Another Bee Bites the Dust

All that chemical soup... perhaps it was trying to commit suicide?

As Willy Shake wrote..

"To bee or not to bee?"

Charles wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

then it wasn't a BEE, it was a yellowjacket. it's not that hard to tell the difference, since they don't look at all alike. lee

Hee Lee, how's your summer been?

Actually, I've had mason and bumble bees investigate sweet drinks. Not often, but it has happened at least twice. It was sweet mint tea, not a cola... C

honey bees visit soda cans as often as yellow jackets...and it can be hard for some to tell the difference since I get plenty of calls for one and it ends up being the other.

Lar

I know the difference, I've tangled with yellowjackets way too many times.

You were lucky! I didn't notice one time and it stung me right on the lip. Not that I was so beautiful before, but the fat lip really looked awful as I met parents of my students at the first football game of the season! LOL

Does "yellowjacket" mean "wasp"?

Not to me, I think of paperwasps as wasps. Technically yellowjackets may be wasps, but I dislike them more (the yellowjackets). I got stung way too many times while I worked in the woods, two or three times a week I'd kick up a ground nest.

I was imagining getting stung in the throat. I'm not allergic, but I do swell from stings, it can make breathing difficult.

Yellow jackets are a type of wasp, but wasps generically are referred to the paper wasps, which build the inverted umbrella shaped nest under the eaves and may contain a few dozen wasps where as the true yellow jacket nest is usually in the ground or a hollow area in a tree or structure and can contain hundreds of wasps. Another type of yellow jacket is the bald faced hornet which is not a hornet at all, but it's nest is the same construction as other yellow jacket nests except they may be out in the open (the football shaped nest hanging on a limb).

Lar

enigma expounded:

Believe it or not, I've seen honeybees go for diet coke cans! Yes, they do visit soda cans, but not as much as yellowjackets do.

Addendum. I had turned the Coke can upside down, but it tipped and the Coke ran out. I checked later and the bee was not in the can, nor was it on the ground. So it may have tasted the dust, but it didn't bite it, which is good, we need bees. Just not in my drink.

Cheryl Isaak wrote in news:C2F83DF7.6DBAD% snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net:

busy. i bought a place in upstate NY, mostly for summer use by the SO's family. it has a nice veggie garden spot ;) oh, and black currents! i was really surprised & delighted to find them. i need to redo my upper garden. i think it'll be an herb garden, but with a lilac because i'm not moving the poor thing

late August is when the yellowjackets go into overdrive trying to store sweets & protein for winter (even though they don't winter over well in New England). while the masons & bumbles might investigate, those yellowjackets are staking a claim & they love sodapop. it's good for baiting wasp traps this time of year (whereas something stinky, like catfood, works better in early summer) lee

"Peter" wrote in news:fav2pd$as1$ snipped-for-privacy@aioe.org:

it's a type of wasp lee

Sounds nice!

Need chives! LOL

Long form or short form Short form - summer from hell. DS broke his leg, needed surgery (3 screws stay put, one comes out in a month). I cut my left index finger, needed nine stitches, still having issues with the scar.

I hate yellow jackets. They are just nasty to be nasty.

Cheryl

Cheryl Isaak wrote in news:C2F99801.6DC7E% snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net:

the ban on black currents was recently (3 years ago i think) repealed in NY. i was surprised to find them growing wild. i'm going to try starting some from seed. if they grow i'll probably take them back to NY though. NH isn't so enlightened about currents yet. i'm a big fan of currents, black or red (i've not seen white ones yet)

hah! chives are a weed (or is that a groundcover... ). Boo is really into herbs & gardening. he was totally smitten by the herballist at the Renaissance faire. he was spending all his allowance on herb plants & dried herbs and wanted to spend all day hanging out at her booth.

index finger cuts suck! have you tried putting vitamin E oil on the scar tissue? how did your son break his leg? that sounds like a pretty bad green stick break!

yup. especially in August. i had an arborial nest under the porch on year. i thought it was paper wasps so i left it alone... until August when they started stinging me when i was hanging laundry 10 or more feet away from the nest. my skunk is missing this year so i expect we'll be finding huge ground nests soon. he was 5 years old so i guess he died of old age. he used to hang out in the chicken barn & eat with the barn cats. he did a great job eating yellowjacket nests. lee

I love currents. Interestingly, the "ornamental" ones are just fine

It was no green stick - remember he's 15 and 6 feet. It was a "spiral" fracture

Ah a good reason for skunks

innews:C2F99801.6DC7E% snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net:

In case anyone is interested, unseasoned meat tenderizer, applied as soon as possible to the stung area - which you liberally moisten with water first - takes away pain and digests the venom. I've used this remedy on my family for 40 years, but I never was stung by a wasp till just this week. I ran in the house, wet my hand, sprinkled on the meat tenderizer which has sat in mu cupboard most of my married life, and in just a few minutes, the searing pain left and my hand was neither swelled nor red. Deb

On 8/28/07 3:50 PM, in article snipped-for-privacy@m37g2000prh.googlegroups.com, "thistletoes" wrote: snip

I've used baking soda with equal success. Both are in the hiking emergency kit.