(Beth Clifton collage)
The buzz over Asheville: furious displaced yellow jackets
ASHEVILLE, North Carolina––Wasp predators including skunks, raccoons, bears, opossums, blue jays, crows, robins, and eastern kingbirds may not exactly be missed by refugees, rescuers, and others digging out of deep mud in the wake of Hurricane Helene, with no time for wildlife-watching, but their diminished numbers are felt with every sting from abruptly abundant yellow jackets.
The birds catch yellow jackets in the air. Skunks, raccoons, bears, and opossums dig into yellow jacket nests at night, when the often feisty members of the wasp family are least active, to eat sleeping yellow jackets along with their eggs and grubs.
Wasp & wasp’s nest.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Flooding led to swarms”
“Flooding in North Carolina following Hurricane Helene has led to swarms of yellow jackets,” reported Aria Bendix and Erika Edwards for NBC News on October 3, 2024.
“The rain and floodwater most likely destroyed the insects’ underground nests, in addition to toppling trees or stumps that held nests,” North Carolina State University entomologist Chris Hayes told them.
Yellow jackets “very quickly move to defend their hive and their colony from predators or any threat that they sense,” Hayes explained.
That includes rescuers trying to clear the roads, repair downed power lines, and locate and retrieve the human dead.
Smoking a wasp nest. See Remove bees, wasps, or hornets without getting stung.
(Beth Clifton photo)
“You don’t have one yellow jacket; you have 300”
Yellow jackets “tend to get more aggressive this time of year,” Hayes continued, “because food is becoming more scarce, populations are typically crashing, and they’re getting ready to overwinter,” Hayes said.
“The storm’s effects may have aggravated some colonies even further,” Hayes said, and Bendix and Edwards paraphrased, “since efforts to clear out felled trees could restrict yellow jackets’ access to food sources such as nectar. In addition, if the severe weather killed a yellow jacket queen, the rest of her colony might be flying around aimlessly.”
Said Hayes, “Populations are just kind of spilling out, so you don’t have one yellow jacket, you have 300 of them. They can very quickly mount a response that can be very dangerous, even for people who are not severely allergic.”
“People who are severely allergic to insect venom should carry EpiPens with them at all times and seek immediate medical attention if they get stung,” Bendix and Edwards warned.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Bears raid disaster areas
Bear habitat and food sources have been devastated as much as human homes and grocery stores in the western Carolinas and the Appalachians, but displaced and hungry bears are for the most part not sniffing out yellow jacket nests.
“The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission said they are receiving reports of increased interactions with bears in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene,” reported Amanda Shaw for FOX Carolina in Asheville.
Rather, the major attractants, Shaw said, are “Spoiled food from power outages, unattended donation drop-offs, and greater availability of trash.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Poultry & pig barns
Shaw said nothing of poultry, pig, and cattle carcasses, but those litter the path of Hurricane Helene in as yet untold abundance.
“We know that we’ve had 107 poultry facilities damaged or totally destroyed, 15 dairies that have been affected, and dozens and dozens of other facilities affected,” Georgia governor Brian Kemp told news media.
Berrien County, Georgia poultry farmer Doug Harper told Zachary Hansen of the Atlanta Journal Constitution that he lost eight barns, each holding 27,400 chickens.
“Harper said the storm almost immediately knocked out his power,” wrote Hansen, “and the rain flooded the chicken houses’ backup generators, leaving his birds to overheat and die.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Mosquito population explosion expected
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention meanwhile warned that, “An increase in nuisance or floodwater mosquito populations is expected in the weeks after flooding,” bringing an escalated risk of mosquito-borne disease, including possible outbreaks of West Nile virus and eastern equine encephalitis, both often deadly and already known to be in the Carolinas.
“The city of Myrtle Beach announced by email,” reported Terri Richardson for Myrtle Beach Online, “that it will increase regular spraying and eradication efforts as a precaution. This includes more intense aerial spraying to treat adult mosquitoes, treating standing water with larvicide briquets, and assisting the Department of Health in trapping mosquitoes for inspection.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Cockfighters & dogfighters
Hurricane Helene hit the cockfighting and dogfighting belt hard, from the Carolinas deep into the Appalachians, but ANIMALS 24-7, checking the social media accounts of known suspects, has found few if any gamecock and pit bull breeders squawking and howling as yet about their losses.
There may be two reasons for that.
One is reluctance on the part of the suspects to disclose their presence, though many in counties where sheriffs have rarely if ever busted cockfighters and dogfighters, some have not previously seemed any more concerned about making noise than their roosters.
The other possible reason for silence is that many people keeping gamefowl and/or pit bulls in washed-out dead-end “hollers” may not yet have electricity restored.
What ANIMALS 24-7 can confirm is that flooding and mudslides have wreaked havoc in many of the locations of cockfighting activity documented since 2020 by Showing Animals Respect & Kindness, and in many sites of recent pit bull attacks.
Leslie Waterman McCray.
Overlooked pit bull fatalities
ANIMALS 24-7 can also confirm that at least two fatal dog attacks in the Carolinas may have received little or no attention from law enforcement and local media because one came days ahead of Hurricane Helene, as communities scrambled to prepare, and the other came just as the hurricane struck.
Two days before Hurricane Helene hit, on September 24, 2024, Lakindra McCray, 34, disclosed in a posting to her “X” social media page the death of her mother, Leslie Waterman McCray, 56, two days earlier in Conway, Horry County, South Carolina.
“She died due to a pit bull attack,” Lakindra McCray said, adding sparse detail in updates.
Leslie Waterman McCray.
(Horry County Sheriff’s Office photo)
Victim was known to police
“We got a case investigation going on now. We have a clue who the owner is but need more people to speak up and talk,” Lakindra McCray posted on September 26, 2024, but by then high winds were already hitting the region.
Horry County, on the Atlantic coast, suffered little damage, but within 24 hours sent firefighters, police, and other emergency first responders to stricken western South Carolina.
Pit bull attack victim Leslie McRay was well-known to police, having been arrested 12 times since 2024 for disorderly conduct, public intoxication, third degree domestic violence, having an open alcoholic beverage in her vehicle, and failure to appear in court.
The second victim was found dead at his home in Durham, North Carolina, on the morning of September 27, 2024.
Reported Lexie Solomon of the Raleigh News & Observer, “The man was found dead inside the home with ‘injuries consistent with being attacked by a dog,’ a police spokesperson said.
“The dog, who lived in the same home as the victim, was removed by Animal Control. The dog was euthanized, according to the Durham County Sheriff’s Office.
“Police declined to share further details, including the victim’s age and the dog’s breed. The victim’s name has not been released.”
Jimmy L. Mller.
Two dog attack deaths elsewhere also overshadowed
The September 25, 2024 deaths of dog rescuer Jimmy L. Miller in Cardwell, Missouri, and former dog breeder Nancy Ann Punches, 91, in Chehalis, Washington, may also have been overshadowed by Hurricane Helene news.
Miller, 72, was attacked by one of his rescue pit bulls. Called by his wife Bonnie Sue Miller, Dunklin County sheriff’s deputies shot the pit bull, but Jimmy L. Miller was already deceased from “severe lacerations to his arms, face, and throat, along with a significant amount of blood loss,” reported Josh Seabaugh for KFVS television in Cape Girardeau.
Punches was killed by two German shepherds she shared with a co-owner at her home alongside the Chehalis River.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Punches had history
A former American Kennel Club judge and breeder of American foxhounds, Punches saved 10 of her dogs from a December 2007 flash flood, but lost several others, surviving by “floating on the back of a large oak bookcase as flood waters rose to within 10 inches of her ceiling,” reported Mark Larabee for the Portland Oregonian.
Five years later, on October 19, 2012, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office impounded 65 dogs from Punches, including 18 puppies, charging her with 65 counts of neglect amounting to second-degree animal cruelty.
Lewis County District Court Judge Michael Roewe on April 30, 2013 allowed Punches to plead no contest to 10 counts of cruelty, gave her a 364-day suspended jail sentence, and allowed her to continue to keep up to two dogs, but required that they be spayed or neutered.
Merritt & Beth Clifton with Henry the rooster.
Roewe also forbade Punches from “any animal selling, dealing, breeding, or related commercial activity,” and ordered her to pay $19,000 in fines, fees, and restitution.
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