Bees 2, Undisputed ?

[Dale]

Just taking a break from cutting my grass. We've had a very dry summer so far and, whenever we have a particulary dry one, wasps of various kinds build nexts under my lawn. So, I encountered one just a few moments ago. I was signalled by getting stung four or five times on my head, in spite of my baseball cap. I escaped the area, fleeing from a black cloud of AFRICANIZED KILLER BEES FROM HELL. I gave them a chance to settle down and was able to go out and find the little coin-sized hole to their demonic secret lair. I just poured a large kettle full of boiling water down hole #1 and then watched the water come up another little hole I hadn't noticed about 18 inches away. Saw a little beasts come up with the water and die. Dead. All dead. My head hurts. But they're dead.

[Dale]

My head is now swollen five times its usual size. Which is scary because, when I don't have deadly neurotoxins coursing through my system, my head is already enormous.

[Dale]

Delirious. floating. peopl ar floating around me. peple r kinda pinkk. playng recorderss. republicnnnnnnnns.

[Dale]

there goes one. i think iz phil hardhy

[djm]

The current crop may be dead, but the eggs may not be. Next time you come across a nest like this, I suggest you pour gasoline down the hole and ignite it. That way they are less likely to re-inhabit the same hole.

djm

[Dale]

Actually, I did pour gasoline down it. I'm always a little skittish about igniting gasoline.

[Jack]

Poor things. I love bees (and their honey tastes sweet) but I am severely allergic and will die if they sting me.

Here is a picture of a dead bee a friend of mine recently took:



It's a startling picture, I think.

[Nanohedron]

Delirious. floating. peopl ar floating around me. peple r kinda pinkk. playng recorderss. republicnnnnnnnns.

But seriously, Dale. Killer Africanised bees in the demesne of the Undisputed? How......inconvenient. No, make that alarming. Glad you're pretty much okay.

[Dale]

I am okay. But, darn, my head really hurts. I'm moving air easily and showing no signs of shock.

[Dale]

Delirious. floating. peopl ar floating around me. peple r kinda pinkk. playng recorderss. republicnnnnnnnns.

But seriously, Dale. Killer Africanised bees in the demesne of the Undisputed? How......inconvenient. No, make that alarming. Glad you're pretty much okay.

I'm not sure they were Killer Africanized Bees. It just makes for a better story. They were small and rather fragile looking and black. And they made my head hurt. I mean, really.

[Casey Burns]

Hi Dale,

I feel your pain.

Actually, Africanized Honey Bees are just honey bees with an attitude. They nest in trees, attics, etc. and anywhere where they can find a cavity roughly the size of a bee hive box.

It sounds like you ran into a nest of ground nesting wasps. Horrible things imported from Europe. These are the scourage of forest firefighters who occasionally run into these and suffer 200-500 stings.

A friend of mine once had a nest of these on his farm and tried gasoline, drowning them, etc. Nothing worked. He finally poured concrete over all but one of the openings to their nest, then with the last opening, fit a shop vac hose with about 30' of 4" pipe (30' was about the limit - these bees were really pissed off by then), carefully nosing the pipe towards the opening and left the 30 gallon shop vac on for 2 weeks until the last wasp flew out and experienced that giant sucking sound. The shop vac had Rotenone inside to kill the wasps inside. He left it on for another week.

I was there when he opened the vac. We listened first with a stethoscope (his mom was a nurse) to assure ourselves they were dead inside. When we opened it, this 30 gallon vac was entirely full of dried, dessicated wasps!

I kept honey bees for awhile in the early 90s and at one time had about 12 hives. One day working them I ran out of fuel in my smoker and still had a hive open. I accidentally jarred it and bees boiled out. Even though I was veiled and gloved, I got about 50-60 stings through my clothing. The next summer I got stung once and my lips swelled up. Allergy testing indicated that I was severely allergic. That was the end of my beekeeping experiment. Took 2 years of getting "stung" weekly at my allergists until I wouldn't react.

Beekeepers like to share their war stories. The worst I heard was the one who had a bee inside his veil and then crawling over his mustache. He stopped breathing and before he could pinch it, inhaled - getting the bee along with the air. He could feel it crawling inside his sinuses for a few minutes, going deeper and deeper. Then it stung. Imagine a nuke going off in your forehead. His eyes swelled shut for a week.

Inside the shop I have all sorts of German wasps. The queens like to find cavities to overwinter and occasionally I have found a few overwintering in the flutes on pins. We also have mason bees. These like holes 1/4" in diameter - thus old bolt holes in my lathe bench. The also investigate ears and I've been stung by these trying to crawl in. The bumblebees fly in and get disoriented - these usually get escorted carefully outside as they do most of the pollinating around here.

My worst ground wasp experience was in 1973 while digging hiking trail for the BLM. along the Columbia Gorge. We were brushing an old trail. 2 people ahead of me were using sickles and cutting the big stuff. I was following on hands and knees cutting anything flush to the ground so that a tripping hiker wouldn't impale him/herself. I didn't realized we had brushed over a nest. The wasps covertly arranged themselves at my wrists between the gloves and my long sleeves, pant cuffs, either side of my neck, then all stung simultaneously. Agonizing pain! I somehow managed to get up and run out of there. Only relief was to find a stream ice cold from snow melt and sit in there up to my neck, and experience a hypothermia induced anaesthetic.

Good luck with your recovery!

Casey

[Dale]

Hi Dale,

I feel your pain.

It sounds like you ran into a nest of ground nesting wasps. Horrible things imported from Europe. These are the scourage of forest firefighters who occasionally run into these and suffer 200-500 stings.

Considering how much three or four hits to my scalp feel, I can only imagine.

I was there when he opened the vac. We listened first with a stethoscope (his mom was a nurse) to assure ourselves they were dead inside. When we opened it, this 30 gallon vac was entirely full of dried, dessicated wasps!

Oh, yikes. That dude was dedicated.

Beekeepers like to share their war stories. The worst I heard was the one who had a bee inside his veil and then crawling over his mustache. He stopped breathing and before he could pinch it, inhaled - getting the bee along with the air. He could feel it crawling inside his sinuses for a few minutes, going deeper and deeper. Then it stung. Imagine a nuke going off in your forehead. His eyes swelled shut for a week.

Thanks. I'll be up tonight. Mind if I call you about 4:00 a.m.?

Good luck with your recovery!

From my bee stings or from the psychological trauma of that bee-in-the-sinuses story?

[Nanohedron]

On Africanised bees (note the color in the pic):

http://www.desertusa.com/mag98/sep/stories/kbees.html

The pic you posted looks to be a German bee sort. Many have interbred with native species and gone feral. They tend to be irritable and aggressive. If I've got my info right, they depend on other creatures to make any burrows they nest in.

[Innocent Bystander]

Yeah, I had fun with an ordinary wasp's nest in my loft last summer. They were out over the eaves - well-nigh inaccessible from inside and out (on the side of the house next the stream). They were coming down the internal cavity of the external wall and erupting into the bathroom as if by magic.
Eventually I just chemical-sprayed as much as I could of the loft near their nest, and crossed my fingers and used the vacuum cleaner (a dyson) to pick up whatever was left.
I was lucky and made it without being stung. But it was only luck.
Get well soon, Dale.

[Walden]

Them little old dirt daubers made your head swell up five times?