Trying To Work On Some Springs, But the Yellow Jackets Drove Me Out

Thursday 13, 2024 Guerneville CA.

Forest work

I was headed back up to the forest to work on some springs when I ran into Tom and Barry doing some work with is backhoe. I left them at it and continued on up into the forest to check out a spring.

Spring work

I stopped at this spring to do a bit of work relocating the black pipe that crosses the road here. I was doing some digging on the left when I heard the buzz of some bees by the white pipe laying there on the ground. I backed up immediately to see where the nest was and to not to get stung.

I could see the yellow jackets going into this area under that old root and was surprised they hadn’t stung me. I found out later why.

Another spring

With the bees there, I had to quit work on that spot and moved on to the next spot, here, where I just wanted to check out this spring area which I did.

And another one that needs some work

Then I moved on up to the next spring area where I wanted to do some work locating where the old spring was tapped,, up in that little ravine there.

There’s only a little water coming out of the pipe and I think I can get more water if I can find out where the inlet pipe is.

I went up the little ravine with my tools to dig around a bit where the plastic pipe went into the ground under some big rocks.

Buzzing sound

I could hear the water being sucked into the pipe so started digging and removing rocks in this spot. All of a sudden, there was a buzzing noise and about fifty yellow jackets where in the air all around me. I retreated down the ravine a short distance, leaving my tools there to try and spot the hole where the nest was.

I’m not sure why the yellow jackets didn’t sting me, maybe because I moved too fast before they located me when I disturbed their nest.

I watched them up there from down here for a bit, then I decided I better leave my tools and head on out as there wasn’t anything else I could do here with all the bee action.

Rocks

Heading up the road, I stopped here to throw these rocks off the road.

I made it up to our break area for a break.

After a good rest, I headed over to this area to check on this spring output, to see how it was doing.

Things were looking good here and no bees either.

I moved on back to the first spring I had checked where the bees scared me out. I looked for the hole where the yellow jackets had been but I couldn’t find their nest hole. It looked like I had moved the big wooden root and blocked their hole so it appeared safe. I worked on relocating the pipe line here for a bit.