Thankfully I got off to a relatively early start. Plan was to get pop up set up and then ease out to my stand and see what I could see. I got to the lease in plenty of time, 3:45. So I started raising my pop up and wow! Dirt dobber nests everywhere! I've never seen so many, inside and out. Huge ones. Ugh. If that wasn't bad enough I have mice in the pop up too. It took me over an hour to set it up and clean it out. So it's a little after 5 so I decide to go on over to my stand and see what comes out. I turn the corner and low and behold there are deer already at the feeder so I backtracked and went around and came in the back way. I get to my stand and start climbing up the ladder. Just at the top I see a yellow jacket. I kill it and then unlock the stand and open the door and yellow Jackets swarm all over the place! UGH! AGH!!! Last time I was here I killed I don't know how many of those suckers! Well I climb down my ladder and hightail it back to my truck for the wasp spray. All this going on and the deer are still at the feeder chewing down. I get a branch and ease up te ladder and use the branch to open the door. Looked like they were under my carpet so I spray all under there and the YJs start coming out like crazy...yuk! Finally I get them there and suck it up and climb on in the stand. I here some buzzing and look up and between a space in the frame I see a couple easing out...I hit them with some spray and spray all in the crack! And man do the YJs start coming out of the wood work! I spray some more and then start stepping on them as they fall. Finally! I start cleaning things up and as I'm getting ready to sit down I hear some more buzzing...you gotta be kidding me! Really! I'm out of spray so I climb down get the other bottle and climb back up and start spraying some more! And another huge group start falling to the floor. So I start cleaning up and hear a couple more but I determine they were just dying so I finally think I've gotten them all and cleaned every thing up and by the time I do it's dark. Boy I'm pooped! I just sat in the stand for about twenty minutes watching a couple of skunks go at it and finally climb out and lock it up and head back to camp. What a night!

I'm so thankful that I came in early and was able to deal with all of this today rather than have to do it In the AM! I'm also very very thankful the YJs didn't sting me! I sure hope tomorrow goes well!

Good luck tomorrow.

May tomorrow bring you better luck

I can't believe they didn't lite you up! They are usually really aggressive. I have been stung hundreds of times opening galvanized gates between hayfields!

Hate those yellow jackets and the red wasps as well. I have learned to come out opening day eve and stop by each blind and throw a mini bug fogger in each one. Most of our stands had those buggers in them today, but they won' t be a problem tomorrow after they got the fog.

Thanks guys! Yea trust me I was just waiting to get lit up! Especially when I opened the door the first time and they swarmed all around me! I moved deliberately but nothing more than that when I was getting down. Funny cuz all thru this those deer were still at the feeder!

Glad you didn't get stung and it's nice to know you can practice break dancing in your stand without bothering the deer...

Last year I was walking off some distances for bowhunting around my stand, and stepped in a ground nest of them little yellow devils. They went up my pants leg and started stinging me. As I was trying to kill them I guess they were giving off distress signals or something, because the rest of them chased me all the way across the small field I was in. I would run toward my wife to help get them off my back, and she would run away from me. She didn't want any part of it cause they were still swarming all around me. I ended up with only 7 or 8 stings, but it really got us both worked up.

Sounds a lot like my day. My blind was set up just last Sunday and there hundreds of those devils in there. I was not prepared for that and had to run to town, luckily only about five miles away.

I wanted to see what would walk by and had ideas about running off a group of hogs that have been hitting my feeder. I had my sweet lil ol Winchester 52 with me for that purpose, wanted to make as little racket as possible and figured I'd get a head shot on a little piggy and persuade the group to find another neighborhood. So a few minutes before dusk I stand up to teak a lake in a jug I have in the blind for that purpose and as I'm settling back into my chair a nice buck walks right in front of my blind...I'm ten feet up looking down at him. I froze, but how he didn't bust me Ill never know. He sauntered off and out of view. Ten minutes later a solitary boar appears before me...not the group I had hoped to see, but I wanted to shoot something and there he was. I had heard a headshot with a .22 will put 'em down. I can confirm that.

I hope I haven't run that buck off. I'd like to see him again tomorrow morning!

Moral of story...check you stands before season.lol..glad you didn't get stung!

Where did you shoot him in the head with a 22???

exactly!

In the eyeball, sunsetroosters.

No Peat Strip works great. Keeps tbem out for 3-4 months.

Geez! I got in the stand this morning and whatya know...yellow jackets! Agh! Killed'em. I go to get in the stand this afternoon and guess what...yep you guessed it yellow jackets! I gotta say I'm getting kinda tired of having to deal with this so much!

I'm going to try to find a hanging strip tomorrow!

Same thing happened to me last weekend . I left a can of spray in blind and needed it today. Not too many, but one is too many to me.

i use tree stands.. much easier :-P but no tv or coffee maker ;|

They didn't bother me this morning but they are awake now! Nice little warm up we had.