Wasps

[khryslerkid]

When I was just a wee lad the grownups were talking about a man who tied a rag onto the end of a pipe, lit it on fire and held it up to a hornets nest. The rag fell off, the hornets came down the inside of the pipe stinging the man all over his face. Apparently he was allergic and died later on.

I always heard the adults stating that hornets kill a lot of flies. If you have a nest on your house or property, leave it alone if they aren't a threat and you won't have any flies.

I was working on a three story balcony, installing three inch angle iron. As I was welding I lifted my helmet and a fly landed on the railing right in front of me. Instantly a hornet landed on it, grabbed it with its front legs, turned it sideways and bit it's head off then flew away with it. This all happened in about five seconds right in front of me. I've never seen this before and it made me think what I had heard in the past. Apparently they insert a fly into each egg cavity in their honeycomb for the larvae to eat when they hatch. That would be a lot of flies to catch. Fascinating stuff!

 

[Glenwood]

Watched the same thing. A bald faced hornet chased a fly in front of me. Caught it, wrestled it and carried it off. I didnt see the beheading though.
Many years ago, i was visiting folks in New Brunswick and my dad was helping his brothers load hay stacks into my uncles dump truck when a problem came up. One stack had a bumble bee nest in it. So someone decided to stick a pitchfork into it which brought them all out. I closed the truck doors and watched my uncles and father running around the field with bumble bees chasing them. They can fly quicker than I thought as well as I didnt know my uncles could run that fast. My father managed to grab the pitchfork and launched the nest down the field.
Later that night we found the nest laying on the grass still active with bees going in and out while ignoring us only a few feet away.
Biggest nest I ever saw when I was a youngster must have had 1000s of honey bees on a small tree. I got to about 6 feet away watching in amazement.

 

[themechanic]

I got stung twice in my right calf by something yesterday & didn't stick around to find out what it was, but i think it was a ground wasp. It stung for a bit, but I woke up about 3:00 am with it itching & right now I've got an area that's a bit bigger than a baseball that's pink, itchy and very warm.

Stung by the notorious Super Bee.

 

[khryslerkid]

Those small bumblebees are relentless when you piss them off. I had cut a hay field the day before, and was raking it into windrows. Coming down through the middle of the field I have something flying around me so fast that I can't get a look at what it acually is. I turn around to look behind me and the ground was black with all of these bumblebees. I shifted that tractor into high gear and took off. I tried to get the rake out of gear but there was too much tension on the gearbox. I was shooting hay two rows over making a complete mess out of things. I make it back to the farm and this one bee was still dive bombing me. I ran in the house, stopped and listened, even looked in the mirror to make sure he wasn't on me.

All's good so I decided to eat lunch. About an hour later I go back out and that little sucker was waiting for me! Right back to buzzing around and dive bombing me. I got lucky and knocked him down with my hat. What the heck!

I hooked the rake to my tractor with the cab and went back up there to investigate. There was about a twenty foot diameter circle of the bees on the ground! I've never seen that many before. I straighten up the mess that I made and baled hay the next day useing the tractor with the cab.

We use to call those little bumblebees "Eye Bongers" because they always seam to hit you in the face.

Most bees aren't aggressive when the nest building is taking place, but once they start tending to the eggs and hatching is taking place, look out!

 

[Glenwood]

For fun, my father used to go outside with a buddy, carve off a couple of evergreen boughs and disturb a bumble nest in an old car. They would swat at the bees to see who got stung first...kids in pre TV days!

 

[khryslerkid]

For fun, my father used to go outside with a buddy, carve off a couple of evergreen boughs and disturb a bumble nest in an old car. They would swat at the bees to see who got stung first...kids in pre TV days!

We use to try and shoot carpenter bees with a pellet gun. They would acually dodge the pellet!

Tennis or Badminton rackets work good for swatting them. Cuts them in halve or thirds!