What to do about bumble bees?

oneokie · #21 07/10/10, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NickieL

Bumble bees really don't "nest"..they are solitary thus they are not agreesive. I bet you were stung by soemthing else. I've petted them and played with them and have never been stung...yellow jackets, meat bees, and hornets are another matter. I have so many stings from them it's rediculous.

HUH? Do what? You are joking aren't you?

NickieL · #22 07/10/10, 01:41 PM

No. I'm not. I also played with rattle snakes as a kid. I don't know why foks are so chicken about things.

pancho · #23 07/10/10, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NickieL

Bumble bees really don't "nest"..they are solitary thus they are not agreesive. I bet you were stung by soemthing else. I've petted them and played with them and have never been stung...yellow jackets, meat bees, and hornets are another matter. I have so many stings from them it's rediculous.

I haven't ever been stung by a bumble bee either. Really I thought they did not have a stinger. I have never seen a bumble nest either. All I have seen were solitary. Been stung by a lot of other things from scorpins to wasp.

Bat Farm · #24 07/10/10, 02:53 PM

Bumblebees do indeed nest. You can even provide one for them so they hang around your yard - which is a good thing as they are great pollinators. They are protective of their colony but only if you are messing with it. My sunflowers love bumblebees.

mammabooh · #25 07/10/10, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NickieL

Bumble bees really don't "nest"..they are solitary thus they are not agreesive. I bet you were stung by soemthing else. I've petted them and played with them and have never been stung...yellow jackets, meat bees, and hornets are another matter. I have so many stings from them it's rediculous.

My husband likes to pet the bees on our raspberries. It's like they are so satiated, that they just sit there and take it. It really freaks his mom out!

However, one time our son (who was maybe 3 at the time and had watched his dad pet them many times) decided he was going to pet one. What he really did was grab it and squeeze it. That was not so pleasant for the boy OR the bee.

TheMartianChick · #26 07/10/10, 05:13 PM

If it weren't for the bumblebees, I'd likely not have a garden harvest. It is rare fr me to see a honeybee. Sorry about your troubles with whatever kind of bees those are!

mammabooh · #27 07/10/10, 05:14 PM

Around here, we call the ground-nesting bumblebees that sting like crazy "eye bungers".

motdaugrnds · #28 07/11/10, 08:47 AM

Bumble bees do nest! They dig holes into soft woods and many will nest over winter in that one hole.

I am not so brave as to try and pet one; but I do talk to them. ROFL

pancho · #29 07/11/10, 09:01 AM

There are many different kinds of bumble bees and carpenter bees. Different parts of the country have different kinds. They are not all the same and do not all act the same way.

PD-Riverman · #30 07/11/10, 07:42 PM

These "Bumble Bee's" are not the normal bee's I would Bet. The one's that stung you probably has more yellow on them than the regular BB. They look just like a BB but seem to be a darker black with twice the yellow. These BB do live in the dirt and will make a home in things like insulation in a wall, christmas tree skirt snow in a box, etc. These Bees are Very Aggressive and will chase you a long way and their sting is worse than any other sting I have ever had. If I see one I be very careful not to aggrivate it. Regular BB I don't pay any attention to. What I have done is spend some time watching and following them and locate their home then do what I have to do to distroy it. One time they had a home inside my shop wall. I fixed a hook on a rope and snatched a board off the wall waited a few hours for them to settle down then I attacked the nest in the wall with 2 cans of wasp and hornet spray--one in each hand, then with a wire hook I pulled the nest out the wall and sealed it back up good with no crack. For about a week I had bee's trying to find the original hole. What ever you do, be careful these BB are MEAN!!!! I feel they Need to Be destroyed so next year you don't have twice as many.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nathan104

Man, I hate these things. I had never been stung by a bumble bee until this week, and this week, Ive been stung three times! I was out cutting some small trees in the pasture and had one sting me on the shoulder. Felt like I got shot. Then, it proceeded to chase me around the pasture, it even followed me all the way to the other side of the 20 acre pasture which I rode to on the 4 wheeler as fast as it would go. It chased me around the pasture twice. Then today, I was shredding in a completely different area and apparently ran over a nest of them and got stung twice in the arm and back. Luckily I was able to shut down the tractor before having to run for it. There were probably 100 bumble bees swarming the ground where I had just mowed over. My arm is swollen up very badly and hurts like crazy. My wifes a nurse and gave me a steroid shot, and Ive taken benedryl for it as well. But, its still killing me. I could barely bed my elbow.

So, whats the deal? Anything I can do about them? Is the nest in the ground something Id be able to locate and spray?

Also, anyone have any remedies for bumble bee stings? Ive been stung by all kinds of wasps before but this is 20x worse. Forgot to mention tha the first time I was stung, before I made it to the 4 wheeler, I was running through the pasture and fell and cracked a couple of ribs. Hurts to breathe. Im just getting beat up because of these things.

PrettyPaisley · #31 07/11/10, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMartianChick

If it weren't for the bumblebees, I'd likely not have a garden harvest. It is rare for me to see a honeybee.

This is us. We have billions of bumble bees but hardly any honey bees. I find them lying drunk in squash blossoms all the time.

I was also stung on the inner most meaty part of my thumb where it attaches to my hand. I was cutting lavender and apparently grabbed one. I thought I was being careful since the lavender plant was covered in bees but apparently I missed one. They hurt like heck but not as badly as a yellow jacket, IMO.

tinknal · #32 07/11/10, 11:04 PM

First time I ever stepped on a ground hornet nest I was in a pig pen with 5' cattle panel sides. It is the only time in my life that I ever actually achieved flight (I most have flown because I never touched the fence and I sure can't jump that high.)

pheasantplucker · #33 07/12/10, 05:44 AM

I keep honey bees. Been stung by them of course. I've also been stung by yellow jackets, wasps, hornets, sweat bees, and the bumble bee. I have said this for a long time. Bumble bees are the absolute worst. Most bee stings subside after a half hour or so. The bumble bee stings I've experienced have been excruciating and have lasted for an entire day and a half before they begin to diminish. I'm with the OP on this one.

Little Quacker in OR · #34 07/12/10, 01:30 PM

This is such an interesting thread! I am glad that some of you pointed out that there is more than one species of "bumble bees" and that good ID is ALWAYS a good thing so we don't cut off our noses just to spite our faces. Or whatever.

Also happy to see many people recognize how important our Pollinators are! Our European Honey Bee is responsible for EVERY THIRD BITE OF FOOD WE EAT. And as we all know, they are failing and disappearing at an alarming rate.

I belong to a fascinating group, about 50,000 strong and I urge all of you who can to join it. This is nation wide study of bees. Its based out of San Francisco but we are located all over the country.

sfbee@sfsu.edu

When you sign up, you then plant a specific type of sunflower," Lemon Queen"(readily available) or order the seeds from the University, and then once they bloom you take your watch out and keep track of how many Honey Bee's visit one blossom during a 10 min period. Do this each day that you can and send in your results to the website. They then correlate the info and determine the numbers of bees in particular regions etc.

We are also taught how to recognize all the NATIVE BEES in our particular area so we don't kill them off. I was just amazed and how many species of native bees there are!!! Many of them look like some type of fly, or wasp or something and some are so small they are practically unnoticeable unless you are looking for them!

They send you to a website with lots of photos to help with ID's.

This is a really fun and satisfying activity and as I just love sunflowers anyway and plant them every year, this just ties right in.

So, help out our Bee's and our survival and join up!

LQ