# Attacked by bees!



## Satoshi (Jul 24, 2019)

This just happened to me and I’m honestly just curious if anyone has experienced this terror. Fired up the track loader and started scooping topsoil off of a stock pile that I had sitting for the better part of a year. Felt something land on me and then a sting, only to look down at my hands and see a few more bees about to do their thing. At this point I looked at my bucket and saw a black cloud of bees and realized that I had just cut in half an 8” diameter bees nest, and the pissed off bees were blocking my escape. Made it out with just a few stains, but my laborers and the neighbors got a good laugh. Anyone else have an experience like this? I think I’m going to have a complex about this for a while now. Guess I’m going to trade up for an EROPS machine. 


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## Kingcarpenter1 (May 5, 2020)

Satoshi said:


> Made it out with just a few stains


Would that be chit stains?


Mike


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## Satoshi (Jul 24, 2019)

Kingcarpenter1 said:


> Would that be chit stains?
> 
> 
> Mike


 damn autocorrect. It’s kind of true though. 


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## hdavis (Feb 14, 2012)

I had a couple dozen stings from a ground hornet nest I didn't know about.

They even went up my pants legs.


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## Mordekyle (May 20, 2014)

Nothing will get you down a ladder, out of your nailbags, and down with your shorts faster than a yellow jacket up the pant leg.


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## Satoshi (Jul 24, 2019)

hdavis said:


> I had a couple dozen stings from a ground hirnet best I didn't know about.
> 
> They even went up my pants kegs.





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## tgeb (Feb 9, 2006)

I've encountered ground yellow jacket wasps a few times, and hornets with their paper nests in bushes and trees. Then there are paper wasps that build nests in the equipment sometimes. 

Never disturbed bees. Were these bees or wasps?


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## JFM constr (Jul 26, 2014)

yes ,with a tractor as you have and just walking about .
yet i have not in years .i see them first now .brain must of made a little space for 'watch out for yellow jacket nest' that is always alert .
you hit a big one .


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## Tinstaafl (Jan 6, 2008)

Nothing to do with excavating, but when I was a kid, I helped a neighbor bringing in hay. At one point he needed to take a leak. Walked over to the edge of the field, whipped it out, and promptly got nailed right on the tip by a yellowjacket.

The ensuing dance was the stuff legends are made of.


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## pinwheel (Dec 7, 2009)

I was just talking to a buddy of mine yesterday. He was moving some old rotten large hay bales & a giant nest of yellow jackets were between 2 bales. He got stung around 300 times. They chased him the 1/4 mile down the lane to the house. Got an ambulance ride as a reward for his experience. Luckily he was alright, but said it sure hurt like hell.


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## Satoshi (Jul 24, 2019)

tgeb said:


> I've encountered ground yellow jacket wasps a few times, and hornets with their paper nests in bushes and trees. Then there are paper wasps that build nests in the equipment sometimes.
> 
> Never disturbed bees. Were these bees or wasps?


To clarify, they were yellow jackets. 


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## Satoshi (Jul 24, 2019)

Tinstaafl said:


> Nothing to do with excavating, but when I was a kid, I helped a neighbor bringing in hay. At one point he needed to take a leak. Walked over to the edge of the field, whipped it out, and promptly got nailed right on the tip by a yellowjacket.
> 
> The ensuing dance was the stuff legends are made of.


That is the chit nightmares are made of. Hilarious though. 


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## Satoshi (Jul 24, 2019)

pinwheel said:


> I was just talking to a buddy of mine yesterday. He was moving some old rotten large hay bales & a giant nest of yellow jackets were between 2 bales. He got stung around 300 times. They chased him the 1/4 mile down the lane to the house. Got an ambulance ride as a reward for his experience. Luckily he was alright, but said it sure hurt like hell.


That sounds awful. Glad I came out relatively unscathed. 


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## ScipioAfricanus (Sep 13, 2008)

I once had some ants crawling all...over......me.......

Never mind.


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## smalpierre (Jan 19, 2011)

I was doing some work on my uncles house, side of a steep hill, 32 foot extension ladder as far up as it'd go, basically climb a cliff to the bottom of the ladder then climb another 32 feet. Got up there and started yanking at the gutters and I felt this hot numbing hardcore nerve seering pain ... paper wasps. I fireman slid down that ladder, hit the bottom, rolled down the hill, probably sounded like I was being murdered. Paper wasps. They got me about 15 times before I knew what hit me. Followed me down the ladder, I was RUNNING. Hand swole up like a boxing glove.

Another time, I was out at a customers house, had to get to the crawlspace which was out back. She had a broken window that had a piece of plywood nailed over it so there was a pretty good size gap there. Saw a bunch of wasps flying around, and got closer to the window above the access and ... the whole thing was jam packed full of wasps between the plywood and window. Sent chills down my spine, me and my helper just eased on out of there trying not to stir anything up. We got to the van, I had to go to the front door to tell her we couldn't work like that, and she needed an exterminator bad. Her response? "They ain't gonna hurt you, it's just a few wasps!" Tried to hand me one of the many cans of wasp spray she had by the door ... NOPE!


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## Kingcarpenter1 (May 5, 2020)

Got hit up side the head as a kid by about 10 — 12 yellow jackets. Pop put a little wet tobacco on it to relieve it. No biggie. They are carnivores & eat eons of grasshoppers & other pests. If you must kill em, a few drops of dish liquid in a glass of water drops em instantly. Comfrey leaves relieves stings of any kind. I posted a few weeks ago I ‘be got a nest in a tree trunk outside my front door @ my relief spot. No problem. I relieve a few feet over for now. As an avid gardener, I welcome them, frogs, snakes & all other natural pest control. As pop use to say, they don’t eat much


Mike


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## MarkJames (Nov 25, 2012)

This evening I was picking a few figs off our tree. Many of the overripe ones are being enjoyed by oversized black bees (?) Or wasps with white stripes, as they do every year. I never see them until fig time. I don't bother them, and they don't bother me...and then I decided to yank a young weedy vine out of one of the branches. Oops, it shook other branches and several went after my head as I retreated.. No stings, though. I guess we do have some sort of understanding after all.


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## rblakes1 (Jan 8, 2015)

hdavis said:


> I had a couple dozen stings from a ground hornet nest I didn't know about.
> 
> They even went up my pants legs.


Had that happen to me while mowing a few years ago. Found a nest one week, then they moved and found the new one the next week. I think I got hit 15-20 times between the two

Only I was wearing shorts

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## tgeb (Feb 9, 2006)

MarkJames said:


> This evening I was picking a few figs off our tree. Many of the overripe ones are being enjoyed by oversized black bees (?) Or wasps with white stripes, as they do every year. I never see them until fig time. I don't bother them, and they don't bother me...and then I decided to yank a young weedy vine out of one of the branches. Oops, it shook other branches and several went after my head as I retreated.. No stings, though. I guess we do have some sort of understanding after all.


Those are hornets, they love fruit and can attack like crazy if you disturb the nest, docile most of the time.


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## Robie (Feb 25, 2005)

The worst that has happened to me was whilst cleaning out a corner gutter.
I was on a extension ladder and just grabbed a handful of dry pine shats piled up in the corner.
Out of nowhere 4-5 "somethings" stung me on my bald head.
I came down the ladder post haste; not sure if rungs were involved or not.
Felt like someone hit be over the head with a 2x4. 
Not much stinging sensation...just like I got hit hard.

Immediately took 2 Benadryl and waited.
Luckily...no severe after-effects...just a sore skull.

Was camping once in Maine. Took a sip of my freshly opened Heineken and swallowed a bee.
Stung my throat...took a Benadryl and waited...
All was well.....


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## smalpierre (Jan 19, 2011)

Robie said:


> The worst that has happened to me was whilst cleaning out a corner gutter.
> I was on a extension ladder and just grabbed a handful of dry pine shats piled up in the corner.
> Out of nowhere 4-5 "somethings" stung me on my bald head.
> I came down the ladder post haste; not sure if rungs were involved or not.
> ...


I know when they hit me up on that ladder, very few rungs were involved, most of them were incidental - just my feet and hands slapping them here and there during the slide down.


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## Ed Corrigan (Jul 18, 2019)

Robie said:


> Took a sip of my freshly opened Heineken and swallowed a bee.
> Stung my throat...took a Benadryl and waited...
> All was well.....


I have spit out 4 bees over the years. No stings. Still paranoid enough that if there's bees around, I'll either hold my thumb over top or set cap back on when I set it down.

Had a hole we washed mixer out into for about 2 weeks. Mud wasps working busily repairing after evening before. Throw another batch of slurry on them. Same next day. They never went after us. Probably dumb to push our luck.


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## smalpierre (Jan 19, 2011)

Those mud wasps aren't so bad. They're damn near domestic pets. I've never had the misfortune of spitting out a bee, or being stung on the inside, that sounds awful.


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## Pompanosix (Sep 22, 2015)

Over the years, I can remember probably 4 or 5 houses I've demo'd where as soon as I collapsed the roof, all you see a big cloud of bees swarm out. One of them was so bad the whole side of the house was full of honeycomb and literally dripping with honey. We've got those africanized bees down here in SoFla and they are agressive. I was lucky to always have had an ac cab, but the laborers usually had to run and it was kinda funny to watch. One of my truck drivers used to carry his Epi-pen with him all the time. Sometimes, they were so bad I would load the truck flat on the top and tuck in the sides and corners real good so he didn't have to tarp.


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## Djea3 (Jul 6, 2020)

Pompanosix said:


> One of them was so bad the whole side of the house was full of honeycomb and literally dripping with honey. We've got those africanized bees down here in SoFla and they are agressive.


I had over 200 bee hives. Generally honey bees, even africanized will become docile if thier hive is completely destroyed. be sure and completely destroy it! Then go away and when you return they will not be so bothersome. Hive destroyed, nothing to protect, but they do attempt to grab all the honey they can as they find a new location.

I was in Mexico along a river. Wound up with my entire arm and shoulder covered with glossy jet black wasps of some kind. I high jumped 6 ft tall bushes about 6 ft wide directly into the river. I swam under water down stream for as long as I could hold breath. The guy with me (Pedro) saw the wasps and yelled "holy M F S" and took off like a rabbit just before I high jumped. He came back about 25 minutes later. I had about 300 stings on my arm and was packing mud and letting it dry to suck the venom. It worked, mainly because it was so hot and dry there. I found out later that the variety of wasps or whatever they were actually chase people even if they dive under water. People had been drowned by them!


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## Pompanosix (Sep 22, 2015)

I heard something like honey bees, being more docile, will chase you for a bit and stop, but the africanized ones will chase you for up to a quarter mile. There is no way my fat arse will outrun them! I've had them land on the window of the cab and you can see their little stingers trying to sting the glass. But yes, if you manage to kill the queen and destroy the hive, they seem to calm down. The worst part is having to clean the dust screen in front of the radiator the next day only to find it covered with dead bees.


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## JFM constr (Jul 26, 2014)

wow- freaking crazy .i never new that . honey bees no issue but those african that is crazy .300 bites - what a mess your must of been in


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## DenverCountryBoy (Jan 10, 2021)

When I was a little kid like 5 or 6 y/o, I turned on the hose to get a drink and ended up with a bunch of yellow jackets in my mouth. Most flew out on their own when I screamed, but my mom had to use pliers to grab a couple.


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