Posted on 09/21/2023 9:57:19 AM PDT by Red Badger
They have hybridize with the European ones, there are beekeepers who work with the hybrids.
There are a lot of ground nesting bees. Most solitary, some in small numbers. Yellow jackets can be very numerous, you would probably get nailed by more than eight unless it was a starter colony.
I think buckshot to a hornet’s nest might be effective....
I had one dangling in my tree a few weeks back, as big as my head. I paid $125.00 for an exterminator to dawn the suit and then spray and smash it to smithereens.
When I got my first set of stings that was a problem, I had just one sting me when I was walking down our garden steps and hadn’t noticed the little guy. That one wasn’t too bad. Only a swollen foot.
About 2-3 weeks later, I got stung by 2 and one of them got me directly in my vein, right on the inside of my elbow, like where they draw blood from. It felt like an injection, and even though I did a lot of the right things, I got a very badly swollen arm from my shoulder to my hand and fingers. I got a bacterial infection from the little guy, so antibiotics became necessary beyond a steroid. It was nasty. Easily was 2 weeks before my arm became normal looking (not after the steroid, but total time).
That’s when the doctor suggested I get an epipen as a backup. I garden a lot, and have to really watch where I put my hands. I got a wasp sting a couple of years later when I didn’t see a wasp nest in an old birdhouse that I was cleaning out. That time I took the Benadryl and Pepcid AC combo, and it worked out great. Only had to stop my work for a day.
LOL, I bet a lot of us wouldn’t want to know ahead of time which way we meet our demise. I only hope to be able to say goodbye to loved ones.
sigh ... it was a swarm of yellow jackets, which are wasps, not bees ... AND wasps as a class are MEAN, MEAN, MEAN bugs ...
I have a violent react to wasp stings…
I will find the wasp that stung me and kill it.
I will find it’s nest and destroy all wasp there and the nest.
I will hunt down and find the nests of it’s kin and destroy them.
Especially cities...................
Don’t bees find flowers by sight? Color matters, UV patterns guide them to nectar.
They don’t sport big compound eyes for nothing. And there are too few drones to act as seeing eye dogs or buzz posts.
Oh, man! Don’t want to get in your way when you’re out for them!
You can leave hornets’ nests alone until the frost kills them.
I collect them for Halloween decorations.
Once you spot them you can accommodate them. We had a yellow jacket nest in the ground three feet from the back door. It was like living next to an airport. They had their flight path, up and away. At night there were half a dozen sentries at the entrance. We never got stung and we used the back door all the time.
OTOH, putting a shovel into a yellow jacket nest that you DON’T know is there is no fun at all.
Very aggressive and the only wasp that has caused me swell up (whole arm for half day).
They must die.
Sounds like my reaction to the yellow jackets. Whole arm for about 5 days before I finally went to see the doctor. Mine slowly swelled over days, starting with lower arm, then spread to my hands and fingers, then it went up to my shoulder in ensuing days. After that there was no more room to swell. Got really hot and red, which was my clue that there was a secondary infection from it. Needed a steroid and some antibiotics. Doctors figured the yellow jacket had been buzzing around trash before I ran into him.
*** Honey bees don’t live in sacks of dirt. Yellow jackets or ground wasps would. ***
This is what I think, too, but I’m no expert.
These days I think a rival gang would be the Murder Hornets.
I suppose so. But it would simplify knowing when to buy life insurance policies...
OTOH As an NDE/OOBE experiencer I don’t fear it. (NDE/OOBE Ping) YMMV...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.