This past month I have been attacked twice by vicious bumble bees. The first time they stung me on my upper lip. I am very allergic to bee stings, but I also cannot take Benadryl or the Epi pen... I iced it for awhile. And later I had hives and a rash on my face and neck...When DS got home from work, I had him take me to the store for Benadryl. The ER would only have been able to give me an Epi shot or Benadryl, so I opted for a low dose OTC version. Thankfully, that helped. And I took my BP medicine at the same time to try and avoid a spike. I had to destroy that nest, and it took two tries to kill that nest. The other day I was outdoors getting some peppermint, and got attacked again from another nest, and he stung me on my chest. Peppermint did not ward him off. Skip the peppermint on getting rid of bees, they love it. I went out at night and sprayed that nest good. I think it is gone? I have NEVER had a problem with bumble bees before. They have always been gentle and tame, and you might even pet one now and then. Don't pet these rascals. Wasps/yellow jackets/hornets are mean and nasty, and I have been stung by them plenty. What is with the bumble bees this year? One friend thought carpenter bees, but I have never had them get so aggressive with me either. These bumble bees live in nests, with many other bumble bees, they are not solitary like bumble bees usually are. They look like ordinary bumble bees too.
Typically they will only sting if they feel threatened or their nest is threatened. I didn't know there were any solitary bumblebees. There are 46 species of Bumblebees in North America , http://www.bumblebee.org/NorthAmerica.htm Sounds like some of the more aggressive ones have moved into your neighborhood.
I never knew they nested in groups. And I never met a mean, nasty bumble bee before. I am over 60. I have a website for bumble bees in my other computer, so I have no idea if I have the same one or a different one. Those two nests are gone. I cannot have vicious bees/insects/animals in my yard. The bumble bees in my yard, including the carpenter bees that bore wood, and make holes in the roof of my porch have never been mean or aggressive. I did not do anything to them until they attacked me. I have always worked around the bees in my yard freely and we got along fine. I have had it out with wasps/hornets/yellow jackets a few times because they are mean and nasty tempered also. I think probably Dr Frankenstein at Monsanto is playing around with GMO in the insect world. The ordinary houseflies around here seem to have crossed with horse flies, and drink human/animal blood now. Sometimes when I splat them, they have red blood, not the usual green blood.
Our local Newspaper just carried this article re: ZOMBIE BEES REACHING CANADA This is the article: It sounds like something out of science fiction — or a bad movie — but ‘zombie bees’ are all too real. “These bees exhibited zombie-like symptoms if you think of your classic zombie movie — moving slowly in circles looking for brains essentially,” says Nanaimo beekeeper Sarah Wallbank, who discovered the first parasitized honey bees, or zombie bees, in Canada. “Right now the bees I’m finding affected are about eight to 20 each night,” Wallbank says, showing CHEK News the carcasses of the first ones she found. The term zombie bee was coined in 2012 by San Francisco State University professor John Hafernik. He was the first person to discover bees exhibiting strange behaviour , such as flying at night and congregating near lights, after being infected by a fly parasite. “We’re increasingly finding that this parasite is infecting honeybees in a variety of places across North America,” says professor Hafernik says. “The big question is, how intense is this parasitism?” Professor Hafernik started ZomBee Watch to track the problem and with the help of beekeepers and almost 3,000 citizen scientists, they’ve found infestations across the United States. Fly that infects zombie bees very common in Canada The fly responsible, apocephalis borealis, is common in Canada so experts aren’t surprised it spread here. But how it infects unsuspecting honeybees is pretty gruesome. “The female fly lays the egg into the living bee where then the larva hatches out and starts to eat the bee from the inside while the bees still alive,” Wallbank says. It causes the bees to abandon their hive and die. A few days later, fly larvae burst out of the bee and go on to infect more bees. There’s no known cure but light traps can catch infected bees to stop the fly larvae from spreading. “One of the great fears that we don’t have an answer to right now is can a fly actually get into the hive?” Wallbank asks. “The worst-case scenario is that fly parasitizes the queen and then the queen dies and then the hive is lost.” A scary thought, considering a third of the food we eat comes from the pollination of bees. My point is that POSSIBLY the bees that stung you AANightOwl have something seriously wrong with them like these bees. This article didn't say where this problem originated but does imply these bees are moving north and came from a more southern location.
I haven't noticed any aggression here...we just started getting larger numbers of bees the last couple of weeks..I am surrounded by them in my flower bed when I am weeding. I will pay close attention because my husband is allergic to them ...
I NEVER, like Never go in the garden during the day in summer. I have never been stung when out and about. The nearest to a bee I got was some weeks back when one wanted my hair which was attracting them on the way back from the shop accross road from me. Yes I miss out on a lot by not getting the sunshine but to me its worth it if I am not at risk from a sting that could be life threatening. Maybe the bees were protective of the Queen, maybe its been the heat that got them excited. In flowers I don't have that many in fact I removed dead ones this morning while the flowers from other gardens were wet and closed. No Insects if the conditions are not right. K
So far I haven't had a problem with bees or hornets being aggressive. I see them and work near them but they don't seem to get upset . If one seems aggressive I back away and work elsewhere until it leaves. that it stays that way.
Usually, bees do not get aggressive around me. I was merely walking by the bird house to feed my horse; and the second time I went out to pick some sprigs of mint for starts, which I have planted next to my house. I was not doing anything that I know of to aggravate them. We do have some giant brown hornets here that come out at night when the porch light is lit. Those are scary. And a friend just gave me a sack of chocolate peppermint plants... Oh boy!
I seem to be mildly allergic to bee stings in that I immediately swell (not life threatening) but I will remain swollen from a sting for upwards of 3 to 4 weeks. That being said I have been stung numerous times in really odd situations. Picked up a piece of wood out of the woodbox in the living room middle of January and got stung on the palm of my hand by a bee that was under the bark. Driving down the road a bee gets blown into the window of the car, lands on my leg and stings me.......I've been stung doing absolutely nothing to aggravate a bee/wasp/hornet it just seems they find me.
I feed the bees here. While they will light and crawl around on me they never offer to sting. Guess we have a truce of sorts,, I feed them, they leave me alone.
And that's how it should be Mart. We must all share what God created. I will provide your Queen, you do not attack me... K
