Lift operator bails from bees

I know this is a personal choice and in tree work it can be kill or be killed with stinging insects, but in my own yard I just leave them alone. I had two large bald-faced hornet nests in our yard a couple years ago. One was about 3' off the ground in my Privet hedge and the other about 8' off the ground in one of our crabapples. I could mow the grass within two feet of the lower nest and they never came after me a single time as long as I didn't bump against the Privet. The same was true of the other nest. When I showed the neighbor kids who come over to play with my son where the nests were so they didn't accidentally get stung, the parents looked at me cross-eyed, like the idea of teaching kids to coexist with hornets was insane.
 
Tom Dunlap said:
The grenade was pulled and the pin was thrown.

How could this EVER happen?
Click to expand...
exactly... it was a nest growing on a long Norway maple limb.. it appeared to only be attached by one shoot.. Once the nest has been dislodged the wasps will not attack the assailant anymore. They will instead end up looking for the nest in its former area. The way I was thinking.. once the nest drops, then I will be safe and the ground guys will have to deal with it, while I finish pruning the tree.

It sure looked like there was only one little shoot holding the nest. I snuck up with the handsaw and cut the shoot with one clean pull. I knew I was in trouble when the shoot dropped but the nest didn't. It turned out that there was another shoot growing out of the bottom of the limb, which made a u-turn and came up behind the limb, entirely out of my sight, as will happen on Norway maple. My face was about 18" from the nest when that happened. I squatted down in the bucket and went for the controls with my left hand while swatting at the attackers with the hand saw in my right.

The thing that sticks out in my mind about that day, other than the feeling of fear and terror, is the image of my buddy laughing so hard he was literally rolling around on the ground.
 
Wow, that cut-&-dropped-from-crab_apple_tree deal
looked REALLY needing accuracy to fit INto the awaiting
trash can --IMO, it seemed about 50% likely to bounce
onto the rim or more, and spill seriously ANGRY hornets
all around!!

As for "totally unnecessary" on the cut-wrong-branch situation,
how so? To my observance, hornets are going to be quick to
react aggressively to any felt jostling of their nest.
Contrary this, though, there was a time when a guy was
chopping out a shrub and ... I warned about yellowjackets
in ground by one plant's stalks/roots. Nevertheless, he did
the cutting & pulling and remained unstung until IIRC he
got to that very plant --resorted to a spray, I think. And
I saw him explaining to some other fellow I think where
he'd been stung --(IUST!!!) two or three places.
HUH, I'd have thought dozens of wasps would've emerged
and ... . I also recall a lawn mower passing over a ground
nest and causing no reaction. YMMV (but err on the safe
side).
So, yeah, I wonder about Africanized w/ the honeybees.


(Ages ago, I actually **moved** a beginning hornets' nest
which I found knocked down in an azalea. The queen was
an easy capture --did use a net?-- and I also nabbed all the
few workers flying about : total count about 7.
Then I had nest-building to do. LONNNNNG AGO, I'd marveled
at some lucky boy featured in Think & Do periodical who sported
a football-sized nest ON HIS WINDOW :: i.e., he likely got to watch
the inside-doings of the hornets --feeding of preyed-on flies, and
adding & chewing-removing the paper for surrounding bag and
added-on lower layers of comb.

So, I cut a gallon milk carton in half (diagonally),
taped & sewed the little comb to an inverted little
bag (there was only this bottom half to salvage,
so I turned it into an umbrella covering of comb),
and ... taped the structure to a back-porch window,
and somehow released wasps into the chamber w/o
any escaping. I sealed it all for the overnight, and
later IIRC opened it for morning hornet activity
--wanting to ensure that the hornets couldn't just
drop out of nest and fly off, but would have to confront
their new surroundings and back'n'forth map routing
back to it. (I slept on the porch so I could observe the
first departure(s).)
AND, alas, the colony didn't grow enough to have a 2nd comb!?

I distinctly recall that walking on the porch and vibrating
the window induced a quick alarm'd emergence of angry
hornets, whose sometimes smacking into the window saw
a drop of venom (likely from shock of impact and less
a deliberate *stinging* of the glass).

(still have that old nest & carton; can't figure it out though
re openings :: both of the round sections on sides are cut
out, in addition to the bottom ??? I just cannot figure THIS!)
)

*kN*
 
knudeNoggin said:
Wow, that cut-&-dropped-from-crab_apple_tree deal
looked REALLY needing accuracy to fit INto the awaiting
trash can --IMO, it seemed about 50% likely to bounce
onto the rim or more, and spill seriously ANGRY hornets
all around!!

As for "totally unnecessary" on the cut-wrong-branch situation,
how so? To my observance, hornets are going to be quick to
react aggressively to any felt jostling of their nest.
Contrary this, though, there was a time when a guy was
chopping out a shrub and ... I warned about yellowjackets
in ground by one plant's stalks/roots. Nevertheless, he did
the cutting & pulling and remained unstung until IIRC he
got to that very plant --resorted to a spray, I think. And
I saw him explaining to some other fellow I think where
he'd been stung --(IUST!!!) two or three places.
HUH, I'd have thought dozens of wasps would've emerged
and ... . I also recall a lawn mower passing over a ground
nest and causing no reaction. YMMV (but err on the safe
side).
So, yeah, I wonder about Africanized w/ the honeybees.


(Ages ago, I actually **moved** a beginning hornets' nest
which I found knocked down in an azalea. The queen was
an easy capture --did use a net?-- and I also nabbed all the
few workers flying about : total count about 7.
Then I had nest-building to do. LONNNNNG AGO, I'd marveled
at some lucky boy featured in Think & Do periodical who sported
a football-sized nest ON HIS WINDOW :: i.e., he likely got to watch
the inside-doings of the hornets --feeding of preyed-on flies, and
adding & chewing-removing the paper for surrounding bag and
added-on lower layers of comb.

So, I cut a gallon milk carton in half (diagonally),
taped & sewed the little comb to an inverted little
bag (there was only this bottom half to salvage,
so I turned it into an umbrella covering of comb),
and ... taped the structure to a back-porch window,
and somehow released wasps into the chamber w/o
any escaping. I sealed it all for the overnight, and
later IIRC opened it for morning hornet activity
--wanting to ensure that the hornets couldn't just
drop out of nest and fly off, but would have to confront
their new surroundings and back'n'forth map routing
back to it. (I slept on the porch so I could observe the
first departure(s).)
AND, alas, the colony didn't grow enough to have a 2nd comb!?

I distinctly recall that walking on the porch and vibrating
the window induced a quick alarm'd emergence of angry
hornets, whose sometimes smacking into the window saw
a drop of venom (likely from shock of impact and less
a deliberate *stinging* of the glass).

(still have that old nest & carton; can't figure it out though
re openings :: both of the round sections on sides are cut
out, in addition to the bottom ??? I just cannot figure THIS!)
)

*kN*
Click to expand...
I didn't mean that one shouldn't get bees out of a workspace, but the torching of the hive is unnecessary. You wouldn't do that to squirrels or birds, and if you would take time to relocate those animals, then you can do the same for animals that aren't cute.
 
Daniel said:
I will be safe and the ground guys will have to deal with it
Click to expand...

So. then. after throwing the pin and holding the grenade you showed your care and concern for your ground crew by dropping a cluster bomb on them and went on about your merry way?

If you did that to me I'd walk over to the truck, turn it off and toss the keys off a bridge.

Selfish climber...sheesh
 
We were all adults.. no pussies on the tree crew back then.... If you know about hornets... once the nest has been dislodged, the likelihood of being stung drops to near zero of anyone with a bit of sense.
 
Mick Dempsey said:
So he was unaware of the bees till he turned up on the job with the lift etc?
Yet you knew about it weeks ago?
What choice did he have the morning of the job, pull off and lose a days money?
Could you not have addressed the situation earlier?
I am very allergic to bee stings thanks to a client deliberately not informing me of their presence till the day we turned up, then me having to carry on and being stung multiple times.
I have to carry an épi-pen all the time and 1 sting could kill me.
Click to expand...
Mick there is another way of viewing and interacting with being "allergic" to something than the western medicine approach. NAET (Nambudrapods Allergy Elimination Technique-sp) focuses on the concept of becoming more or less reactive to something. It's fairly cheap/affordable to go through, can be searched for effective practitioners in your area etc.,

If I felt I continued to have life threatening reactivity that I was clearing (shell fish allergy for some) I would get cleared but still keep an epidural pen just in case.
 
are there any documented instances of "Africanized bees" in your area? Honey bees can go into a frenzy stinging mode. They are very reactive, and panic makes things worse. I hope they weren't. Only adding to the conversation because I keep bees and have been swarmed before, i was in a bee suit, But my old glove had a hole in it and they found it. It was a bad day. More important than that, I really hope the guy makes a full recovery. I've had several encounters with bees in trees and can only speculate that I got lucky.
 
Bees, etc. are not something to take lightly, even if not severely allergic get enough stings and it could potentially become a medical emergency.

I’ve seen this video come up a few times on social media with a woman who relocates bee hives and she literally goes in with her bare hands and the bees don’t sting her. She’ll search for the queen and then relocate which I guess helps signal the other bees to follow suit. Pretty interesting stuff actually.
 
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