The yellow jackets nesting in the middle of Orlando’s mountain bike trail, a hazard to riders that resulted in closing the popular recreation venue, are way tougher than expected.
Spanning two sections of 1.2 miles and 1 mile, the Orlando Mountain Bike Park trail near Fashion Square Mall, next to Lake Druid and adjoining the Cady Way Trail was being wrung out and cleaned up after Hurricane Ian in late September by city and volunteer crews.
The city removed the big trees that had fallen. “We came in and we blew it, we raked it, we trimmed it and we got it all nice and pretty,” said Sue Van Bernum, president of the Orlando chapter of SORBA, the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association, which built and takes care of the Orlando trail.
Van Bernum went for a walking inspection on Oct. 25 with a city official.
“We stopped to talk and I said ‘what are all those bees doing over there?’ She said ‘oh my, that looks like a nest,’ and I said ‘yeah, yellow jackets that burrow in the ground.'”
The city brought in a contractor to exterminate the nest. Relocating the trail away from the nest was deemed unlikely because the trail is a big squiggle of turns and switchbacks arranged in close proximity.
“There is a lot going on in that little bit of space,” Van Bernum said of the mountain bike trail that opened in 2015 on property previously part of the former Naval Training Center Orlando and has been expanded since.
David Wagg, manager of the city’s park division, nobody knows how long the nest has been there, which is somewhat secluded by a fallen tree. There have been no reports of riders or workers being stung, he said.
The city posted “dangerous wildlife” signs at trail entrances and brought in a contractor who treated the nest and advised the city to keep the trail closed for 14 days.
“He basically said ‘this is serious and if someone got in there and got swarmed it would be a serious incident,'” Wagg said.
On Nov. 10, Hurricane Nicole crossed Central Florida, kicking up more of a mess on the mountain bike trail.
On Nov. 14, the contractor went back, found the nest still alive with yellow jackets, and again treated the site. “We are going to assess again on the 28th,” Wagg said.
With volunteer workers, SORBA’s Orlando chapter has built and maintains seven trails: Markham Woods, Minneola, Shingle Creek, Snow Hill, Soldier’s Creek, at the University of Central Florida and Orlando’s trail.
A one-two punch of hurricanes put them all out of commission temporarily.
Nobody is tempted to risk an encounter with yellow jackets, Van Bernum said.
A young rider kicked up just such a nest at the Markham Woods trail in Seminole County. The kid dropped his bike and ran, getting stung several times but otherwise escaping serious harm, Van Bernum said.
“The yellow jackets swarmed his bike for two days,” she said.
kspear@orlandosentinel.com
