STUNG by 200 ANGRY YellowJackets!

- The entire nest is under this ground structure. Wow, look at that! (laughs) (yellow jackets buzzing) (screams) (fast dramatic music) You can see the swarm is pretty intense at this point. Oh! I have a feeling this will probably be a bit painful. I'm Coyote Peterson and I'm about to enter the

angry

yellow jackets box. (screams) You guys are going to have to run because these things will be swarming everywhere. (screams) (yellow jacket buzzing) Bad idea! Bad idea! (yellow jacket buzzing) (soft, suspenseful music) Here's a question. Have you ever been surrounded by yellow jackets? Yellow jackets build their nests below the surface of the earth.

And if you run into them, especially in the fall, they will appear in swarms and sting you multiple times. Now, one difficult thing is how do you know where the yellow jacket nest will be? You don't, until now. Let me show you this. See that little pink flag? And that stake stuck in the ground? That's a huge yellow jacket nest. And today we are going to discover three different things about these stinging insects. Number one, can they sting through a bee suit? We'll do this as a test to determine if only these little guys can get through a bee suit, before trying it against giant hornets.

Number two, how far must you walk from a swarm of yellow jackets before they stop following you? And number three, are they still

angry

, even after they were taken out of their nest, put inside a plastic box, and then your hand went into the box? I'm sure you're saying, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Coyote, did you just say box full of yellow jackets and your hand goes inside the box?" Yes, guys, that's exactly what we're getting into today. But first we must test the bee suit theory. Let's dress up and see what happens when we disturb an entire yellow jacket nest.

About a year ago we filmed an episode called "Bullet Ant Box," which we essentially made an advanced version of today. Now let's catch the yellow jackets. You see, it has a little sliding hatch there. The way we will catch them is to enter without disturbing the nest, place this right on top and once the nest is disturbed, dozens of them will fly up and enter the box. Wow, look at that! (laughs) Wow, okay, yeah, we're definitely being invaded right now. So I think that's enough for the box itself. Let me go ahead and close this. (Yellow jackets whizzing) (Screams) Yeah, that's a whole box of yellow jackets. (yellow jackets buzzing loudly) Okay.

You can see that the swarm is quite intense at this point. Oh! God. I probably got stuck in my hand. Look at the GoPro. The GoPro is completely packed. Yellow jacket chaos. We have our box of yellow jackets. Now we are just a few meters from the nest. Oh. Oh. Oh. Man. Definitely outdoing the suit. They are definitely outpacing demand. Well. Oh. Alright, come on, let's slowly head back in this direction. Oh. Moving slowly. You can see that they are definitely still following you. Are they biting you? - My finger was

stung

and it definitely hurts.

So far I have two bites on my legs. They're still hanging around the GoPro. Alright. At this point we are about 40 meters from the nest, while they are still super angry. Oh! Let them bite you in the back. We'll go down this bridge here. Ah ah. Ah ah. Now we are about 150 meters from the nest and I don't see them swarming as much anymore, what about you? - No. - Are they all around me? - No, actually I don't see anything around you. - Oh. So what the yellow jackets will ultimately do is attack any potential aggressor in their home, follow them and sting them, follow them and sting them.

Now let's place my bare hand inside the box to determine, "Are you still mad at me?" "Are they going to bite me?" I have a feeling this is going to be pretty extreme. (sighs) Well, we have reached the third part of today's experiment. This is what we have learned so far. Number one, yellow jackets can definitely sink through a bee suit, because I got about 20 hits. We also learned that once you disturb an angry yellow jacket nest, it will follow you for at least 150 yards. Now, the third part, definitely the most entertaining, will be the angry yellow jacket box.

We have about a hundred of these biting insects inside this contraption. What I'm going to do is remove the hatch and my bare arm will go inside the box. The real question is, after 15 minutes of being removed from their nest, are they still angry? Are they still going to bite? Will they crawl on me? I have a feeling this will probably be a bit painful. So, here we go. I'm Coyote Peterson and I'm about to enter the angry yellow jackets box. One two three. Here we go. (suspense music) Oh, oh, oh! They definitely

stung

me right away.

Ah! Ah! Ah! Yes, many bites very quickly. Alright guys, I won't be able to keep my hand here for long. Ohhh! Okay, my hand has to come out. The hands have to come out. You guys will have to run because these things will be swarming everywhere. - Wait, wait, here, let's put the door back. - Alright. The door, the door, help, help, help. - Did you understand? Here. (suspense music) - Okay. I mean, it was a bad idea. Bad idea. Bad idea. Put the door. Right there, right there, right there. There there there. No, no, it's not in the slot.

Just there. Just there. Just there. Just there. Well. Put, put, put, put. Oh oh man. Oh man. Well. Abandon ship. Abandon ship. Owwwwww! (suspense music) Ahhhhh! Ahhhh! Ahhh! Do you know what they say? Play stupid games and win stupid prizes. Oh yeah. They are still very, very angry. Oh my god, I got a lot of bites. Ahhh! - Oh! (laughs) Man. Fox worked. They bit me. - Owww! - Let me try to climb up here a little bit. Alright. I'm going to run and capture it. I think his hand was there for maybe, for what? 10 seconds, if that? - 10 seconds.

Oh my God. Holy Cow. My arm is on fire right now. It also gives me an instant headache. Well. Then the moment my index finger went in there, they started crawling up my sleeve and stinging me over and over again. And so that zillions of them wouldn't come out and spread all over the crew, I had to keep my arm there while we tried to slide the back of the box in. I just panicked. Not know what to do. That was super intense and very, very painful, very fast. - Well. Get out, get out, get out. - There are many bites very, very quickly.

I mean, a lot of bites. Wow. Oh. Oh my God. No, do not do it! - Can I just watch? It's, it's, a. - I thought you were going to squeeze my hand. - Yeah, let's put this little guy there. No hard feelings. - Yuck. - No hard feelings. - Yuck. (sighs) Oh my God. My hand is throbbing. Okay, wait. I have to understand, you probably know that I have pheromones in me. Oh Lord. Oh Lord. Dude, it's very, very, very bad. It's really bad. - Do you have Sting Heal? - Yes, I have Sting Heal. - Do you want some water? - I just need to breathe for a second, man.

It's really, really, really painful. Incredibly painful. It's like it's escalating to the point where we're entering giant hornet territory. Oh Lord. Dude, look how fat my fingers and hand are getting. - Turn it around. Inspect it. (Coyote blows) - Okay - Let me see the ones on the top of your wrist. But stay still. - I'm trying, friend. This is a bad idea. I don't know what I was thinking. This is a terrible idea. Oh, we should have stopped at the bee suit. This is absolute agony. This is crazy. We're approaching giant hornet pain territory with this amount of venom pumped into my arm.

I'm like, I'm losing my mind right now. Ahhh! - Blame it on the algorithm. Hello, how are you guys doing? There is an old saying that my boss told me. Number one, if you're going to be stupid, you have to be tough. And number two, never put your hand in a box full of angry hornets or, in this case, yellow jackets. - So this was when I knew things were going completely wrong, the moment I stopped at the door and the yellow jackets immediately went after my hand and started stinging and biting my fingers. I couldn't even get my hand all the way into the box before I needed to tap.

I was like, "I have to stop, I have to stop." At one point, I almost fainted and thought, "This is too much." "What is happening to me?" (muffled roar) So I think the yellow jackets are after the people? No absolutely not. And the reason yellow jackets and hornets are so aggressive this time of year is because they are no longer feeding their young and are reaching the end of their life cycle. They are in a bad mood. And if you disturb their nest, as you saw happened here with me today, you will pay the wrath. I can't explain to you in words how painful the swelling and pain in my arm is right now, but it is intense.

So whatever you do, if you come across one of these nests and disturb it, run! Stay as far away as you can and hopefully you will resist the stings. If you feel like your body is having a negative allergic reaction, seek medical attention as quickly as possible. And please, please, as we always emphasize in "Brave Wilderness", do not repeat the things you see me doing here on the channel. This was ridiculously stupid. I'm Coyote Peterson. Be brave. (laughs) Stay wild. (sighs) See you on the next adventure. I need ice cream. (sighs) (slow, dramatic music) That was, without a doubt, one of the worst nights of sleep I have ever had.

The pain, and now the itch, that came with the angry yellow jacket box is simply unbearable. I managed to fall asleep for about 10 or 15 minutes, and then I woke up in agony, and around 2:00 am, the itching started, and I didn't even know how to itch. I try to do it very gently, because it hurts when it stings. My hand is absolutely huge. You can see how swollen and swollen it is. Yuck. Angry yellow jacket box, the stupidest idea I have ever thought of. (slow dramatic music)