'tis The Season....bbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Gab a camera! Or paint what it looks like! Need to see!!!

Rich

Ohhh, a Marlene abstract of what she saw? I'd love it!!!!!!

We had a huge hive of very aggressive yellow jackets in our chimney and attic two Summers ago... Not fun!

guys, these are africanized bees...no way i'm going outside to take a pic!
desert wildlife is on their way over to relocate them...i might take a movie from indoors...they vacuumed them up. this should be interestin

How does an American bee become Africanized?

I think ALL bees now are Africanized now,we have them here in Florida,no problems yet working in the yard,around the flowers and stuff.

If on the other hand,they are actual "African" bees, then yes,stay away,they'll chase you.

We have a backyard neighbor,one house to the right, that has a hive of bees in her attic,for years now.Thousands! She doesn't take care of her house or yard and I've told her it's a danger. When ever I see people working in her yard or on the roof, I go over and explain about that "buzzin" noise. She is in a separate county than I am and not sure who to report this to, to make her remove(hopefully saving the bees) from inside her attic. The power guy told me when they were there pulling vines away from the side of the house, to fix her power meter, he thought there were either rats or bats coming in from the back of the house(what I see).

Some day,when she's not there and she's never there, somebody is going to come and fix something in the attic and die from the bees up there................

I will miss her bees in my backyard, but worry about that danger.........

Rich

TBN,

Breeding, cross breeding.............you know the "Birds and the BEES!!!!"

They were brought to Brazil and now have taken over, through much of the Southern U.S. They are a bit smaller and have darker or black abdomens,

http://phoenix.about.com/cs/desert/a/killerbees01.htm

Rich

It's scary...it wasnt here this morning...just since this afternoon. The tree will be treated wtih something to keep them from returning as well.
Still waiting on the guy to show up....

Are these Africanized Bees the same as the ones I hear about in the news begin referred to as "Killer Bees"?

yes, Stephen
good links, Rich, thanks!

Be careful Marlene, these bees are deadly...

I was hiking at Sears Point along the Gila River one spring and came across bee activity in a fissure among the boulders. There was a petroglyph on the boulder beside it and I turned on my video camera to take a quick still capture. Bad, bad idea! The buzzing of the video sounded a bit bee-like and they came pouring out of the rocks by the bazillions to attack the camera (with me attached). Lucky I didn't step on a rattler as I was trying to run away from them because the place was crawling with rattlers too. Still gives me the willies to think about it.

ew, KAthleen!

SO the guy is here. I'm gonna try to take a video. The coolest thing he told us was that he has a fake Queen bee that he uses to atttract the bees...and his bee suit is now on! BEE back soon!
He left the faux Queen bee in his truck and they all swarmed over there and coverred the back of the truck.
Women rule!!

Bee Boy is done...he collected an estimated 15,000. The swarm was about 18" wide.
He's collecting the rest off the truck now.
whew.
He told us he's been stung up to 700 times in ONE day. Today has been a good day. no stings.

Fascinating guy....he does research on bees....is trying to develop a new breed of bee...

In a past job (in nuisance wildlife control) I had a full bee suit and was called out for honeybees (only once and I donated them to a beekeeper), yellow jackets and bald-faced hornets (the big "balls" you see in trees"). The bald faced hornets were, by far, the angriest when you mess with their nest.

Still, there is something kind of fun about being inside one of those suits surrounded by hundreds of angry stingers.

BTW, I kept the suit when I sold the company. It's a handy thing to have sometimes. When my grandson was stung a few years ago by a paper wasp I was able to suit up and walk right up to the nest, grab it with my gloved hand, and throw the entire thing in my pond.

I should find a nest this year and get some close up shots of bees or hornets or yellow jackets!

Lots of bee attacks in this part of AZ last year. I expect the same this year. I've been getting a little uneasy hiking to my favorite photography sites lately.

Well, at least our crappy winters prevent us from experiencing the "joy" of invasive killer bees and fire ants and Burmese pythons!

Hi Marlene! When you were on my thread recently you got very upset when I said you were mistaken about something. I was reading that passage a minute ago, and I realized you were building on a thought I had started, yet when I read it initially all the words "you" led me to assume it was directed at me like a personal analysis, but now I think you were talking about "YOU" as in a very general sense, just to expand on my thought. If that's true, no wonder you got really annoyed! I didn't even see it that way at the time. Communication is a BITCH!

So sorry to intrude here. I'll post later on wasps!

Marlene, on what plants/location were the bees concentrated? How did you know they weren't ordinary American bees swarming in the spring?

John, I loved his suit!
Sandra, I will post his site tomorrow
Kelley, please communicate with me privately. I wasn't annoyed.
Susan, on a eucalyptus tree branch. Not a hive. Just a swarm. All honey need in az are now Africanized.

Glad they decided to relocate to the fake queen. Obviously they didn't know who the real queen is. (wink,grin)

Did he say what they do with them all? Are they destroyed or relocated? Are they honey producers?

Glad you are okay. Any chance of a painting coming out of this adventure?

We chose desert wildlife so that they wouldn't be destroyed...they will be relocated and helped to colonize/from a hive/ produce honey.
These bees are africanized...like honey bees on steroids.

There wll be NO art coming from this experience, but he did put us on his mailing list for his presentation/lecture, complete with tea and honey cakes! lol

Well, Marlene, you could have borrowed a suit and taken photos, but it would probably be hard to work the controls with those gloves ;-)

I had a small nest of yellow jackets under the siding in my house once. My poor dog (Gordon setter) got curious, and all of a sudden his face was so swollen, he could hardly see. We called the vet and he told us to give him one benedryl for every 50 pounds (half for a smaller dog). Well he weighed 50 pounds so we put one in a piece of cheese. The swelling came down in about an hour, but the poor thing looked like a lumpy mess for a while. One can of spray took care of them (I made my husband do it - I have allergies and didn't want to test out my tolerance.)

Glad you found someone who could remove them safely.

I hesitate to talk about this but I feel like it might help someone who wouldn't know otherwise.

Treat any bee sting as a puncture wound. I get stung fairly often when I work outside and either ignore it and keep on working or run inside and pop an ice cube on it for a minute then go back to work. Several days after I was stung by a wasp, I woke up during the night hurting all over. Not the usual aches and pains. It was intense. Was also running a high temp. I'd forgotten about the sting and was scared that it was Lyme disease until I noticed the sting site looked a bit infected and remembered the wasp. Ran to the doctor, who diagnosed it as community-acquired MRSA. It's apparently become rampant in this area and is often picked up at gyms, hospitals, etc. I'd been to a community hospital the day after I was stung and I'd been with my boyfriend who'd been at the gym. MRSA is deadly and is resistant to most antibiotics so if I hadn't gotten the right treatment quickly enough I could have died. A week or so later, a beautiful young local girl did die because it wasn't diagnosed until after she died. If you get stung, treat it with topical antibiotics and keep it covered until it heals.

Poor doggie, Mary! I've seen pix of curious pups with swollen faces!
The africanized bees are very aggressive and will attack for no apparent reason. Spraying is never recommended, only removal by a professional.

Kathryn, greatadvice! The best way to avoid MRSA is to stay out of gyms and hospitals!!

I am in the middle of tests and such for allergy to bee. They have found out yes, I am allergic to hornets, honey bees and wasps and are now going to test if I can be desensitised by pricking my arm after rubbing venom on it. Deep joy. That is in May

They also gave me tablets to take if stung and I have to go to hospital immediately

They are worried because I am very lucky to have a wild honey bee hive in the garden. However, because honey bees are now rarer and need looking after, we are not moving it and have put in flowers etc they need to survive. It just means that, when you are all sunbathing I have to cover up when in my own garden LOL

I was stung 5 times in the past 2 years. I love bees though. So many superstitions are around bees.

Kathleen, one of my best friends died of MRSA. She got it during a prolonged stay in a hospital. At least, she told my other best friend that's what she was diagnosed with. It eventually went to her heart. Took about 6 months to kill her, all the while she was in either the hospital or a nursing home.

I think I'm allergic to bees, but your allergies shift around. I used to have awful spring and summer allergies, but those are mostly gone.

Abbie, better take the treatment than take a chance.....

Marlene, my sweet patunia. Don't you know that African bee's who came to America are now called African American bees? Just let them know about all the free stuff coming out of Washington DC, and they will head east immediately. If I can be of further help, let me know.

Abbie, sounds like you need an epi pen.
Here in Az, our honey bees are sorely in trouble. This bee man is trying to develop a stronger strain to protect the species

Gene, I'm gonna be smacking you a lot today

Marlene, I am so glad your bee colony was removed. I thought you would enjoy this photo yes, the actor, artist, photographer, musician, singer and yes the bee guy on the left that is me, buzzzzzzz....lol, one did sneak under my protective net and stung me in the neck, I use to fear bee's because when I was younger I would have alergic reaction to them.. My dad would take cigarette tobacco and make a paste and place over the sting bites I would get from time to time.


Remember that movie about the killer bee's and in one of the scenes, the scientist had a queen bee in his truck and the swarm followed him into the Super Dome. Some did fly away and people and Super Dome crews were still finding them weeks later. The scenes were all controlled by specialist. The Super Dome ari-conditioner was lowered to the lowest possible setting which took days before they could actually do the shooting to keep them not as active while they where shooting the particular scenes with real honey bees.




The vintage bee book I had purchased at a thrift store in the book section it remains in my collection . Someone just recently told me, prior to early spring and all the pollen which is released into the air, her doctor told her to eat local honey regularly prior to spring and her body become immune to the various symptoms of hay fever, or spring allergies. She told me once she started doing that she never had certain allergies in early spring..


The bee and honey are so vital, I have recently read the world population of the honey bee is becoming diminished.....due to a bee mite which are killing off the bee population globally.

Remember the episode of X-files TV series and I remember one in particular was all about bees.

Murlene...... I have it from the horses mouth. Gene is craving your bod. What shall I tell him. Should he give up all hope, or should he keep hopping for the best?

Michael! All of this info is more than interesting! I am still in shock over how many swarm together, so tightly packed...our guru was such a joy to meet.
I still won't get too close to these guys.....our pure honey bees are terribly messed up in AZ.....I hope this man can keep his research going to right the wrong.

Smud,
tell your cousin to stop hopping and settle down lest this thread requires an x rating.

Gosh, Marlene what ya think Bee's or Bird's are more dangerous......lol

We had some gentle honey bees one year. I think it was part of a local bee keepers hive that split off from the rest to make it's own hive. They covered our poor little hummingbird feeder but to my surprise they were not agressive at all. The hummingbirds actually coexisted with them. However when a European hornet was around you could sense that the hummingbirds were SUPER catuious around those and not particularly fond of those at all!

Don't you know that African bee's who came to America are now called African American bees? Just let them know about all the free stuff coming out of Washington DC, and they will head east immediately. If I can be of further help, let me know.

we do not allow politics or racism on the site. Please remember that in future.

I smacked him, Abbie, for his comment..was that not enough?

Marlene, is your alarm clock set for music or BUZZZZZZZZ R LOL

haha, Michael...the buzzing was SO loud! OMG

You can feel it in your bones,