BEES!

[Texasmark]

As a former bee keeper I have to say your wrong wasps are meaner then any bee I have ever been around and I have been around MILLIONS of bees

.....Especially when filling up on nectar. I have mowed right along hedge rows 6' tall in my riding mower, sometimes bumping the plants with my shoulder, with honey, bumble, and wood borers filling up and never once did any one of them pay any attention to me.

 

[MARK ROBKE]

All done and there's cattle back in there. It's their problem now.

Randy, I'm actually surprised you left them in the barn (the bees, that is). I figure someday you may have to encounter them again. Mark.

 

[MARK ROBKE]

As a former bee keeper I have to say your wrong wasps are meaner then any bee I have ever been around and I have been around MILLIONS of bees

Well, in my experience, bees are meaner, once they are disturbed. As a beekeeper you likely used smoke to calm them first. I can, at age 70, still get away from wasps when I knock down a nest. But bees, hornets, or yellow jackets, I will most likely be stung. Someone on here said yellow jackets are a form of wasps, which I did not know. Neither makes a 'buzzing' sound when they are chasing you, and yellow jackets are way, way meaner. I have been chased (and stung over 100 times by a bee swarm) by bees, bumble bees, hornets, and yellow jackets. If there is a nest where I want to be, go past, or in my way, I will get rid of it. Mark.

 

[old]

Well, in my experience, bees are meaner, once they are disturbed. As a beekeeper you likely used smoke to calm them first. I can, at age 70, still get away from wasps when I knock down a nest. But bees, hornets, or yellow jackets, I will most likely be stung. Someone on here said yellow jackets are a form of wasps, which I did not know. Neither makes a 'buzzing' sound when they are chasing you, and yellow jackets are way, way meaner. I have been chased (and stung over 100 times by a bee swarm) by bees, bumble bees, hornets, and yellow jackets. If there is a nest where I want to be, go past, or in my way, I will get rid of it. Mark.

I many cases what a person calls a Bee is in fact a wasp. Honey bees will not bother you if you don't bother them. I commonly when I see a bee on a flower I will stop and pet that bee and NEVER get stung doing so. I hate it when a person calls a wasp a bee

 

[rrlund]

Randy, I'm actually surprised you left them in the barn (the bees, that is). I figure someday you may have to encounter them again. Mark.

They're not all that far from the wife's garden. They're not hurting anything.

 

[john in la]

So was it really BEES or more then likely wasps????????????????????

Considering honey bees are actually vegetarian wasp it would have to of been a wasp.

 

[john in la]

Must be a warm fall.
The first good freeze will kill off yellow jackets and hornets for this year. Only the new queen lives past that day.

Or better yet if it has been cold you were right because bees not wasp survive cold weather.

 

[Mike(NEOhio)]

I've been following this thread and as a beekeeper myself I'm pretty positive you have hornets or yellow jackets. Bees wouldn't nest in straw and would have built hanging wax comb in an enclosed space.

 

[rrlund]

I've been following this thread and as a beekeeper myself I'm pretty positive you have hornets or yellow jackets. Bees wouldn't nest in straw and would have built hanging wax comb in an enclosed space.

I'm not an entomologist. I just know they're docile little yellow striped fellas that look like honey bees to me. Doesn't matter a lick. Job's done, I'm not bothering them, they're not bothering me.

 

[37chief]

I many cases what a person calls a Bee is in fact a wasp. Honey bees will not bother you if you don't bother them. I commonly when I see a bee on a flower I will stop and pet that bee and NEVER get stung doing so. I hate it when a person calls a wasp a bee

I dont know wat type of bees you have he in California some of our bees have crossed with bees from Africa . All you need t do is is get close they will go on the attack. Stan

 

[old]

I dont know wat type of bees you have he in California some of our bees have crossed with bees from Africa . All you need t do is is get close they will go on the attack. Stan

The African bee where a big mistake and the bee keepers who tried to bring them in found out the hard way they are bad news but they also are not real common since they have also been tried to be gotten rid of shortly after they where brought into the U.S. which happened decades ago

 

[MARK ROBKE]

I many cases what a person calls a Bee is in fact a wasp. Honey bees will not bother you if you don't bother them. I commonly when I see a bee on a flower I will stop and pet that bee and NEVER get stung doing so. I hate it when a person calls a wasp a bee

With all due respect, I absolutely know the difference. Mark.

 

[MARK ROBKE]

They're not all that far from the wife's garden. They're not hurting anything.

By the way, was the temperature very cool when you were working on your siding? I was more concerned with them stinging someone or something again. But if your motto is live and let live, and they don't bother you, then you did the right thing, especially if they are pollinators. Mark.

 

[rrlund]

By the way, was the temperature very cool when you were working on your siding? I was more concerned with them stinging someone or something again. But if your motto is live and let live, and they don't bother you, then you did the right thing, especially if they are pollinators. Mark.

It was warm in relative terms for this time of year. Probably mid 60s when I disturbed them and got stung. I got up there to check on them early the next morning to see how active they were. It was in the mid 30s and there were only a few out. Unfortunately, by the time I got the steel cut, it was back up in the upper 60s again. All the hammering would get them active, but half a minute later, they calmed down again. I put the first sheets over where the nest was so they had to come around. That seemed to calm them down a little more since it was a little darker in there, and they couldn't fly out straight at me.

 

[old]

With all due respect, I absolutely know the difference. Mark.

Ah but so very many don't know a wasp from a bees so it is one of my pet peeves

 

[Dingo3]

I put baking soda on it again yesterday then sat down and watched television for a while until it dried and crumbled. There were three holes in my skin. I only saw one bee. Near as I can think, the other two holes were from barbed wire from last week. It's still a little red and swollen, but the itch is mostly gone. I probably should have let the baking soda dry good when I put it on the first time, but I kept on working.

I’m guessing they were yellow jackets. The three holes might be the answer. They can sting multiple times with no ill effect. A honey bee stings once, the stinger comes out and it’s done for.
On the other hand, I can’t explain why more didn’t pounce on you. There are several different types. Maybe some are more tolerant.

 

[old]

I’m guessing they were yellow jackets. The three holes might be the answer. They can sting multiple times with no ill effect. A honey bee stings once, the stinger comes out and it’s done for.
On the other hand, I can’t explain why more didn’t pounce on you.

Plus with a honey bee if you don't pull the stinger out the correct way you inject more of the poison into your self but a wasp doesn't leave the stinger behind so it can sting you as much as it wants a bees is once and it is dead