[Leica] Converting Trouble into Medicine

[jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)]

Fascinating.

I had to look up what yellow jackets were, and came across this sentence:

"Despite having drawn the fear and loathing of humans, yellow jackets are
in fact important predators of pest insects"

Does that mean that you are at risk of a pest infestation now, and a
different set of problems?

Cheers
Jayanand

On Sun, Oct 2, 2016 at 11:01 PM, Jim Nichols <jhnichols at lighttube.net>
wrote:

> Several weeks ago, I discovered a Yellow Jacket nest in my back yard.  I
> kept a wary eye on it, but worried that my lawn maintenance guy might get
> stung.
>
> On Friday, the local newspaper, The Tullahoma News, ran an article on a
> Winchester, TN resident who traps Yellow Jackets, Hornets, and Guinea
> Wasps, and freezes them, eventually packing them in dry ice and shipping
> them to the lab of AKL Source Material in Pennsylvania.  There, the venom
> sacs are extracted by hand and used to create anti-venom.  I gave him a
> call and told him about my nest.  He arrived yesterday afternoon as I was
> watching a football game.
>
> I decided to document the process.  The first photo shows the nest
> entrance as I found it, essentially a hole in the ground laid bare by the
> passage of many insects.
>
> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Yellow+Jacket+Nest.TIFF.html
>
> Pete Waldenmaier's "BeeBusters" truck.
>
> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Bee+Busters+Truck.tif.html
>
> The vacuum trap, essentially a tank vacuum cleaner with a special
> collector trap.
>
> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/The+Vacuum+Trap.tif.html
>
> The trap in position at the nest hole.
>
> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Trap+in+Position.tif.html
>
> Final adjustments.
>
> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Final+Adjustments.tif.html
>
> After about an hour, the insect stream slows, so Pete hammers on the
> ground to disturb them, and more start flying out.  The vacuum captures
> most of them immediately.
>
> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Hammering+on+
> the+Ground.tif.html
>
> His truck is filled with support equipment, including a freezer and
> bottles of carbon dioxide.
>
> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Support+Equipment.tif.html
>
> The final product is a bottle of Yellow Jackets.
>
> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Yellow+Jackets.tif.html
>
> Pete stuns the insects with carbon dioxide before placing them in the
> freezer to die.  To be usable, the insects must remain frozen until the
> venom sacs are harvested at the lab.
>
> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Stunning+with+
> Carbon+Dioxide.tif.html
>
> While he had this operation going on at my house, he had a parallel
> operation going on about 15 miles away.  I'm told there are only about 40
> of these collectors nationwide.
>
> Comments and critiques welcomed and appreciated.
>
> --
> Jim Nichols
> Tullahoma, TN USA
>
>
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