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Steve Gray
05-30-2006, 11:09 PM
Memorial Day, went down to San Angelo to go fell a few pecan trees and use the horse to haul them to my landing area. Took LOML for her first trip to the river and take pictures. Shade trees, a nice breeze, it was a really nice morning. Was felling last tree that was partially blown over and was dead. Took a long close look at tree and everything looked good. Shook tree, walked around it, everything OK. Cut through one limb and found Bees inside!:eek: Mad Bees! Ran for the truck, managed to kill chainsaw while running and yelling BEES all at the same time. LOML and I didn't make into the truck in time. I lost my glasses, hard hat, chainsaw and ended up with a swollen forehead and knots on top of my head. Wife came out OK. I couldn't get the windows up in the truck because I was too busy trying to get them little stinging machines out of my hair!!! Wife started truck and I finally got windows up, bees hitting windows like crazy. Drove away from them, looked back to see the horse had pulled loose from the tree he was tied to and was running up the far bank of the river. Dog followed us away from the bees. Got dog in truck and went and found horse at the fenceline on the edge of the property about 1/4 mile away. Horse shaking and eat up pretty bad. Welts along his sides and by his ears. Took a breather and regrouped, then walked horse back toward river and found a gravel bar and was able to cross about 100yds upwind of bees. Made it across river then got jumped again!! Just a couple of bees, but between me and the horse I wasn't sure who was more jumpy. I guess they could smell the sweat and dead bee smell on me and the horse. Anyway, sprayed myself down with OFF and drove back to get glasses, saw and the rest of the stuff that was in bed of truck when we took off. Got jumped by several bees but at least they didn't get stuck in my hair. Got important stuff back. Left the rest, including a one-use camera. Only manged to fell one more tree away from bee area, was so jumpy I finally said the heck with it, loaded horse back up and came home. Horse looks much better today, and the swelling is gone from my right eye. I never did get sick, just queasy at my stomach.
Going back next weekend with 7-dust sprayer and a really LONG copper spray tube. ( put tube out pickup window, put duck tape over crack at top of window and use compressed air to spray 7-dust) Time for a little pay-back.:mad: Going to try to use horse to move logs before spraying bees.
Get my camera back and take a few more pics and post next weekend.
Man, this learning curve for wanting to learn to saw my own wood is really steep!!! Going to look much more thoroughly before cutting in the future. Also getting precription for one of the epy? pens from doc tomorrow.
God does look after fools and hopefull woodworkers!!!!!!!!
In all seriousness, I feel extremely lucky today. I know the outcome could have been much worse.

Steve Clardy
05-30-2006, 11:54 PM
Wheeww. What a story. Didn't sound like fun at all!!

I've kicked up a few bumble bees while cruising the woods, cutting firewood, logs, etc.
But haven't had your experience. [Yet]

Kyle Kraft
05-31-2006, 12:37 PM
This sounds like an encounter with the nasty tempered Africanized "killer bees" I've heard about. They breed with the European honey bees and the bad genes win. Supposedly they are spreading northward but the Michigan winters are thankfully too much for them.

Kyle in K'zoo

Jim O'Dell
05-31-2006, 12:50 PM
We had a tree cut down in our back yard last year. We warned the service about the bees in the trees. They sent an exterminator out to get rid of the bees before they cut the tree down. They did say there was lots of honey, but the chemicals they used on the bees rendered it useless. Jim.

Lee Schierer
05-31-2006, 1:07 PM
You most likely encountered a colony of africanized honey bees. This strain of bee is really nasty and will attack anything that moves once disturbed. They will sting hundreds of times. They also stay stirred up for days. Stings can be treated with household bleach or a meat tenderizer paste. Scrape off the stingers with a knife edge or finger nail do not pinch it to remove it as it will inject more venom. It also continues to pump the longer it is in place.
Bees are attarcted to the smell of the sting and release a pheremone when they sting so thei girlfriends can find you. Only the infertile females (workers) can sting.

Caution Note: If you swelled up you might possibly have an allergy to the sting and should proceed with great caution. Bee stings can kill some people if they are allergic to the venom. The reaction is quite swift so if you are more than 10 minutes from medical aid you won't make it.

If you decide you really want to cut down the tree, go back after dark, wearing thick (like a sweatshirt under a nylon windbreaker) protective clothing, including a face screen and gloves, don't use any lights, apply liberal amounts of insecticide into the tree. Tape your pants cuffs and sleeves closed. The colony will be quite dispersed so it may take several treatments. There are powder type apicides that will take a bit longer, but are more effective in killing the bees.

Given a choice, personally I'd go cut another tree and leave them bee!

As a beekeeper, I'm also hoping the weather in NW PA is sufficient to keep them well south of here.

Norman Hitt
05-31-2006, 3:52 PM
Hey Steve, sounds like you barely "Escaped".:eek: If it was the Africanized honey bees, (which is most likely), the reports I've read is that for some reason, small motors like weed eaters, chainsaws and even lawn mowers seem to REALLY stir them up and make them extremely mad. Probably it's the vibrations in a frequency that they think is from a huge predator. You may have to start doing your Logging wearing a full Bee Keeper's outfit.;)

Do you think you're gonna lose your "Chief Photographer" on your future trips?:D

Sure glad it didn't turn out any worse than it did. Kinda reminds me of an incident in 1964, when several of us were helping a friend clear an area in the Shenandoah River Valley in Va., to build him a small cabin. We were taking turns with the chain saw, axes & machettes and the wives were piling up the limbs & brush, and "someone", (our friend) cut a large limb off a tree without checking it for Stingy Thing nests first, and we rapidly discovered that "Hornets" can be found in Va.:rolleyes: I have never seen 12 adults and 2 kids move so fast in my life, and only 1 sting to one person.......LUCKY!!!!!

Unfortunately, "Our Friend" didn't learn from the First lesson though and about an hour later cut another limb that fell on him and a nest of the meanest wasps I've ever seen fell down his shirt somehow, and THAT ended that weekend's cabin work, as we spent a few hrs with him at the closest hospital where they kept him overnight.;)

Be careful when you go back down there again. I hope you can find the camera and salvage the pictures.