Bees!

that Cicada killer is nasty boy, i had a bunch of those swarming around an oak tree i had been cutting down the week earlier, for some reason they really liked the fresh cuts, took up two bottles of bee spray with me, kinda felt like billy the kid shooting them down from the sky, made the groundies back off so i didnt get any bug spray in their eyes by accident, thanks for the chart jim, its already printed and waiting to be hung at the shop
 
That was funny Jim!

Thanks Xman and Jim for the education - if I ever end up tree climbing in the states, I feel a little better prepared for potentional regional hazards : )

Cheers
P.
 
If you say that there were a lot of those swarming around, then it makes me think they couldn't have been cicada killers.

Most likely another large bee called a Giant Hornet. Definitely still LARGE.
Here is a picture of a Giant Hornet (hornet in typical defence mode here, as when a human in looking down on it):
giant2.jpg

Here is a true cicada killer picture:
cicadakiller.jpg


giant hornet -web page for more info on this bee.

Cicada killers are pretty much loners. Maybe, just maybe if the sap was running and very tasty, you might find 3 or 4 killers at the most in the same tree drinking, but rarily.

Jim was trying to be helpful and please don't take offence to this Jim, (he didn't make the chart) but that chart is aweful. I can't believe an entomology department would put out something like that. You can learn some names from it I guess, but the actual shapes are not realistic. The mud dauber's thorax is way too fat. The carpenter bee is simply aweful. The yellow jacket is entirely too fat all over. That chart would not help you to ID a single bee.

Back to the Giant Hornet:
Giant Hornet is the largest hornet that I know in my state. Range is Massachusetts to Georgia, west to Indiana. I've found they tend to like hollow dry cavities in trees for a home. You will rarily ever be able to see the actual nest, you would have to cut into the tree or into a house's wall to see it. They do not make an outdoor paper nest like a Bald-faced hornet. They are aggressive hunters and kill many insects. They can be seen killing Cicadas as well and I've seen it several times. They chew and mush up the insects at the site that they caught them. (this is another way you could tell the diffence between a Cicada killer vs. a Giant Hornet killing a Cicada, the hornet will kill it and then chew a hole in the cicada; usually in the belly of the cicada, then carry away a ball of chewed cicada. The true Cicada Killer, will sting it and carry it away whole) The hornets fly that sticky ball back to their hive and feed their larvae with it. The adult hornets can NOT digest that material, only the larvae. In turn, the larvae spit out a super sugary liquid that acts like a high octang race fuel for the adult hornets. They do not make any honey at all. They can raid and kill a honey bee hive, but I don't think it happens too often in the United States, however.... I'm wondering if that's why hives are disappearing lately? I've noticed the population of Giant Hornets on the rise, especially last year. You can often find these hornets chewing through fruits like apples and pears (on the ground or still on the tree). They also like to strip the bark off decidous trees and then drink the sap that runs out. I've seen this many times on liliac bushes. They get very possessive of these feeding areas also. But, they kill insects the most, so they can feed the larvae and get their sugar drink. It seems they don't turn to sap and fruits until the end of the summer. They are mean and tough. When defending a nest, if they land on you to sting, they will also often bite with their large mandibles so you have a hard time knocking them off. At least since they are so big, you can see them coming.

These are bigger than Bald-face hornets, but smaller than a female Cicada killer.

Maybe I'll do Bald-faced hornets next.
 
Jim when you descended on your VT, did it have a biner with a muenter in it for example??

I thought it was a no no to descend on a single line with your normal climbing hitch cuz it would be taking 2x more weight than when descending on a doubled rope??
 
I wasworking out of the bucket shoving my way into a messy elm and unbe knownst to me a white face hornet nest was right in there. They are some mean s o b s that always seam to go for your eyes ears and head. I miraculously recieved only one sting on my ear but damn near ejected myself out of the bucket getting the flock out of there. It always seams like late summer is the worst time for bees- their nests are well established and they get a little more testy.
 
Cory,

I must stress, the mechanical ascenders were backed up with my working knot. It was raining bees!!! From unclipping the Petzl to touching the ground was only a few seconds.

I climb DdRT or SRT. There's been only a few times DRT and those were either practice or competition.

In hindsight, I believe the VT of HRC on an SRT system would have been enough to keep me well below reaching 32 ft / sec^2 rate at which gravity sucks and also not becoming a blob of hot plastic in my hands.

I don't carry my figure-8s any more. A Muenter on a carabiner is my braking system.
 
Jim,

I think you are saying you have to install or set up your muenter and VT and then descend after removing the Petzl....or is the muenter in place as you are ascending so that you only have to remove the petzl and you can then immediatly descend??
 
HRC -- New England Ropes product for friction knots. See other threads like "New England Eye&eye prusik Cords"

I use three climbing modes, ascent, work, descent; all on the same climbing line. I'll describe my setup/transitions. Currently this setup is the same, whether I am DdRT or SRT. Using Yale Blaze or NE Ropes Firefly on DdRT,

Ascent-- VT on the climbing rope. An additional length of HRC attaches this system to the harness bridge. Petzl ascender goes beneath it, advancing the VT on its push. Thus, the VT BACKS UP the Petzel. Takes some tuning to find the proper length and I find putting a half twist in this 'bridging' between VT and harness keeps it out of the way of the ascender hardware.
[I also have a Tree Frog system that can go in here for longer ascents]

Working-- Lanyard in. Remove and stow Ascent-only Petzl or Frog system. Shorten the VT distance by attaching its 'biner directly to the harness bridge. Now VT is my only friction attachment. Free to remove lanyard and get to work.

Descent-- Lanyard in. Apply a Muenter to the tail of the climbing line below the VT, attaching carabiner to my bridge shackle. That way its low and to the side*. Push down on the VT and all the friction goes to the Muenter. I have tested the VT in this mode, and in case I lose the tending on the Muenter, the VT will grab within a few feet**.

* & ** : grabs better when attached to side.

I could be out on a limb,
 
Thanks alot for the detailed reply Jim...I think I'll give this system a try!

One more question if you please...you say to descend, first lanyard in which of course makes sense. In the bee episode did you lanyard in or did you skip it and do the changeover while hanging there??
 
Good question Cory. In the spirit of expedience, Being gaffed in, I yanked up on my ascender and in that weightless moment, I was able to remove the locking biner that keeps the rope in the ascender AND disengage the toothed cam (God works in mysterious ways), then settled back on the VT. [You do put a 'biner through that loop on the top of the ascender, right?]

Then it was ungaff and, "Bonzai!"
 
Back on topic...

Today, I had two wasp encounters in some red oaks on a plaza. Pole saw work from the ground, but still went on alert (wonder why?). Each consisted of about a dozen wasps building half-grapefruit sized nests, about 12 feet off the ground, south side, hidden at the base of this year's growth.

Couple of shots with an aerosol "Hornet Zapper" shot them down nearly instantly and the branches were removed. Apparently the insecticide does a number on tree tissue (and probably people tissue, too).

If they weren't nesting around such a heavily traveled area, I'd rather had left them alone to do their duties. Not keen on doing a relocation, either.

Hope this helps you spot the nests quicker, although they can likely nest anywhere.
 
Wow, I'm learning alot of SRT from this thread....I've never put a biner through those holes at the top of the ascender....guess its a good idea, huh?
 
I can't resist--not quite as familiar as theXMan, but with much the same
extended (over years) interest & acquaintance. Where to begin ... ?

I concur in the opinion re that identification chart--takes one already
familiar with the things to figure which representation is supposedly
which insect, nearly! But, OTOH, it seems a sort of classical set of
images, and these sorts of things somehow seem to get copied--see
LOTS of that w/knots (and, e.g., I'm amazed at the Knots booklet the
Brit.MountaineeringCouncil publishes--though not so much for images).

Agree re that swarming & conjecture of cicada killers; haven't seen any
reply to correct/confirm, given the nicely provided photos, though?!
(Btw, that cicada killer looks SMALL on your finger?!)

Only once each have I witnessed European ("Giant") hornets in action:
just last year, trying to chew dead a cicada; and long ago, one dropped
before me in mortal attack on a bald-faced hornet, chewing off legs
and the head eventually. In neither case was the sting engaged (unlike
the cicada killer (which doesn't actually kill, immediately) or the polistes
("paper") wasp (caterpillars) or mud dauber (spiders). I've seen the last
just once nab a house spider: on garage floor, tickling a web strand
to lure the spider down, and grabbing it & rolling to sting it, then fly
off with it. (Ambivalence here: I like spiders!)

Sometime in adulthood I sorta realized a dream had since seeing a
Think & Do booklet (grade school (I do w/o thinking, now, or in the
opposite order :o)) that had a photo of a big hornets nest ON A WINDOW
--how neat, to see their goings on (but, ah, open some other window
for ventilation) !! Something had knocked down a small nest (spring),
and I was able to capture the queen (so intent on finding her hard
work) and most/all of the seven? workers (btw, not "those GUYS"
but GALS). Only the lower half of the outer shell was found, and
so I inverted it and pulled the comb stem through its hole, sewed(!)
& taped it to a half gallon plastic milk jug appropriately prepared,
taped nest assembly to porch window, and finally loaded the wasps
into same which was sealed. By some clever way I unsealed it over
the night, and was awake to see the first emergeance of wasps!
(flying out w/back'n'forth to acquaint themselves w/new situation).

Alas, it stayed a single-comb family, though it grew some. Wow,
vibrations on the (upstairs, extended from house) porch drew some
damn quick fighter-pilot scrambles, and occasional impacts on the
window glass sometimes showed ejected sting venom. I do NOT
envy an arborist's plight sharing the upper reaches with such a nest.

---------

Seems hard to find good photos--which I'd think would be all the
rage, esp. in the age of digicams & WWWeb--, but recently there
have been HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE yellowjacket nests down
south--'bama & Texas. --to wit:

> At one site in Barbour County, the nest was as large as a Volkswagen
> Beetle, said Andy McLean, an Orkin pesticide service manager in Dothan
> who helped remove it from an abandoned barn about a month ago.

>>He and fellow researcher, Dr. Xing Ping Hu, counted 22 queens
>> within 16 square feet of comb. Ray estimates a normal-sized nest
>> contains only about 2 square feet of comb and supports only one
>> queen.

Here's one link of an impressive sight (if it's not your house):
www.aces.edu/counties/Tallapoosa/newspaper-articles/06-07-23.html

also, YouTube (damn brief new blurb)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOeiKGlOaKA

Hey, this one of a European/Giant hornets nest is quite impressive
(that one sees such a thing at all, and that unlike the bald-faced H.s
nest this is so open (might as well skip the shell, if ...) !?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypsTg2nIbiQ&mode=related&search=

(note the highly intelligent responses posted--"dude ..." says it all)-:

*kN*
 
Here's a pretty good site w/pics (yellowjackets, bald-faced & Euro hornets):

www.ridacritter.com/stinging.html

I find it interesting how at least some yellowjacket nests are, well, yellow!
--might be from getting wood pulp from more rotting than dried sources?

They have a separate page of pics for "Bees", but one of those is, quite
clearly, not a "beehive" (in Winston, Georgia) but a big hornets nest (of
which I bee-leave (to pre-quote TreeSpyder) has a 2nd pic on the wasps
page.

*kN*
 
Had a fun experience with wasps once. Just got to where I had to change my tie in point on the way up, about 65 feet. Started to clip my lanyard around a crotch when I heard a bzzzz get louder and something punched me in the back of my head. Realizing what was going on I unclipped my lanyard and hit my hitch. Came down so fast I burned the palm of my hand but only got three stings. Once down the whole tree looked like it was alive with wasps. While sitting on the curb for about 30 min trying to not have a heart attach and hoping to not swell up I found the nest. It was about 5 feet out on the limb I clipped in with my lanyard, about 15" in diameter, and well camouflaged with a clump of leaves. Nothing like 75 stings but I sure do look closer for them now.
 
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