bee careful out there...

Had a gorgeous day yesterday when the temps stayed below 70 for the most part all day. Carried the MX Sport to a site known to have some CW relics but it is a nightmare of a place with thickets of tight saplings and tangles of vines. It is full of old dig holes, barbed wire, and trash. Yummy!
Got a pants leg caught on a wild strand of barbed wire and the wire turned over a couple of times and wrapped the pants material around the strand a couple of times. That was fun. Then, while hacking at a signal in thick stuff over hard dry ground, I felt a sting on top of my right hand, I looked and saw a yellow jacket (ground wasp or hornet to some) squatting over the base of my thumb. I smacked him and started looking for signs of the nest or a swarm of yellow jackets. About the time I spotted 8 more yellow jackets stirring on top of the ground, I felt another sting on my right hand. I smacked that one and moved away from the area as fast as I could in the tangle of brush. I was wearing gloves with a thin knit nylon back which I guess kept the yellow jackets from biting, but did not stop the stinging.

So, my caution to all of you is to get out and enjoy this cooler weather and find some nice relics or old coins. But watch out for the bees. The yellow jackets are in an ill mood right now, and I have seen wasps' paper nests in bushes just a foot or so off the ground. I don't think the paper nests are much of a problem this time of year, but I could be wrong.

I kept on detecting for another two or three hours. I moved out of the thicket and up the street a short distance to where an old stagecoach stop had been. It has its thickets, too, and tall grass and trash out the wazoo. I did find what appears to be the handle of a pewter spoon or fork. Just a note on the MXS; I used the heavy trash program and think the Sport did a nice job in managing the trash and locking on the few good non-ferrous targets I happened over.

Today, roughly 24 hours after having been stung, the entire back of my right hand is still swollen and puffed up a half inch or more. I can't quite close my fingers for the tightness. I just read online about first aid for yellow jackets. One statement said that the swelling can last up to seven days. Oh, great. I hope that is not the case for me. I do intend to get back out today, but at a different location.

Bee safe out there!

Wayne

Pleasant Garden, NC
AT Max, Nokta Impact, MX Sport, Nokta FORS Relic, GPX 4800, Infinium, Racer, Deus, F75SE, Nautilus DMC II (order of acquisition, last to first)

Does an archeologist argue with a plow? A bureaucrat with a bulldozer?

Thats not good news getting stung,but saying that as i am a bee keeper here in the UK since the early 90s i get stung so often that i dont really notice it,when i 1st started out i use to use a full boiler suit,veil and full body cover but have also gone into hives in recent years with just shorts and short sleeves but i do still use a head veil on some hives as the bees down the fruit farm can be right stroppy but very good honey producers.

I love honey bees but bloody hate wasps,bees have a purpose in life,but the main purpose in life for wasps is too annoy humans

A few months ago, while leaving for parts unknown and as I was locking my door to my house, a yellow jacket landed on my left hand and stung me twice. I went right to the red K and got spray. I sprayed my awning and it was raining yellow jackets. there must of been a hundred in that awning...all dead thanks to one of them.

Yep this time of year they (Yellow Jackets) are very aggressive..especially if your diggin in the ground .

Dozen signs are so before you get out of the way or figure out what's going on is the norm it seems..

I dug into a huge nest a few years back and ended up getting well over 100 stings..My wife stopped counting above 100..LOL..but I did get some nausea from it later in the day..

what I have noticed the back of the hands and the head are the areas that swell the worst..the arms and torso and legs and such usually are minor red spots..but the back of the hand sting can be quite annoying...

I have one hand that swelled from a sting about a year ago.. And I swear till this day it's never went back to normal.

they do say the yellow jacket venom reduces arthritis ..??

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

Yea those yellow jackets that nest in the ground are aggressive when ya get too close...the venom is powerful and the sting can be sore for days/weeks. The round paper nests that have an egress hole at the bottom are called Bald Faced Hornets around here....they are also very aggressive. I find the Yellows venom hurts a bit more and lasts longer.

I was about 10 when I found a yellow jacket nest in the back yard. Thought I would do a good deed for dad, so got 3 buckets full of hot water...took em over, and dumped them in one after another. I should have bolted for the house then, but figured they were all dead....pretty bad decision. They followed me right into the house, stinging me. I had so many welts it looked like I got hit by a BB machine gun. Never got a count, but yellow jackets are still just slightly less hated than snakes......

As kids my brother stepped on a ground yellow jacket nest and they swarmed all over him biting him many times....I was just in back of him and no stings but removed one from my sneaker....he jumped on his bike and raced home...luckily it was a Sat. afternoon and my dad was home...Started to swell and rushed to family Doc who gave him a shot..Would have died without the shot...Soooo be careful out there...

Many years ago, while cleaning out a fence row with a weed eater, I found out the hard way that bumble bees also nest in the ground. I ran and they gave chase. One got under my t-shirt which I quickly shed while still at a dead run. Luckily most of the bees followed the sweaty shirt. I ran inside and had my cousin treat the stings with sting-eze, took a bunch of Benadryl and fell asleep (passed out). They later counted 27 stings on the back of my head and neck. About 3 months later I guess I got too close to a red wasp nest and they got me 11 times before I got away. As a result I am uber vigilant when it comes to anything with a stinger.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2016 03:45AM by Neugene.

When I was six years old I was following along behind my dad who was cutting grass in late fall around an old home place. I had on a heavy coat, that much I can remember. The lawn mower stirred up a nest of yellow jackets in the ground and they got to me big time. My dad grabbed me up and ran in the house. I do not know how many stings and bites I received, but when we removed my clothes we counted up to 175 yellow jackets still in my clothes before we quit counting. Many still alive and biting. They really put a hurt on me. Funny thing is we raised honey bees and always smoked them out on a cool morning before removing the honey. The first thing we were taught was to remove our shirt before doing this. The bees had nowhere to get trapped that way. Never once got stung while gathering up the honey...Stuart

Gosh, Stuart, did you live?

(sounds painful)

Wayne

Pleasant Garden, NC
AT Max, Nokta Impact, MX Sport, Nokta FORS Relic, GPX 4800, Infinium, Racer, Deus, F75SE, Nautilus DMC II (order of acquisition, last to first)

Does an archeologist argue with a plow? A bureaucrat with a bulldozer?

I will NEVER harm a skunk because they will dig up and eat the larvae in yellow jacket nests. I actively hunt and kill yellow jackets anywhere I am. I seriously hate those things.

That is probably the reason we've had no YJ's this year but it was the year of the skunk......dog even got sprayed.

I have a nest if yellows in the ground but have not done anything but watch them apparently multiply in numbers....I have heard to use drione powder just after dark to eliminate them.....have also heard gasoline but they are in the edge of the woods so dont want to light that up my luck I would burn down the entire east coast. All suggestions welcome.

With the gasoline method, you don't have to light it on fire. The gas itself will kill them.

Our former city parks and recreation manager was the cause of nearly 5 acres of city park going up in flames due to a hornets nest. It is a hilarious story...he now works at the same factory as me and I was literally crying I was laughing so hard at him telling it. He is like Jerry Clower at telling stories. I remembered the night the park was on fire but had no idea how it happened til he told the story.

Yellow Jackets are the spawn of Satan. Lol. Other bees will usually only sting if you bother their nest or maybe step on them barefooted. Yellow jackets will sting you just because they can and or want to. And unlike other bees...they can sting and keep stinging and biting.

I use kerosene after dark. Too much chance of gasoline vapors igniting prematurely for me to use gas. I let the kero soak in good so they suffer before burning the survivors to death.

I like the kerosene idea.