Big year for ground bees

Usually I have one per year and usually they are close to a tree or next to my house like the one I took out with spray a few weeks ago. But my dog found another and took some major heat from them. Poor girl was doing spinning circle while they attacked her. I had to call her off as she was actually trying to take them on! For the first time in a long time this one is in the wide open, aka-gasoline alley. Gonna wait till the sun starts to set and go scorched earth on them. Wish me luck!
Anybody else seeing an updtick in bees this summer? I have heard similar stories from neighbors. Ground bees are especially ornery and pack a wallop. And often are discovered by walking or mowing over their cleverly hidden hole!

I have one big nest that I mow over and I am waiting to get stung. It used to be a gopher hole or something. Luckily my dogs are little wimps and don’t mess around with them.

Seems like there is a lot more this year…

http://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-id-and-control-ground-bees-1968396

suzuki wrote:

Anybody else seeing an updtick in bees this summer?

I had a run-in with a yellowjacket nest while mowing last night. I took quite a few stings.

I did have some bumble bees nest under our deck, I didnt want to kill them since their numbers are dwindling. after further research, they are pretty docile and after being withing a couple of feet watching them fly in to their nest, I realized how docile they are.
hornets and wasps on other hand, not so much…

I have little grand kids around often. I see a hive or nest of any kind and there will soon be a lightning strike. Bee hives don’t do fire very well.

I have burned two holes in the last few weeks. I didn’t even notice one was there until I ran over the nest with the lawn mower…thankfully no one was there to witness a 35 year old man trying to swat away 20 bees while maintaining a forward drive with a zero-turn mower.

ShouldHaveBeenHereYesterday wrote:

I did have some bumble bees nest under our deck, I didnt want to kill them since their numbers are dwindling. after further research, they are pretty docile and after being withing a couple of feet watching them fly in to their nest, I realized how docile they are.

I have been petting bumble bees since I was a youngster. They won’t sting, but they do seem annoyed. They like to lift the hind legs up as if to push you away. I should point out in case anyone else wants to try it that I pet them when in a flower when they are distracted by collecting nectar.

Wasps, no thank you. I don’t mind snakes, spiders, cockroaches, but I will always be wary of wasps and hornets.

Very allergic to them and the dang things are everywhere right now I’m ready for cold weather.

Have ground bees in my yard. Found their hole while mowing. Luckily they didn’t attack. Tomorrow morning they have to go.

I’d be tempted to make a casting of the nest.

Earring Boy found out what ground bees are all about last week.

Eh, eh, ehhhh.

I stepped in one in a wild area of my yard 3 weeks ago. Each ankle has 6 stings or so and I have around another 8 or 9 on my arms, legs and sides. I still have the sting marks. The itching went away after two weeks or so.

I got my butt kicked by some Thursday. I was cutting brush at my folks place and stepped on a nest. They got up my shirt and stung me a few times on the side.

Hurt like heck and now it itches like crazy.

This cooler weather is likely to make them aggressive. Best thing to do sometimes is to not move as motion WILL attract their attention even more.
I got stung multiple times 30+ years ago after stepping in a nest and trying to run from them. I haven’t got stung by a yellow jacket in at least 15 years and it was only one of them getting the back of my hand.
I did work with honey bees for a while without wearing a suit or gloves but they were a friendlier Italian honey bee variety

Those yellow jackets will follow you a long way. One time as kids we found a nest in a friend’s window well. We chucked stuff at it from a distance and they found us, so we ran around the house to the front and into the garage and when we stopped my friend got tagged.

One year the jackets were bad at the cabin collecting sugars from empty cups on the pontoon. I went to get off the dock and one was flying near me so I waved my hand to get it away. It looped around and tagged me on the back of the neck under my collar. The neck is not a good place to get even a small amount of venom. It swelled up and gave me a nagging headache.

I just got back from Onamia hospital today. Four stings in the face and neck! Ouch!

I didn’t find any ground nesting ones yet, but I’ve been burning up the hornet spray by the case fighting them under our eves and around the house. Buggers found an opening and got under the motion detecting light at the peak of the garage and set up shop in the junction box up there. Took a few soakings to get enough in to kill them off way up there, now I have to wait for the freeze to remove the light and get the nest out of there so I can caulk.

None of my kids have ever been stung so I’m hoping no one is allergic. Like my wife, my oldest tends to react to mosquito bites by getting really puffed up so I suspect he may be allergic.

I know there’s a big nest in a brushpile at my hunting property. I’m just leaving those babies alone because they’re all gonna die come Thanksgiving when we burn a few piles. Hope they’re all in the nest.

Grouse

Suzuki- Update please!
My hummingbird feeder is full of them feeding on sugar water.

So, is a ground bee different than a yellow jacket? Yellow jackets were thick at our cabin this weekend. The little buggers pack a wallop.

Yellow Jacket

chris-tuckner wrote:

Suzuki- Update please!
My hummingbird feeder is full of them feeding on sugar water.

The bee hole took a half pint of gas like it had a suction. The fire went on so long my wife finally put it out with a shovel! She was afraid roots were catching fire underground! AND I was hitting it with flammable bug spray (aka-flame thrower) setting the area around it on fire as the bees came in to roost. It was epic and fun.

PS-the next day I was cleaning fish outside in the yard and got swarmed by yellow jackets to the point I had to move the fish away from me and go get one each time I was ready to filet. By the time I was done my cleaning board was surrounded as well. I actually got one with my fillet knife. Samurai!!!

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

So, is a ground bee different than a yellow jacket? Yellow jackets were thick at our cabin this weekend. The little buggers pack a wallop.

Yellow Jacket

They look a little bit different and are smaller than your typical yellow jacket.
but according to the interweb they are both called yellow Jackets. We need an entomologist to clarify. I have put down two nests this summer and have not gotten stung. I usually only get stung when I dont know they are there and walk over them.

i have several wasp traps set up with hummer juice in them. they fill fast. i did alot of looking into these before a bought them to make sure i wasnt killing the GOOD bees. from what i’ve seen they only attract the wasp and hornets.

Belted three times by wasps last weekend painting circular stair railings. Evidently they don’t like epoxy paint smell as they came running as soon as I started. Used Raid to keep them at bay (most of the time).

Found their hole this morning in landscaping rocks next to house foundation…..trying to figure out the best approach to kill the nest without taking the house down in the process.

Sevin dust poured around the hole should take care of them

glenn what are these wasp traps you have?

slipbob_nick wrote:

glenn what are these wasp traps you have?

if i remember i’ll take a picture of them and post later tonight. i got them at fleet farm.

little off topic but i also have fly traps that work pretty awesome too!!!!

Here is the hornet and was pretty trap. Like I said I found it at fleet farm in the farm area

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This is the fly trap and bait I use. Works great. Just a heads up it stinks pretty bad. Again at FF in the farm dept.

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