what a day -- bees

[Andy in NY]

i took the kids out for a few hours today to go to the sand bar... we launch the boat and before we shove off the dog gets stung by a bee. then i see another, so i assume there is a nest somewhere. get all the kids out, check under the bow and see a small nest. knock it down and get it out. we take off and all is well at the sand bar. we shove off to leave and i get stung in the knuckle. now we are floating abot 15 ft from shore pointing away and there are bees everywhere. they were coming from the steering wheel! i hightail it across the cove to a camp where there were people. they invite me to tie up and take the kids ashore. they (thankfully) had some wasp and hornet spray... i got bit again in the forearm while spraying. there must have been 2 dozen of them, INSIDE the steering wheel!!! after cleaning up i put a wet towel over the wheel just in case and we made it back safely. thankfully none of the kids got stung.


CHECK YOUR BOAT FOR BEES NESTS!!

 

[Bluepike]

Re: what a day -- bees

Sounds like quite a day.

Around my marina we have wasps that like to make their homes in the shorpower boxes. A couple of years ago, a guy found out he was alergic to them after he got stung and he had to go to the hospital.

You spray and spray and they still come back.

 

[freeisforme]

Re: what a day -- bees

I working on a buddies boat the other day, his stern light wouldn't work and I was running new wires to it. I reached up into the gunwale area back by the splashwell, and felt something that to me felt like steel wool, after poking and prodding around a bit, I stuck my head up there and found a huge red wasp nest right at the base of the light. How none of them stung me I'll never know but a rag soaked in gas and a quick grab took the whole thing out of there in a hurry. Both him and his wife are severely allergic to bees.

I didn't get hit even once. Go figure. I must have been actually grabbing the nest and the bees feeling for the wires. When I was done, I took two more nests out of the bow and glove box.

So far I've been lucky, bees usually don't sting me and when they do I don't get any reaction.

 

[Andy in NY]

Re: what a day -- bees

this is actually the second time this season ive been stung on the boat...the first time i took it out for the season i got bit. im definatly adding checking for bees to my pre trip checklist!

 

[Thad]

Re: what a day -- bees

WOW!!!

That' abouot all I can say.

I have heard of wasps building nests in a boat that is not used for a couple of years, but this is crazy. You must have some pretty fast working stingers over there. Around here they keep a more solitude lifestyle. If there are people or anything "busy" about a place, they tend to stay away.

I'm glad the kids did not get stung. Depending on how much they get it, it can be pretty traumatizing. To this day, I will not allow shrubs anywhere near my house. Bad experience with hide and seek when I was 11.

 

[Fireman431]

Re: what a day -- bees

If you have wasps or bees, get a can of BrakeCleen. It has a long shot to it, won't harm the boat or upholstery, and when hit, the insects will die before they hit the floor.

 

[sqbtr]

Re: what a day -- bees

Fireman431 Re: what a day -- bees

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have wasps or bees, get a can of BrakeCleen. It has a long shot to it, won't harm the boat or upholstery, and when hit, the insects will die before they hit the floor.

+1

Great for ants too

 

[2000silvers2k]

Re: what a day -- bees

I recently ran over a nest with a lawn mower a few weeks ago, got stung a few times and didnt see it coming, Scared the chit out of me, so i go to high-tail it away from the mower, turn around and jamb my big toe into the ground (was on a hill at the time) ended up breaking my big right two in two places! frigan bees!

 

[Stachi]

Re: what a day -- bees

+1

Great for ants too

the stuff does work great , but be careful of it hitting any plastics.....it ill destroy some plastics...hurts like heck if ya get it bounced back into your eyes...

 

[Purecarnagge]

Re: what a day -- bees

I recently ran over a nest with a lawn mower a few weeks ago, got stung a few times and didnt see it coming, Scared the chit out of me, so i go to high-tail it away from the mower, turn around and jamb my big toe into the ground (was on a hill at the time) ended up breaking my big right two in two places! frigan bees!

Busted out laughing at work sorry guy.

But all i have is this image of a guy running away from the lawn mower, with the bees after him and taking a tumble and getting stung. Sorry...I had to laugh.

 

[Moody Blue]

Re: what a day -- bees

No bees IN the boat but had an encounter with some wasps that built a nest in the tongue of the trailer. As I was hitching up the boat a couple weeks ago I notice there were alot of wasps buzzing around. Odd I thought, so many wasps flying about. Then as I was hooking up the safety chains I saw clearly where they were coming from, the tongue of the trailer about 10" from my face . A good squirt of RAID did the trick but the buggers kept trying to come back even a week later.

 

[Tahoejeep]

Re: what a day -- bees

Makes me glad I can keep my boat in a garage with the doors shut (not that they couldn't find there way in, anyway).

I'm a First Responder at work, and just the other day we had a call for a medical emergency. Turned out to be a bee sting on the very top of a bald guy's head! He'd never had a reaction before, but this time he was very sweaty, eyes swelled almost closed and his lips were swelled. But his breathing was OK, so no eppi pen. Put him on high flow O2 and he was much better by the time the ambulance arrived.

I heard after that incident that there are supposedly 8 kinds of bees/wasps/hornets in our area and that you can be allergic to one and not to all the others. So bee careful out there!

 

[BigBadJohn86]

Re: what a day -- bees

If you have wasps or bees, get a can of BrakeCleen. It has a long shot to it, won't harm the boat or upholstery, and when hit, the insects will die before they hit the floor.

Very helpful idea.
I got stung a little over a month ago by a wasp. Was cleaning the truck out before a trip to buy a new utility trailer. Damn wasps had made a nest in front of the passenger door behind the fender

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: what a day -- bees

I will second the brakeclean also. It dries the oils out of their bodies and will dry up the larva's in the nest also. When you think they are coming back, that is actually the next wave going through the pupa stage. Brake Cleaner takes care of the whole nest. I used the stuff in a trailer when I lived in Florida to kill roaches. Drops them in an instant. Just don't use it inside as it can drop you also..

 

[MrBigStuff]

Re: what a day -- bees

I recently ran over a nest with a lawn mower a few weeks ago, got stung a few times and didnt see it coming, Scared the chit out of me, so i go to high-tail it away from the mower, turn around and jamb my big toe into the ground (was on a hill at the time) ended up breaking my big right two in two places! frigan bees!

Are you mowing barefoot??

Yellowjacket nests are common here. Fortunately, they're not very territorial yet. I ran over one with the string trimmer the other day and they were pouring out of the hole but not one sting.

Wasps love to nest in my outboard shrouds, underneath the pedestal seats or the underside of the covers. I always remove the cover very carefully and look before rolling it up.

 

[contractorguy]

Re: what a day -- bees

Last year I was mowing the area inside the fence of my lagoon...

Way down by the 'water', I hit a nest of hornets and about a dozen came right at me, stinging and chasing, I ran flailing back to the shop. Still on me, I didn't want them in there, so I kept running... Finally out back, there was still one that wouldn't give up, but I was out of breath and couldn't run any more... I turned around and just started swingin at him. I knocked it to the ground and stomped him out.

Here's the funny part... I had the shutoff bar 'fixed' on the mower, so it was still running... sneak back over to look, and a bunch of the hornets are just slammin that mower..

I just went to the house to doctor the 5-6 stings I had and let her run!

It ran about 4 hours before it ran out of gas, and I didn't retrieve the mower till the fall

 

[Stachi]

Re: what a day -- bees

Last year I was mowing the area inside the fence of my lagoon...

Way down by the 'water', I hit a nest of hornets and about a dozen came right at me, stinging and chasing, I ran flailing back to the shop. Still on me, I didn't want them in there, so I kept running... Finally out back, there was still one that wouldn't give up, but I was out of breath and couldn't run any more... I turned around and just started swingin at him. I knocked it to the ground and stomped him out.

Here's the funny part... I had the shutoff bar 'fixed' on the mower, so it was still running... sneak back over to look, and a bunch of the hornets are just slammin that mower..

I just went to the house to doctor the 5-6 stings I had and let her run!

It ran about 4 hours before it ran out of gas, and I didn't retrieve the mower till the fall

AHHHHAHAHAHAHA ! ...I just saw that video in my head !!! I'm glad you didn't have a reaction to the stings...

 

[reelfishin]

Re: what a day -- bees

At my shop I have two huge sliding doors, there's a gap at the back edge of each door. I closed up the shop on Wed. evening, took Thursday off to go fishing, and got back to the shop around 10AM Friday morning. I was welcomed by about 20 huge red wasp nests, they had built a dozen 8"x4" nests along the inner edge of the one door, which I found as I opened the door, which now gave them access to the shop, another nest was under the alarm panel, another is up in the street light lens above the door, and I've got several along the eaves of the shop. I've had bees before, but never this many this soon. I fired up the steam cleaner, closed the door and blasted them all away. The swarm didn't die down till later in the day and many were flying around in the rafters when I locked up. I can't wait to see what's there on Monday.
I'm assuming these are red wasps, it's the closest thing I can compare them too online.
I snapped a pic so I could figure out what I was dealing with:
http://i37.tinypic.com/2ro1bp3.jpg
They aren't super aggressive, but don't dare leave a soda can unattended or your in for a big surprise. I've had bees before but never these things in such numbers.

 

[starcraftkid]

Re: what a day -- bees

I bought a boat four months ago, it's been sitting outback ever since waiting for cooler weather and time to work on it, it was so full of bees when I got it I needed a case of bee spray just to get in the boat. I've been spraying it ever since but they keep coming back. I pulled the top of the side console off the other day, and found a honeycomb that filled the entire console. It's over 24" long, about a foot thick, and 18" deep. There's got to be thousands of bees in there. I called a local bee keeper to see what he thought, he's supposed to come buy and get them out of there. I've never seen anything like it. It was not in there when I brought the boat home, these are different bees, these are brown with a hint of yellow stripes, it was full of yellow jackets and wasps when I picked it up. I also had bees build a nest in the door jamb of my truck, one that I drive everyday. I rarely open the right door, when I did this morning, there was a nest lining the whole forward door jam and back of the fender area. They get in the mirror on my car from time to time too.

Is it me or are there more bees this year? I've never had them like this before, at least not bees that build nests so fast.

 

[alilley]

Re: what a day -- bees

reelfinin yes that is a red wasp also known as a paper wasp the usually are not very agressive unlisss provoked

i will second the brake klean ye sit works well i use to use either (the good starting fluid) but you cant hardly get that any more. but thr brake klean will drop them in their place. but as mentioned i would not use it in a confined place as the fumes and vapors could nock you down. i have 3 kids in the house between 4 and 11. we had a very beautiful spring day so we had the house windows open and had about 6 of the red wasp get in. found all of them by windows. not having any wasp spray at the house and needing to watch what i was doing/using i took a bottle of windex and sprayed each one of them with it to nock them to the floorand then used a news paper on them. violent i know sorry but i dont take chances around my kids

when i was younger dad had com across a wasp nest and he got stong about 4 times on his fore arm first thing he did was take naking soda mixed with water to make a very thick paste and put it on where he got stong. set down for about 30 min till the baking soda was dried again brushed it off, there was no pain or swelling. i to have tried the same thing and it works

to the guy whom left the mower running with them attaccking it they was going after the viberations of it and that is why they were attacking it but the best thing to do if being chased by bee's or anything of the sort if you have a pool, pond or anythin wiht water deep enough to get totally under then just jump in