Well I had my first ever bout with the lethal bastards last week. Just returned last Friday from 10 days of work at the ranch in Mitchell County. I have a friend goes with me to help fill feeders and get a lot of other work done. Well, he started mowing the yard one morning and before he could make his first round, he bailed off the riding mower and ran into the house like his ass was on fire...arms flailing and screaming, "THEY'RE STILL AFTER ME...GET'EM OFF, GET'EM OFF!!!" I was still trying to get awake when he came charging in the house. Scared the chit outta me. He had approximately 25 - 30 stings just on his head.
I called a local guy from Loraine, TX that removes bee hives for a living. An old country ass codger but definitely an expert with regards to bees. He showed up two hours later to inspect the house to find out where the bees were coming from and try and locate the hive. Wearing his bee suit, he walked around the house and found where they were going in and out on the back corner of the house....meaning the hive was under the house. He refused to go under the house until he could come back with his helper (A Jeff Spicoli like stoner with a strong southern accent). In the meantime, the bee guy asked me if I wanted him to finish mowing the yard since he was already there and wearing a bee suit...and naturally I said YES. As soon as he cranked that mower, a cloud of bees erupted from the back corner of the house and literally glued to his suit...covering all of the white color of his suit from the waist up. Like something out of a horror movie. The next morning he returned with his helper and they went to the work. Bee man on the outside of the house with a portable vacuum cleaner, running the hose through the crack in the house (underneath) to his helper who was under the house...vacuuming as many off the hive as possible. They filled two giant size wooden boxes full of bees...estimated by the bee man to be around 100,000...but there were at least that many and more outside flying around and glued to the bee man. All in all, they guy estimated a total of over 200,000 bees...and said the hive was one of the larger ones he's ever removed. It took 4 big 5-gallon buckets to haul out the hive.
I asked the guy if they were Africanized? He said, there was no doubt in his mind they were but the only true way to know is to send off to A&M and have DNA testing. He said A&M told him a year or so ago that there is no further need to send bees for testing because they now have to assume that most bees in Texas are at least partly Africanized...that they've pretty much taken over this state.
Anyway, the main reason I am sharing is that I want to make as many aware as I can. My friend was very fortunate that he wasn't killed....as it definitely could have been worse considering the amount of bees living under the house/on the hive. The bee man told me he had just removed another hive two days before and the owner of that house almost died due to having over 500 bee stings in his head alone. Another thing the guy told me was if you do get stung, do not try and remove the stinger by grabbing it or using tweezers. He said those stingers have a poison "sack" attached or inside ...and when you grab the stinger, you're squeezing that poison into the victim. He said take a credit card or knife edge and scrape the stinger out. Hmmm, learn something every day.
From now on, I'm going to be damn careful about running any type of equipment around houses, sheds, trees, etc, etc...any place bees can make a hive. I will also be careful about removing lids from our feeders as I have found OLD abandoned hives in them in the past. Be careful, Ags.
I called a local guy from Loraine, TX that removes bee hives for a living. An old country ass codger but definitely an expert with regards to bees. He showed up two hours later to inspect the house to find out where the bees were coming from and try and locate the hive. Wearing his bee suit, he walked around the house and found where they were going in and out on the back corner of the house....meaning the hive was under the house. He refused to go under the house until he could come back with his helper (A Jeff Spicoli like stoner with a strong southern accent). In the meantime, the bee guy asked me if I wanted him to finish mowing the yard since he was already there and wearing a bee suit...and naturally I said YES. As soon as he cranked that mower, a cloud of bees erupted from the back corner of the house and literally glued to his suit...covering all of the white color of his suit from the waist up. Like something out of a horror movie. The next morning he returned with his helper and they went to the work. Bee man on the outside of the house with a portable vacuum cleaner, running the hose through the crack in the house (underneath) to his helper who was under the house...vacuuming as many off the hive as possible. They filled two giant size wooden boxes full of bees...estimated by the bee man to be around 100,000...but there were at least that many and more outside flying around and glued to the bee man. All in all, they guy estimated a total of over 200,000 bees...and said the hive was one of the larger ones he's ever removed. It took 4 big 5-gallon buckets to haul out the hive.
I asked the guy if they were Africanized? He said, there was no doubt in his mind they were but the only true way to know is to send off to A&M and have DNA testing. He said A&M told him a year or so ago that there is no further need to send bees for testing because they now have to assume that most bees in Texas are at least partly Africanized...that they've pretty much taken over this state.
Anyway, the main reason I am sharing is that I want to make as many aware as I can. My friend was very fortunate that he wasn't killed....as it definitely could have been worse considering the amount of bees living under the house/on the hive. The bee man told me he had just removed another hive two days before and the owner of that house almost died due to having over 500 bee stings in his head alone. Another thing the guy told me was if you do get stung, do not try and remove the stinger by grabbing it or using tweezers. He said those stingers have a poison "sack" attached or inside ...and when you grab the stinger, you're squeezing that poison into the victim. He said take a credit card or knife edge and scrape the stinger out. Hmmm, learn something every day.
From now on, I'm going to be damn careful about running any type of equipment around houses, sheds, trees, etc, etc...any place bees can make a hive. I will also be careful about removing lids from our feeders as I have found OLD abandoned hives in them in the past. Be careful, Ags.
