More Bee stories

My Son-in-law Michael [part timer for us} and Lou were weed whacking a couple of days ago and I drove up to drop Michael back off from a side trip. Lou had just picked up a sawhorse and moved it so he could chop of the weeds below it. As he sat it down and took a quick swipe with the weed trimmer, I noticed an, ever growing, plethora of bees congregating around him. Lou didn’t see the bees but quickly walked by me, in the pickup, when they attacked. Four of about 1000 had decided he needed to be punished. All four attacked at once stinging his upper body and inside his T shirt. He was hollering and ripping off his shirt and I looked back and noticed that Michael had walked into the saw horse area with complete abandonment. He did not realize there were thousands of bee’s swarming at his feet as he was too engrossed watching Lou tear off his shirt and holler. I yelled at Mike “Bees all around you, get out”. For once Michael listened to me and beat a hasty retreat and without getting stung. Why only 4 went after Lou and why none stung Michael we will never know. It was as if they knew that 4 could handle Lou without a problem and they knew that Michael was not a threat.

I could just see someone else come along and sit down on the sawhorse or something. I didn‘t want to leave it for chance and chose to eradicate the colony. I flipped the horse over with a broom handle, beat up the nest and stood back and sprayed the entire swarming mass with one of our powerful bee and wasp killers. The nest was about 6” wide and 8” long. Sometimes, when we find nests, we have to hire an exterminator to come in and eliminate the problem because the nests are so large. Our hardest ones to eliminate are those that dwell under the large stones or build their hives in the ground. We have to watch out for our guests.

When I first started into the construction business I had a 10 house subdivision going out in South Dakota. I had a job trailer there and we stored our extra materials along side in a fenced in area. I pulled up in my pickup just when one of my laborers, who was working on the fence, came crawling out from under the trailer. I got out and started walking toward the trailer just as he came running by me hollering “Run Bees!” Just as he went by, one of his attackers flew up my nose and got wedged. It was the left nostril, yes it was. At that point I figured out what was going on and fully realized that I was probably going to get stung in my left nostril, by a hornet, and that was probably going to really hurt. Well I took off running also, lest more hornets attack me, and as I ran I tried to blow that sucker out my nose. Hhnnh, hhnnh, hhnnh I went as I jumped over a pile of lumber and passed the worker that gave me the hornet problem in the first place. I felt like an idiot, hhnnh, hhnnh, and I was the boss but the damned hornet would not come out. Finally I recovered enough to think the problem out. I stopped, no sting but the hornet was still there, I put my right finger on the side of my nose and blew as hard as I ever had in my life. The hornet came out like a bullet and I didn’t get stung. The hornet was probably flying around wondering “What the hell was that all about?” What I did notice was most of my crew, now gathered round, some of them going hnnh, hnnh, and the other laughing hysterically.