different kinds of material. Usually worms are kept under the fly boxes.
Kristijan, you’re hillarious. Thanks.
And I’m with you on the chicken thing. They don’t usually get a grave and head stone around here either. Maybe if they died of some disease, but then they get composted or put in the bio-gas digesters.
We can a lot of chicken here. Erika uses it for one of her MRE’s. Butcher a chicken. Keep all the good organ meat, feet, heads, bones, etc.Cut it up into pieces small enough to get in the jar, add a T of salt. And pressure can it for a while. You end up with fully cooked meat ready for any use (except fried chicken) with a very rich broth and you don’t lose anything. Works great for old birds too.
Jason, Did that cow need to “get a shot” or did it need “to get shot”.
I had a cow that needed to get shot too, and it wasn’t worth anything after that. 
Steve, sorry about the stings. We’ve been using lavender oil and honey on stings. Seems to work well. Getting stung is kind of a way of life around here I guess. The worst are these relatively new european hornets and japanese hornets.
Garry, when did the Europeans bring the yellow jackets here? I always assumed they were native because around here, tradition has it that the Creek indians would dig up the nests and make yellowjacket soup. We’ve done it ourselves actually. It’s a sweet soup with the honey and brood and paper all adding to the mix. Usually it is made with native pumpkin or squash (seminole squash). Of course, many of the native tribes were pretty good at using whatever came along I guess.
It’s fun to melt lead and pour it into a yellow jacket nest and then dig it up.
They can be quite large and spread out.
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Looks like Ben is selling his website and book biz. $320,000, $80,000 in revenue.
Thanks All for the yellowjacket leg stings consolations.
Back at it after just two days.
Ha! Now today nursing a new found grounds nest one sting on one thumb and one sting on the opposite hand index finger. Yep! Should have never taken off those gloves! But it was 90F hot, hot with the full 16 oz/per/years double front logger jeans and buttoned up hickory shirt.
Oh well. Good for the hands arthritis treatments after the finger swellings go down.
Nope. No bees allergies here.
I’ve only had to treat/kill at one house we lived in built on a concrete slab. Tough critters to finally get rid of. They kept tunneling out in a different place. Out on the forest property, they live there. Not a problem except for mid-day disturbing.
Quick building paper wasps are different. Distance spray every globe nest they make. Bigger colonies - very dangerous. They always go for the head.
tree-farmer Steve unruh
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You dont actully eat the paper from the nest, or is that scooped out first.I know who too look up when a food shortage could happen.??
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Wow, yellow jacket soup, I guess the bears are on to something.
This is the wasp I’m talking about. The Wikipedia map doesn’t accurately reflect their distribution.
A brief look seems to show that there are similar native species, so now I’m a bit puzzled. I think all we have here are the European ones. I think I heard the European ones were brought here in colonial times, I could imagine a dormant queen hitching a ride, or maybe a nest on a ship the crew didn’t want to deal with. I hear they are a formidable problem in New Zealand, and the southern US, where nests don’t winterkill, and can get up to car size. Don’t like them one bit, but haven’t had any serious bouts with them for the longest time, fingers crossed…
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Yup yellow jackets are about the meanest of the wasps we have here. I will take the black honnets over yellowjackets any day. I have been lucky that I don’t seem to have too much trouble with them but they are around for sure.
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I feel like this has been a pretty bad year for wasps already - I had to knock down a football sized nest that was forming right outside my shed window, and then I found another huge one hanging in some of my newly planted doug firs. I found that rubbing alcohol in a squirt bottle kills bees, although you have to hose them down pretty good. It helped that I could open the window, snipe a few, then slam it shut. I also discovered that 3" magnum .410 shells with #9 shot will do a pretty good job on the hanging nests (once you have missed with enough dirt clods that your pride it hurt).
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If the chips are ground up in the fall there is no nitrogen. If the chip are ground up with lots of leaves in the spring or summer the leaves and greens will start cooking overnight. A chipper that is sharp and properly adjusted will produce a finer easier to break down chip. I worked for a tree service where we would regrind all our chips with a tub grinder and added half cow manure. 90 days and alittle stirring it up and we would have black gold. The last chips i receive were not ground up well and had no leaves or any type of nitrgen so they took 5 years to break down.
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Yeah, well both hands are a bit swollen and sore itchy today. O.K. for gross motor skills works like brush hogging. Text/typing is a bugger-do. And fine weeding in the garden is out for a couple of days too.
This particular arthritis treatment is not one I would voluntarily recommenced.
tree-farmer Steve unruh
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A one gallon sprayer with a good dose of dawn dish soap will kill any wasp in less than a minute if you spray right on them…it will kill any kind of bug that i tried it on lncluding jap beetles.
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The soup is made from the whole thing since most of what you will get will be inthe comb/paper …meaning honey, pollen, brood, etc. There’s not a lot of “paper” in a yellow jacket nest in the ground anyway.
We need to try that again. It’s been quite a few years since we did it. You always get stung doing it so it’s not high on the list, but the soup is a real treat.
Definately more widespread than what they show there/…
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Thanks for the info, you folks out there in alibama country know a lot more about farming or cub scouting than me. Actualy i wish more of that kind of things were tought in public schools. Instead i think public schools are just the opisite.
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Other creative methods:
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Another simpler approach I like for nests hanging on buildings is a 2x4 right around sunset or after dark. All the wasps are in the nest, so you crush the nest from the opening, then lay a beating on it from 10 - 12 feet away, scrape it down, and whack it a few times, problem solved. 
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If you have a crack or hole in the house where they are flying in and out, I hook up my shop vac at dusk with the nozzle an inch or so from their entrance. The next day when they are busy, turn on the vac. They can’t flap their wings fast
enough to escape.
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What happens when you open the shop vac to empty it-- or use it on your wood truck. TomC
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