Spiders and bees

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

Funny, I could stand in a bucket of snakes or eat a baloney sandwich while gutting a deer with no problem. But, I'm not a fan of bees, wasps and spiders. And, just as cats seem to always rub on those who like them the least, bees and wasps seem to gravitate to me.

Running the maintenance department in a small plant means bee and wasp control seems to fall into my lap in spite of my fear of the damn things. The other maint. tech took his scooter (there are some perks to the job ) in to buy some wasp spray today. Then I went out to kill some of the damn things before they stung one of our employees. Ran the can dry before they were all dead so I walked quickly back to the shop only to find a big carpenter bee, bumble bee, or whatever it was in the shop right were I was transferring chemicals from barrel to barrel. I couldn't spray there because of the open barrels and finally herded the damn thing out of the shop so I could finish and make my escape.

Then ridin' home I feel a bite? and see what appears to be a small yellow spider biting the tender skin on the underside of my forearm while I'm running 20 over the speed limit on a deserted country road and basking in the "schools out feeling of escaping from work on the valk". Without slowing down I use my thumb to crush and rub off the spider.

Wasn't a spider, it was the yellow poison sack attached to a bee stinger that was stuck in my arm. Sure glad I was able to forcefully inject the rest of that crap into my arm as I crushed the poison sack. Never know, maybe I was low on insect DNA and needed a booster.

If KARMA is going to whip my ass every time I have to kill bees at work then it's going to be a long summer.

[mike4sho]

Yikes sounds horrible.  Those wasp sprays work pretty well.  My parents dog disturbed a wasps nest one time.  The dog and I got attacked.  I ran for a few and a few of them were stuck to my shorts.  I ripped my shorts off and stomped on them.  My parent's dog was allergic to the stings and almost passed out on me.  I got stung a few times and rushed him to the vet.  I hate those stupid things.  Tried warning some Asian lady walking on the trail.  But she didn't speak English.  Always wondered how she faired  ??? 

[fordmano]

Best thing I have found to do if your already getting stung by just about anything is CRUSH it, just grab ahold of it between a couple fingers and crush the everlovin Sh!!!!!!!!T out of it.

[bogator]

  DANG, what a fun day you had-----mine was just normal ------just dump truckin around----AUBURN COLLAGE ------GOD BLESS----

[Patrick]

We get invaded with spiders during some years, last year was one of those years. They were everywhere and just couldn't keep ahead of them. Their bites can be nasty.
Bees, I like bees. Honey bees, that is. I like to have a hive around. The others I have no use for. 2 Years ago the White Face Hornets got me while mowing, over 120 stings, I didn't make it to the house, passed out in the field for about 5 hours.
I like to find and collect Paper Wasp nests and hang them in the house.

[Jttingle]

I thought this was a big bad biker club? Bikers ain't skeert! Ride on!

[Skinhead]

Brake cleaner works well to kill them if you don't have the wasp spray handy.  Drops them dead in their tracks.

[Master Blaster]

A cup of gasoline dashed on a wasp nest will drop them all instantly.  Prolly not the safest thing, but it works quicker than wasp spray.

[DIGGER]

At Big Bend National Park about 5 yrs ago my son and wife were riding behind me and my wife.   I looked in my rear view and they were pulling off the road in a crash stop .   I looked ahead them back in my mirror and their bike was on the ground and they were doing a dance.    We turned around and went back and they had dead centered a swarm of bees that came between us and they had bees all over them.   We were swating the bees and just raking them off of them.     Finally got them all off of them and low and behold neither one of them had been stung at all.   Amazing.

[Daniel Meyer]

the best way to deal with them....

Army sent flame thrower to destroy huge wasp nest

[hubcapsc]

2 Years ago the White Face Hornets got me while mowing, over 120 stings,

Dang...

Some kind of hornet from one of those football nests got on my face while I was
pruning a few years ago. I had to grab him and yank him off while I was running
to get him disconnected... I bet you did pass out...

-Mike

[Jess Tolbirt]

barrels' are made of wood, all others are drums,,

[hubcapsc]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum_%28container%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Valkyrie 

-Mike

[3fan4life]

In the contenental US there are only two spiders that are of any real concern.


The Black Widow:


The Brown Recluse:



The bite of a Black Widow will cause respiratory and cardiac problems if the bite is to the upper part of the body. It will cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea if the bite is on the lower part of the body.


The venom of the Brown Recluse destroys skin tissue and left untreated will result in a large nasty wound that never heals and continues to get larger and larger.


The bite from either of these is rarely ever fatal.


Obviously the biggest issues with bees is the possibility of an allergic reaction.


Personally I tolerate spiders better than bees.

But I don't want either one of them crawling on me. 

[Patrick]

I treat honey bees carefully because I like them and they are having troubles in this neck of the woods. The others though are a different story. Ground wasps and Yellow Jacket ground nests, I just wait till dark, pour in some gas and light it off. For the White Face nests I do the same, I spray them with gas at night and light them up. I try not to burn down the rest of the county, but, that doesn't always work out as I'd like. Those White Face are mean ass critters, when they hit you it feels like buckshot.

[hubcapsc]

Personally I tolerate spiders better than bees.

But I don't want either one of them crawling on me. 

It is comforting to be aware that all the spider webs you ride through in
the woods on your mountain bike are not dangerous, especially when
you see several of them walking up your chest when you sit down to rest... 
I once looked down to see this particularly bulbous quarter sized one on me...

I went through a big web once, it had a lot of yellow jackets caught in it, they were
swinging on web threads like windshield wipers on my safety glasses...

-Mike

[doubletee]

At times I wish my wife would have taken pictures, but other times I'm glad she didn't......

Got nailed by wasp/hornet when mowing around a tree in the front yard. Finally located the football nest at about eye level and decided it had to go...now!

It's about 100* F and I suit up in two pairs of jeans with the pants legs tucked into my socks, work boots, Carhart jacket, winter balaclava with the neck portion tucked inside the collar of the Carhart jacket and the jacket's zipper fully closed......and the topper........my full faced helmet on.

A can and a half of wasp/hornet spray later and they're all dead. I'm close to death from heat exhaustion, but made it through without being stung again.  

[bigguy]

Kill them with a 1/4 inch wide stick.
Wasps

[Pappy!]

I got nailed by a Brown Recluse several years ago. Creates a class 3 staph infection (gangrene) if not immediately taken care of. If it gets in the bloodstream it can and will kill you! Didn't know what kind of spider I had been bitten by and in 4 days I went into the hospital, not by choice, with blood pressure of 90/50 and falling. They are nasty for sure! A friends classmate died in 4 days over in Punta Gorda from one that he left untreated. He had reached behind a Fridge and was bitten on the underside of his forearm.
At work we have a ton of Black Widows. Killed 4 in one day last Summer.When I find the helter skelter looking webbing I always look for the egg sacks which look like a small whitish round sack with spikes all over them. Look for the female and she won't be far away. They are fast little buggers when disturbed.
A boat we had just sold and I needed to rig out was so full of nests I refused to work on it until we got spray and killed them all. Can't go spraying carb cleaner all over the inside of a new boat!

[Denny47]

A lite dose of good soapy water is also supposed to kill bees, wasps, spiders. They evidently breath through their bodies and the soap will suffocate them.