Copper and The Yellow Jackets

"Throughout the summer months, it is not uncommon for humans to have close encounters of the stinging kind as they use lawn mowers, edging tools or any other lawn equipment that makes noise.  The sounds made by various lawn tools will anger and disturb yellow jackets in the immediate area.  These stinging pests (often misidentified as ground hornets or honey bees) will often take a bulldozer "hostage," as the equipment operator abandons the equipment for safer ground."
  
It was August and had been a very hot dry year here in the Hollow.  Learning about yellow jackets the hard way since moving here, we would occasionally see them around the yard.  Then once their activity was spotted, I would tell the Pres and he would go out after dark and bomb the nest.  I never went on top of the hill near the Yuccas because they covered the steep hillside pretty well and I hadn't seen any activity.  It was a what I call a low maintenance spot once the Yuccas were trimmed and cleaned up for the year.

Apparently, Copper didn't get the memo or read the fine print because he blatantly disregarded the above statement.  It was a beautiful sunny day and as usual, we were playing Kong. Throwing it high like a "pop fly", when it hit the ground, it ricocheted bouncing at an angle landing right near those Yuccas.  As Copper headed for the Kong, he stepped on a hive that was apparently underground....a hive that I didn't know existed.  All I can say is thank goodness it was daytime and the nest wasn't loaded.

Watching him cower and diminish in size as the hungry wasps stung and stung again, he immediately came when I called him.  There were so many yellow jackets on his head, face and neck, it was insane!  I began swatting them away with one hand while continuing to brush them off with the other.  Trembling and obviously in pain, he leaned into me as if he were saying, "help me, Mommy."  After getting them off of him, I took him into the house and applied ice wrapped in towels.  Applying the cubes, using the ten minutes on ten minutes off rule, he finally stopped trembling.  Looking so forlorn, he settled down nicely in his crate.  My poor handsome man! 

Reminding the Pres to go out that night after it was dark, I breathed a sigh of relief once he came in and said he'd gotten the nest.  However, just for kicks, he dug it up a few days later.  It was the size of a small football!

Since that incident, I am so diligent on watching yellow jackets and their "hustling bustling" of activity.  They seem to like the banks of the creek a lot here in the Hollow.  Of course, I realize that they do eat small insects and that's fine.  They can eat their insects...but not MY DOG!   Hopefully, it will never happen again.

Busy as a bee, I'm linking up today with Amy over at Verde Farm for her Farm Friend Friday .  Come on by and say "Hi."