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HOME OF THE JACKETS!!!




Thomas County Central High School's sports teams have long been known as the Yellow Jackets or for women's sports the Lady Jackets. I found out first hand on Sunday just how fierce this very tiny insect can be.
We have been out of town on the weekends for much of the summer traveling, ironically, to watch my daughter play Lady Jacket softball, so I haven't had much time to work in my yard. This past weekend we had some time off before the school ball season started so I took the opportunity to complete some long planned tasks in the yard.
We have woods that run along our property line at the back and side, so I decided to clear out some of the overgrown brush along the side wood line.  I was using electric clippers with a long extension cord that I had tied around my waist leaving enough slack to maneuver the clippers through the brush.  This is a trick I learned long ago after cutting through too many extension cords. Even though it was extremely hot I was making a lot of progress until I met the fierce yellow jacket and all her friends.  Yellow jackets many times live under old wood or pine straw burrowing into the ground and when disturbed they get really angry.  Unlike the bee that stings only once, the yellow jacket can sting over and over again.
I have never been bitten by a snake, but when the first yellow jacket stung me on my lower leg the first thought I had was that I had been bitten by a small snake.  So I started to run out of the brush and as I ran the yellow jackets were stinging me left and right.  I thought that I was going to make it out without too many stings until I was abruptly stopped in my tracks and yanked backwards as the cord tied around my waist caught and tightened into a nasty knot.  I'm screaming as I am being bitten over and over by the jackets, nine times in total.  My wife comes running to see who was murdering me and my dog was going crazy thinking I was being attacked by someone or something.  All the while, I am helplessly tethered to this extension cord and trying to untie a nasty knot to escape the jackets.
Finally, I free myself from the cord and make a run for the water to drown any remaining jackets and get some relief from the stings. Luckily I am not allergic, but the pain of the bites is not a laughing matter.
I am sure that anyone watching from afar must of thought I had lost my mind, but I assure you that the sting of the yellow jacket is not a fun thing to experience and brings a whole new meaning to the chant, Go Lady Jackets!!!!  I, for one, will never again doubt the power of the yellow jacket.

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