 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Wasp battle ends in total victory
By KELLY RYAN GILMER, Times Staff Writer GULFPORT -- Chuck Salem was ready for battle Wednesday. For killing, he had a garden hose spraying pesticide with 450 pounds of pressure. For protection, he had striped garden gloves. His enemy: an estimated 8,000 potentially lethal yellow jackets nested in several holes covered by pine needles under a slash pine tree. Salem used netting to cover part of the ground to keep the wasps from swarming. He dusted the needles with boric acid to calm the yellow jackets. Then, he emptied 50 gallons of pesticide into the nest's entrance and exit. After all the buildup and all the warnings to onlookers to run if the yellow jackets started swarming, the battle ended in 10 minutes. Only a few tried to fly from the nest during the attack. Salem declared victory. Then, he dug up one of the nests, about 2 feet wide by 2 feet deep, and found hundreds of dead yellow jackets, larvae and eggs stored in what looked like honeycomb. Salem said that under the pine needles, among the roots, were at least two other similarly sized nests connected by passageways. "It's big," said Salem, a pest specialist with Suncoast Pest Control, who stopped wearing a beekeeper-style protective suit about three years ago. "That's unheard of in other states." For mild-weathered Florida, these nests were big, but not record-setters. Experts tell of nests filling sheds, and of one in St. Petersburg in 1996 that was 10 feet tall. The excitement Wednesday drew a handful of onlookers behind a home on 17th Avenue S. The owners weren't home, but neighbor Lenny Riccio stopped by with two cameras to watch the action. "It just sounded neat," Riccio said. "I just wanted to see how big it was." Next-door neighbor Frank Zigmund didn't know what was lurking underground, just over his backyard fence, until the pest company warned him on Tuesday. A landscaper discovered the nest a couple of weeks ago when his mower bumped it. The landscaper was stung a couple of times, neighbors said. Zigmund has three young kids, plus a teenage stepdaughter and wife allergic to yellow jackets. But he was fascinated, so on Tuesday he made a home video of hundreds of yellow jackets crawling on the grass near the nest. The taping ended when one zipped past his face. "I saw wasps sitting there playing, doing whatever they were doing," Zigmund said. "They were just swarming all over the place." Experts say homeowners should watch their yards for signs of yellow jacket activity. If homeowners see a nest, they should never try to destroy it on their own. Yellow jackets can be deadly: Last month, an 83-year-old Hillsborough County man was killed after being stung hundreds of times when his mower disturbed a hidden nest. "If there's a nest with any kind of activity, it's usually best to have a professional deal with it," said Bob Albanese, a horticulturalist with the Pinellas County Cooperative Extension Service. "Unless there's a very brave, very fast person involved."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times South Pinellas desks |
