Bee Season

[Rounder]

In light of all the baloney lately, I figured I'd start something a little more light-hearted. I'm not sure how this can go wrong......but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

The hornets are out. Started last Friday, swollen hookers getting crummied to the hostpital, me and cutting pard running like little girls hoping no one sees us.

I was doing pretty good till yesterday. Long butting a Larch and my chips seemed rather large....I was standing on the damn nest. Took off down the bole and somehow didn't get stung. Last night, getting my pack together, low and behold a hornet lands on my shoulder and nails me. Go figure.

I know, not much of a story, but kind of one of those deals where you just gotta say, "What the #### was that all about!" One of his buddies from the unit must have told him the story and as to where I live.

If you work in the woods, I know you've got a good hornet story.....Let's here 'em. No dingleberries allowed.

- Sam

 

[madhatte]

One time I had the dubious honor of witnessing a mid-air battle between a yellowjacket and a bald-faced hornet. They were locked face-to-face and stinging each other mercilessly, flying, bouncing off of everything (including myself) as though they were a pinball. I fumbled for my camera but they were gone long before I could get it out of my pocket and turned on. I was rooting for the hornet; yellowjackets are jerks.

 

[T_F_E]

We were movin the skidder about two miles up the road the other day. I was drivin the crummy with all the gear and he was behind me in the skidder. Saw a nest hanging over the road on a branch right about skidder cab height, I gave it a good hit with a stick and took off. never seen him so pissed off before

 

[Sport Faller]

We were movin the skidder about two miles up the road the other day. I was drivin the crummy with all the gear and he was behind me in the skidder. Saw a nest hanging over the road on a branch right about skidder cab height, I gave it a good hit with a stick and took off. never seen him so pissed off before

That's cold as ice, I'm guessing he's spent the last couple days brewing up an elaborate payback which may or may not involve:
your lunch
ex-lax
your TP
poison oak or ivy

 

[T_F_E]

That's cold as ice, I'm guessing he's spent the last couple days brewing up an elaborate payback which may or may not involve:
your lunch
ex-lax
your TP
poison oak or ivy

so far the plug wires on my pickup have went "missing", my bar oil was replaced with 80-90w, and somehow theres a massive oil leak on the loader that only leaks onto the seat.

 

[wowzers]

We are skidding in a bee factory. I think we average three nest a line right now. The only good thing is they haven't been super aggressive. They only got me twice so far, crawling up in my hardhat.

 

[forestryworks]

Ain't no bees here. All the flowering plants have died or gone dormant in this drought and them bees and wasps packed up and headed for the mountains :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[Rounder]

One time I had the dubious honor of witnessing a mid-air battle between a yellowjacket and a bald-faced hornet. They were locked face-to-face and stinging each other mercilessly, flying, bouncing off of everything (including myself) as though they were a pinball. I fumbled for my camera but they were gone long before I could get it out of my pocket and turned on. I was rooting for the hornet; yellowjackets are jerks.

Those Bald-Faces are tough customers. They're the only ones that really knock me down. Hives head to toe. I've seen the same thing though, pretty wild to see them go at it with the yellow jackets.

 

[Gologit]

I've only gotten nailed by yellow jackets once this year, but that was enough. One got down the back of my shirt and just kind of worked his way around to the front. Lumps...lots of lumps.

 

[Rounder]

We are skidding in a bee factory. I think we average three nest a line right now. The only good thing is they haven't been super aggressive. They only got me twice so far, crawling up in my hardhat.

That's no fun at all.....It's really gonna suck come September...Cold nights seem to make them wake up on the wrong side of the bed. Duct taped some benydryl to the inside of the hardhat tonight.

Anybody tried that "bee bopper" that comes in a spray can? It'd be nice to kill the buggers for the hookers. All I can do now is flag the hell out of a nest and tell them about it on the way out.

 

[DavdH]

Usually I do OK until I get close to a nest a bear has stirred up, they get real testy after bein' dug up ans stirred around. :angry2:

 

[wowzers]

That's no fun at all.....It's really gonna suck come September...Cold nights seem to make them wake up on the wrong side of the bed. Duct taped some benydryl to the inside of the hardhat tonight.

Anybody tried that "bee bopper" that comes in a spray can? It'd be nice to kill the buggers for the hookers. All I can do now is flag the hell out of a nest and tell them about it on the way out.

10-4 on the cold nights. I think it is because they sense the end is near. Those bald faced ones sure do pack a punch too.

I know the industrial stuff does, it knocks them out of the air of contact. Our saws try to tell us where the nest are but there so many it would be impossible to remember them all.

 

[slowp]

I do not miss that part of the woods. I've been pretty lucky. I haven't been nailed too much. One hooktender was getting zapped every day. I finally told him he smelled either fabric softenery or cologny.
He reeked of whatever it was. Told him that no smell fabric softener existed. I think he saw the light.

Back a few years, in E. Warshington, I saw a skidder going off the skid trails and running amok. Going off skid trails was a bad thing to do, contractually. It also meant that a subsoiler was going to have to do more work. What I found out, after going out there, was that the skidder operator was so tired of getting stung that he was running over the nests in retaliation. It was a very bad bee year, unless you were a bee.

My most painful nailing was when I fell and stuck my arm in a nest. I had to hike out up some of our steep ground, on a hot day, in the area (West of Morton) that people hate to go work in. It was the end of the day so no work lost....like that helped...:msp_sad:

My funniest memory? I've told this one before. I was just about to go down into the brush to check the falling. The unit was below the tourist route to Mt. St. Helens. It was tourist season. We hear a blood curdling scream. Then clothes are getting thrown up and moving up the hill to the road. He got to the road and was about to rip off his last piece of clothing--and they were PINK shorts, when he saw where he was.
It was a sight. A faller standing up on a touristy road with shorts and calks on.

A nahsty trick? Find a bees nest on a cold day. Put it in a pickup and turn the engine and heater on.......

 

[madhatte]

A nahsty trick? Find a bees nest on a cold day. Put it in a pickup and turn the engine and heater on.......

Oh, that's ICY cold. Almost wish I was peeved enough with someone to actually give that a whirl... ALMOST.

 

[2dogs]

Funny this thread should show up today. The County bee lady called me to day to tell me she was going on vacation next week. Oh, and by the way how come we have not called her yet after 10 days of project work. We are her best customer. The City has banned all insecticide for its own use but allows the county to kill nests on City property. The County bee lady is an angel, she responds to my every (bee) need.

 

[madhatte]

Got a guy here makes a living collecting bees and wasps; he comes and gets the nests when you call him, then freezes the bugs to kill them, and sends them off to some pharmaceutical outfit who uses the venom to make anti-venin. Free bee removal for you, and a living for him. Says he's been doing it since 1977! Cool character.

 

[slowp]

One high lead side had it bad. They did something that is probably illegal...placed open cans of Raid laced catfood around the unit. It worked.

I do not know if there were any chemically sensitive bears, coyotes, raccoons etc. running around after that.
Or mutants.

I was happy to hear and see bees working on the huckleberry blossoms on my scouting trip.

 

[Mastermind]

My son-in-law works for an excavating company. They clear lots and such. Few days ago they pushed a honey bee tree down and the bees were stirred up something awful. They decided to leave it lay overnight hoping the situation would improve, it didn't. A bear found the nest and tore it up good. When the crew showed up the next morning the bees were on the warpath stinging anything that moved. They have one machine with a cab but the weatherstripping is gone from the doors. They used up all their TP stopping the cracks and went in to push the log into the fire. Two days later the bees are still hanging out looking for targets.

 

[RandyMac]

Oh yeah, Yellowjackets and I go way back, I think I was just six when we first meet, been greeting them ever since.

My story is with paper Wasps. I was cutting salvage on a big select cut unit, you know the type, where half of what was left, blew down.
I was headed toward a big jackstrawed plie of money makers, when the bastards from the other side slipped in below me and started cutting in MY pile.
I got so excited about that, I lost the oil cap and took a break to whittle out a new one. I happened to notice a big fat grey football hanging in a Madrone. It didn't take long to make the calculations, a DF pole did the trick and that football landed in their end zone. Nobody cut that pile until the next day.
My Grandad got up one frosty morning, wrapped a burlap sack around a big paper nest, left it at the Grange Hall, where a political meeting was going to be held. They met up outside, where the old man was burning poison oak.

 

[floyd]

With wind 20mph constant & gusts it has dried out.

The hornets & jackets aren't after each other yet. They are about 3 weeks late this yr...just like everything else.

Soon, both will patrol about a foot off the ground til they run into each other. Then it is a good show.

The yellow jackets do haul away flies that die near the shop in the fall.

Don't have to go to the brush to watch this. Happens in front of the shop. Damn hornets are in your face all the time.

I quit bugging wasps yrs ago. They eat flies. They rarely bug me either. Mon. I hammered a nest I didn't know about with the string trimmer & a wasp stung me. Used the mower behind the ATV as well. There is a wasp nest in the tongue of the mower. When I parked again the wasps went back into the tongue.