How many of you guy have trouble with bees while working. I never have until I moved to Socal except one tree I took down in TX that had a hive in it. Today I started grubbing on a new job and got stung for the first time while on equipment. It never fails every time I do some grubbing out here I hit a hive, but most of the time they just fly around land on me or my machine. However today one stung me right away and they chased me for a good 75yds. I told the GC to get a guy out here those must be some Killer Bees and I ain't going near them again. A few hours later the Bee guy got there and needed me to run his supplies to the hive in my track loader it was 100' up an 11/2:1. All was fine until I went to go get his stuff after he was done. At his truck unloading I got down to talk to him a see how it went and another one of these SOBs stung me. I said to hell with this and went back to work. Quitting time 1hr later I'm going to my truck and he comes up to me to tell us to stay away from that area for the next 2 days until all the bees have left since he got the queen. While we are there BSing I'll be damned if 5 more of those SOBs didn't come after me again ***? I don't know if I want to go back to that job I think those little buggers are going to be waiting for me on my machine in the morning.
Only yellow jackets. I was cleaning up some old trees and brush with our backhoe and disturbed them. There must have been hundreds flying around. I quickly shut the doors and kept going. Same thing happened by our pond. It funny to watch them trying to sting the boom. I got stung by a few clearing some Atv trails in our woods. They are nasty, you can almost feel their rage when they sting you. I really hate bees.
I stirred up a hornets nest that was in the ground one day while bushhogging in the field. I never knew so many could come out of one hole. I didn't get stung but they did catch up to me with the old International in 4 High. I went back after they settled down with a quart of 90 wt. and that took care of them.
It's funny you should mention it. Today while running a 980H a good sized yellowjacket dropped from the ceiling (don't know how it got there) and landed on my shoulder. The guy on the 345 said it was entertaining to watch me for the following minute. I usually don't have a problem while grubbing, but that's largely because all of our machines have enclosed cabs. While setting stakes on the other hand, the horseflies and deer flies can make life miserable in just a couple minutes.
I seem to be able to find at least one or two hives of various types on my mini ex each year. Of course, open machine, no cab, and small enough that you're nice and close to the action. The 'stinging' insects don't bother me a lot though, and each time I've been able to get out of the area without getting stung. (Though I've been stung seeral times before.) Last year I found two, I cut a basketball sized (or larger) bumblebee nest in half that was in the ground, and a nest of yellow jackets as well. (Couldn't see the actual nest anywhere, so don't know how big it was.) Generally, as soon as I see the 'action' I try to swing to one side with the stick/boom, then I slowly get off the machine and walk away, keeping an eye out for any followers. Wait for a while, usually about half an hour, they are now busy trying to fix/repair the nest, that I can slowly get back on the machine and walk it away. I'm certain that being a light machine with rubber tracks it keeps the vibrations to a minimum, so they don't feel it leaving the same as they would a larger machine. Mark
Bees Bees, Hornets, Wasps... I've tangled with all of them. I used to do a lot of brush clearing and road widening work with a machine with no cab, and if I didn't rile up the ones that lived in the ground, then I shook a tree where the ones in the big paper nests lived. I once spent the better part of a 90 degree day in my rainsuit with the hood up and my welding gloves on so I could keep from getting stung - actually, I spent several days like that, now that I think about it - it's not pleasant. The worst ones I've ever encountered were the big black and white hornets that can sting you more than once - they're mean and they're smart... the dumb yellow ones would try to sting the tractor, and only stung me by accident, but the black ones zeroed right in on me like they had radar. They're nothing to mess with either - one time I got stung on the wrist and my whole arm swelled up like a baloon, so I went to the clinic; the doc told me I had "reached my venom tolerence limit" and the next time I got stung it could be fatal... I carried around a bee sting kit after that, and was very careful around bees... I have been stung several times since then and nothing fatal happened - I never did have to use the kit - but I still am a little wary of the little buggers. I've got several paper nests hanging under the eaves on the garage right now - I waited all last summer for winter to come so I could knock them down - I guess I better go do that right now. srs MN
As a young man working in the woods, as a log dragger ( I used to drag logs with an old JD440 track loader, 2 cylinder gas engine, with a gearamatic winch, no cab, standard shift, and no automatic anything). I used to get stung numerous times a day on this one job. the underbrush was all blue berry bushes and the yellow jackets loved them. I also find operating a road mill will wake them, Them bald faced hornets are really bad when they nail you. Many times we have milled right under thier nest with no ill effects. I have done this numerous times as an operator or ground man, however my coworker used to get nailed by anything that stung. I think that the yellow jackets are the worst, and attracted to yellow. :usa
Ive been hit a few times while working, most recently while loading an old pile of fill/house debris. I was on a pretty new Case excavator, so I just closed all the windows and cranked the A/C :avid Lasts summer tho while riding my quad I got hung up on a root and, you gussed it, it was right over top of a hornets nest!!! After realizing what I was on top of, and watched helplessly as both rear tires clawed at the air (high centered) I dismounted, and proceeded to run like hell for 500 ft. Later down the trail when I got them all off of me, I walked over to a stanky ass black mud hole and rubbed mud all over my body. Was kinda funny, walkin out of the woods lookin like swamp thing. the worst part of the whole attack is going to retrive your maachine from the strike zone
Was there a reason you did this........:lmao :lmao
People pay good money for those all natural mud baths, im guessing he saw how much money he could save and couldnt resist
Mud takes the sting and swelling out of a bite. It really works!! Try it sometime.
Well they left me alone today, but I got a little antsy went I saw a few flying by. I guess it about time some of them got me since I'm always getting into a nest. When I was a kid I was picking/eating grapes in orchard standing on a bale. It started vibrating and humming, I didn't even think about and kept on eating. Latter that day my dad went to go pick some for mom for pie and grabbed that bale to move it. It was full of Bumble bees they sting the crap out of him.
We had tons of bumble bees at our old house. We put a new roof on with a hammer in one hand and tennis racket in the other. (If you've never hit a bumble bee with a tennis racket you're missing out ) They had tunneled into the beams in the barn too. I used to wait until one went in and then plug the hole. Then smack the board with a hammer. You would hear then buzzing like mad until you hammered where they were, then silence. I'm sure no one will believe me, but two times I shot bumble bees out of the air with my pellet gun.
:laugh Likely story.......you sure you didn't trip while you were running. :wink2
I have got into the bees at leat 15 times. Different places. Mostly while clearing. Those darn honey bees in oak trees while trying to clear cedar around them, it seams like they just come out of know where. The Dozer don't go fast enough sometimes. One of our guys got into them oned day and ran through a herd of cows, the cows got attacked and only a few bothered him after he ran about a 1/2 mile. About a month ago we were cleaning out a stock tank with two dozers, and the guy helping me was having problems with bees. I finally noticed a gum raper on the floor bord on the dozer, it was covered with bees. I told him to spit that gum out and get a different flavor, after that the bees left him alone. lol.
I used to wait until one went in and then plug the hole. Then smack the board with a hammer. You would hear then buzzing like mad until you hammered where they were, then silence. You are a cruel creature indeed. I li-ike!!!!! (Read as Borat)
I got stung a couple times in the face by a Sea Bee once. He was just lucky the MPs showed up when they did. :usa :salute
Bee story This looks like a good place for another story...When I was a teenager we were loading flat rocks (at a pit) by hand, into the front bucket of the loader which in turn was dumping them onto a truck. These rocks were to be used to fill the rock baskets at the end of a large culvert. I used to be terrified of bees and hornets back then. One day as I was working a bee started buzzing around my head so I just took off running like a streak. Guy in the truck see me take off and running flat out across the pit. Also he seen my coworker right on my heels running flat out. When we got to the truck he asked what in the heck was going on? I said a dam bee was buzzing around my head at which he began laughing. He asked my buddy Jim if the same bee was bothering him(Jim had no fear of bee's) as he was on my heels. Jim's reply was... bee??...I thought he saw a snake!!! Thought the truck driver was going to crap in his pants from laughing so hard
:lmao
Bees, wasps, hornets I hate the little buggars. When I was a kid I went to answer the front door. As soon as I opened the door unbeknownst to me there was a wasp nest above the door. One landed on my finger and stung the crap out of it. I slung my finger to remove it and I slung it onto my mouth ( I can't be making this up). So I not only had a stinging finger but a swollen stinging lip. Clearing underbrush with an unclosed bobcat - there is only one way out and that is through the nest you just destroyed. OUCH. You can run a hell of alot faster than that bobcat will go. Cutting silt fence lines with a chainsaw. Combine yellow jacket nest around tree, loud chainsaw and unsuspecting operator (me) and you have a Benny Hill moment. There was a strewn trail of a chainsaw, safety glasses, hardhat, shirt, 2-way radio and I think my britches from the scene of the crime to my safe place. FYI -A little gasoline goes a long way in the genocide of a hive.
I believe it. I did the same thing when I was a kid, luckiest shot I've made in my life! I was shooting at the bumble bees in my Mom's flower garden with my Daisy BB gun without much success. I ended up shooting the flower out from under one and it pissed him off to where he came after me. I ran, cocked the gun on the fly, spun and shot from the hip. To my amazement, I watched the bee do a dive bomb to the ground. I stood there for a second telling myself that could never have just happened, but when I went and found the bee, sure enough I had shot its head off!! A once in a lifetime shot! In another bee story, I was moving my J/D 410 to a job by driving unaware that yellow jackets had built a nest in the headliner. One came down and stung me on the tip of the ear, I've never experienced that much pain in my life!! I continued driving, but screamed in pain for 20 minutes while doing so! It must have been comical to hear me drive by.
X3 I used to do it all the time, but they where just hovering over the flowers not flying around. You didn't need to aim or even use a BB just get the muzzle right close.
Man yall are killing me. :lmao :lmao :lmao
This is good reading guys! Thank you I needed the laughs . Ive gotten stung so much I lost count of the times,but like you guys said with equipment running and your attention focused on the job,you dont realize you being attacked until its too late! When i brush hog our fields,if im lucky ill see the first few bees stinging the hood of the tractor ointhead ,(they are the dumb ones),by then i usually feel the burn from a few bee stings myself.I usually ride it out on the tractor,kill the PTO,pick up the implement and hit 4th gr hi range(about 15mph).
Fact or Fiction One more round at the bee's guy's...another story... I heard a story today that I would like to share. We are currently putting on chainsaw/thinning saw courses in our department. On the thinning saw one of the things that is stressed is make sure that the emergency release is working on the harness. This is for a couple of reasons...in case the saw catches fire or in event that you get into a hornets nest, you would want to drop the saw and run like heck. One guy pipes up and said "do you know the best way to go back and get the saw out of the hornets nest without getting stung?" His answer was...cut a spruce bough...hold it in front of your face and just walk in and get the saw ...you won't get stung. Now he said... Make sure that it is a spruce as if it is a fir they will sting you. Now of course we all thought that was a pretty good yarn and we all had a great laugh....except for the guy telling the story...he never cracked a smile. Anyone willing to give it a try??:beatsme
I think we need to leave that to the myth busters.
I've got another one to add. When I was in my teens I was mowing our filed with the old Case VAC farm tractor and a 6' Mott hammer knife mower. I ran over a yellow jacket nest and saw a swarm coming at me. The only thing I could think to do was jump off and run!! I didn't think to shut the tractor down, I just jumped off and ran like hell. When I was at a safe distance, I realized what I had just done and turned around to see what the tractor was doing. There it was, going across the field still mowing. It continued until it hit a tree and stalled. No damage to the tractor or the tree and no one was hurt. Not one of the smarter things I've done, but I was a dumb kid at the time!
I got stung by a bee that looked sort of like a bumble bee but it was about half the size. They were living in a chunk of wood that was laying in some high grass. I have been stung before by other types of bees and never had any problems but this one got me on my eye brow and my whole eye got swollen shut. It took about 8 or 10 hours untill i couldn't see out of that eye any more. My sister saw me then and started giving me lots of benadryl. That took the swelling down and made me supper sleepy and kinda light headed the next day.
in ground bees my dad would find the hole and wait till nite and pour a lil bit of gass down the hole and touch it off it was cool to hear the boom under ground and see the fire beller up ... no more bees
Been there.... Notice the chicken-poop people I'm working for.... Hiding be hind a car....:naughty
Been stung way to many times. I was on the tractor oneday bush hogging a feild when I just became attacked by yellow jackets. ended up getting stung 8 times on the face and ears, man that's a pain you will never forget. I never knew that tractor could go so fast mowing, by the time I got back to the truck they had all blown off along with my hat and shirt. I did find my shirt in one peice but the hat was shreaded by the bush hog Here's a funny one. It was a hot summer day and we were looking at a clearing site we were working on with the owners. I was wearing shorts and workboots. While walking around at the site looking at wht else needed to be done I stepped into a yellow jackets nest and sure enough one flew right down into my boot. I started yelling and hopping on one legs as that thing ate me alive. Finally after kicking a pulling I got my boot off and got the bee out. Not the easiest thing in the world trying to removed the stinger out of your foot without the proper tools
Ever been stung here? I have another one.The supervisor and myself was driving in the pickup one fine day to look at a job. First I will tell you a little about my supervisor back then. He was a big rugged fella, fine upstanding god fearing folk. His favorite saying was "Judas Priest" and he used this alot in his conversations. This was the closest to a swear word he has ever used. Anyway we were driving along with the windows down and all of a sudden I hear him muttering "judas, judas, judas, judas" then a big holler "Judas priest!!" I jumped in my seat and asked him what in the hell was wrong. He looked at me and there was a tear coming down his face. He said painfully "judas priest... a bee stung my bag" I laughed so hard I started to cry as well..
every spring i sit on my front porch and shoot bees with my 22. i use bird shot of course. they bore into the wood. cold beer mild day lot of fun. 3 out of 4 yesterday
I spent a week in the hospital for this one I was on Cape Cod clearing a house lot. I was knocking over trees with my PC400 when a swarm came up out of the ground. A big one got me over my right eye. I drove home, almost 90 miles, after being stung. This picture was taken 2 hours after that sting! The other swelled shut about an hour or so later. First time I have ever been stung! Wife took me to the hospital!
Holy crap! What kinda bees were those??? I got stung 8 times on the face and never swelled up that much.
I have encountered bees a few time here in So CA, fortunately few stings. What amazes me are the African cross ('killer') bees. They are extremely vicious and will target you like a missile. While regular honey bees will just mill around, I have more than once seen an African cross chase a guy for hundreds of feet while he's throwing his hardhat and swinging his vest, dive-bombing him the whole way. They are NASTY!
Bee story I was about 5 and Dad, brother and another guy were putting hay in the barn. It was a pole barn and had 2x12's nailed on the inside of the poles like a fence. These boards were just right for a 5 year old to stand on the bottom one and hold on to the top one, kinda shuffle along. I still remember how soft and fuzzy a great big yellow jackets nest felt on my hand. It was behind the top board I was holding on to and I couldn't see it. Kinda tickles, all those wings stickin out of those holes. However yellow jackets do not like anything about tickling, or having there wings touched. I got stung several times before running kicked in. Course once I started running then the bees knew who to chase and sting. Dad must of caught up with me, remember being on the ground well away from the barn amidst much excitement, must of been some serious swatting going on.
Been lucky with bees so far never any major stings at work. But snakes that's a different story, I had been helping a friend build a hunting cabin. since it had been a few days since we had been there a copperhead had evidently been chasing mice or was trying to get out of the sun. i was in the middle of cutting a window and all the exhaust was giong up under the roof, mr copperhead decides to drop in on me and i dropped the saw, "had a hershey squirt" and ran like ****. evidently the noise and exhauist had mr. no shoulders disoriented and didn't bite me. I don't mind snakes i expect to be there but those that drop in are bad.
My fathers biggest fear with bees involved his IH TD-7 dozer or his IH 125e tracked loader. The fear was that if you got into bees and jumped out and ran, the machine would run at full throttle. Decelerators are far less common now. At least you were likely to trip over the lever that would drop the transmission out of gear on the way off of the machine. Personally I have always felt safer in the machine than out. I never have understood guys jumping off of machines when they get in trouble.
Well with the new hydrostat dozers, they all have decelerators. And I have been there before clearing brush with the open cab 850K I used to have. I hit two bee hives in a row. After I hit the first nest and saw them come out, I moved down about 50 yards and immediately hit another. I got stung in the nose by one and thought I could just tough it out. Man was I wrong. After that first sting, both hives came after me. I got hit at least 40 times on my face, neck and arms. They followed me for 200 yards until I jumped in a pond. After I got out and regained my senses, I saw the dozer running on full throttle on top of a brush pile. Apprently I snapped the key off in the ignition trying to turn it off and get the hell out.
Holy crap! What kinda bees were those??? BIG ONES!
When my grandpa and his friend were building a road many years ago, they pushed all the stumps off to the side before winter with a D8. Our buddies the bees came in and made their winter homes in the stumps and when springtime came around, they pulled the stumps over and out came the bees. ointhead That really must've hurt because grandpa didn't bother to elaborate much after that.
i was running an older D8K a couple of years back, pushing brush and small trees. of course it was in the heat of the summer, so all the meatbees were active. You couldn't help but open up a nest several times a day. We reversed the engine fan, so at least the airflow wasn't throwing them right at me..I got stung a few times, but mostly they commited suicide.
The seat safety switch used to tick me off when i was using my tractor. York raking a new lawn i dug into a nest and jumped off and ran. That tractor missed every house, every tree, and must have went for at least a mile before it found its way into a fire hydrant and was sitting there trying to climb it when i finally caught up to it.
I went to my uncles farm to get the harrows for the grading tractor. He said it was up in the loft and said go climb up and get it and I will get the lift to get it down . I moved a hay bale and disturbed a giant bumble bee nest. I jumped out of the loft "about 12 feet ,hit the ground , ran about 20 feet and started rolling in the dirt .They finally stopped , my uncle didn't see me get attacked , all he saw was me running around like an idiot and start rolling on the ground.
I hate bees,wasps,hornets,horse flies,yellow jackets,and ants. I will go out of my way to destroy them and there habitat. I will NOT work around them nor will I try to ignore them...I was stung as a child all over by an angry little swarm of yellow jackets while trying to get a lawn mower out of a shed,my mom said it looked like a black clound following me into the pond. Since then I will destroy them with whatever I have..I would burn down part of the earth to kill them.
Well no more trouble with bees since I left Socal, but the Fire Ants on the other hand...