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Bee Attack!


M4T

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My son (3 yrs) and I went on a hunt for a local cache on Tuesday. We stick to the 1/1's or 2/2's at most because he's just a little guy and we're pretty new at this.

 

We followed an asphalt path to the edge of the woods where the GPS was pointing around 500' in. It looked like we needed to get into the woods to get to the cache. I looked down as we were about to step in to check my footing and I see all these little bugs around a hold in the ground about 3' in front of me.

 

Then in occurs to me..."those aren't ants...". I look over and see my son walking practically right on top of the nest, not seeing what was going on. As fast as I could think it I reached to pick him up. I can feel the bees whipping around my head and I am getting stung in the legs. I think, "maybe I got him in time" and then he SHREEKS in my ear...too late.

 

We ran to a safe area about 10-20 feet away and he is in hysterics. I strip off his shorts and shirt and smash a couple bees in the process.

 

Amazingly we only got stung 5 times between us, once on my head and on both knees, and him on the head (practically the same spot as me) and in the cheek.

 

And we never found the cache :)

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Glad you were able to keep your wits and get both of you out of there. You didn't mention it, but I suspect neither of you were allergic? I was stung about a dozen times after poking my head into a mine adit and hearing a buzzing sound only to realize that it was a huge nest of bees. Ran back to the truck and shut the door and got the heck outta there. It was easy to see where the nest was on the GPS, it was the 180° turn on the track screen! :)

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:):) that sounds very scary!! We went caching in texas a couple of months ago went for a cache that was in the midde of nowhere, well anyways, I looked and looked for it and finally found it in a tree i went to reach for it and noticed that there was something on it, I took a closer look and it was a huge HORNET nest so I calmly turned around and backed up and then ran!!! I guess that no one had hit it in a while, I hope they sprayed it or something!!! :):)
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When I was a kid (maybe 9 or 10) I was following my dad who was on the lawn mower. He had hit a stump that had a bee's nest in it and I ran right into them. I didn't even know what was happing but I sort of remember sceaming and then falling to the ground. both my parents came runnig over to me and mom said she was scraping then of by the hand full. Mom didn't get stung but my dad got stung a few times. They said I was stung about a hundred times or so.

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Yellowjackets. I HATE yellowjackets. I've gotten into them twice so far. They will chase you a lot further than 20' I can guarantee you that.

 

I almost stepped in a nest once near dark. I was standing on a log looking for the cache and nearly stepped off in the nest. I saw them in time, but turned to run and when I jumped off the log pulled something in my calf which ended up worse than a few stings. Can't win for losing as I limped around for a few days. :)

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A few years ago, my dog Emma and I were out in the yard and she apparently scared up a nest of yellowjackets that were living in a hole in the lawn. I heard her softly whimper and she started rolling. Poor thing. By the time I got to her, I could see about 20 of them on her big ears (she was a Beagle) and they were already covered in welts. She was a good sport though. those things hurt worse than I remembered. Ow. I got more a few stings myself.

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a couple of people wrote about ground-based bees/wasps attacking them on visits to a few of my caches this summer, but when I visited to see if I should archive them, I could find no sign of the beasts...I felt bad, but don't know what else to do...a warning seems likely to scare people off, perhaps unnecessarily..

 

nfa-jamie

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You know, there are easier ways to "catch a buzz."

 

Mmmmm, beer.

 

I'm posting to remind everyone that guardrail caches are a prime spot for bee stings. Don't blindly stick your hand into the end of the guardrail to feel around for a cache container. You can get a handful of bee stings instead, as those protected enclosed spaces are popular sites for bee nests. Not that I would know anything about that. :)

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You can read of my most recent "fun" with bees at this cache.

OuttaHand...too funny

 

"Took: Bee stings

Left: In a hurry"

 

Thanks for all your stories, glad to hear we aren't the only "victims"! And as terrible as I felt that my son was injured (allbeit slightly) I was thankful that I was able to get out as fast as I did or it could have been worse.

 

What bothered me the most was memories of my cousins and I in the woods behind thier house when I was about 10. One of them stepping on a nest in a log and gettign stung about 100 times or so...bees everywhere, all over her, in her hair...UGH.

 

I wrote the cache owner just to share the info. There had been lots of visits to this one in the last couple months and no one said anything. I guess my inexperience just took me in the wrong direction.

 

And like I told him, since our sport is mostly outside we always run the inherent risk of a close encounter with local flora and fauna...that's half the fun!

 

:)

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And like I told him, since our sport is mostly outside we always run the inherent risk of a close encounter with local flora and fauna...that's half the fun!

 

:)

GREAT attitude! When I first opened this thread, I worried that it would be like some past forum threads where people said that caches should be archived because there were bees in the area. It's nature -- deal with it, unless the cache itself is right next to a beehive.

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Living in FL, you get the opportunity to run into both bees and yellowjackets. However, the worst you run into are wasps. Big, red/black in color, and ornery as anything. The worst part about wasps is that unlike bees who generally only get to sting once, they can sting multiple times before giving up. When I was growing up I played a LOT of baseball. In fact, in little league, my dad was the head coach of the team. We were playing a scrimage game during the summer getting ready for the regular season. I was in right field when all of a sudden I felt like someone had burned me with a cigar on the back of my neck. I reached up to slap whatever is was away and succeeded in sending it down my shirt. It hit me 3 or 4 times going down my back before ending up going down my pants and hitting me a few times in the nether regions. When all was said and done, I ended up in right field, in front of hundreds of people standing in my BVDs and cleats!!! Dad will still tell you to this day he thought his son had finally lost it when he saw me running in circles shedding cloths as fast as I could. :)

 

PS: Gee I'm glad our true identities are protected on the internet! :)

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I've only ever gotten into them once and it was the hollow handle of a tool that my hand got too close to. I did not see that coming. They got me 4 times before I even knew what hit me.

 

While caching and looking fora cache on a sherman tank. On the back is a side hatch that is open on a lot of these tanks. Inside is cover for yellow jackets adn they often build nests there. I didn't know this until that cache. I was reaching around slapped a live nest, and actually moved so fast that I got out of there before the wasps had time to react. I'm still amazed I got my arm back.

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My son (3 yrs) and I went on a hunt for a local cache on Tuesday. We stick to the 1/1's or 2/2's at most because he's just a little guy and we're pretty new at this.

 

We followed an asphalt path to the edge of the woods where the GPS was pointing around 500' in. It looked like we needed to get into the woods to get to the cache. I looked down as we were about to step in to check my footing and I see all these little bugs around a hold in the ground about 3' in front of me.

 

Then in occurs to me..."those aren't ants...". I look over and see my son walking practically right on top of the nest, not seeing what was going on. As fast as I could think it I reached to pick him up. I can feel the bees whipping around my head and I am getting stung in the legs. I think, "maybe I got him in time" and then he SHREEKS in my ear...too late.

 

We ran to a safe area about 10-20 feet away and he is in hysterics. I strip off his shorts and shirt and smash a couple bees in the process.

 

Amazingly we only got stung 5 times between us, once on my head and on both knees, and him on the head (practically the same spot as me) and in the cheek.

 

And we never found the cache :)

Bees aren't fun insects to deal with. We've had some occurences with bee's nests, but with all the stuff I carry, I usually have something to fight back with.

 

Raid is my best bet. :)

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here in az the bees are all africanized to some % and in my area most nest are of VERY africanized bees. They will live in holes in the ground or a trypical tree nest or wherever they feel like it. they are interesting little critters, very scary to be swarmed by I am sure (I have never had teh experience though). The USDA even has a sample colony in an area I often visit a few miles from my house in the desert mountains.

 

Glad you are alright!

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I have only taken one wasp sting while geocaching. Unlike bees, whose bums rip off when they sting you (and then they die), those pesky wasps can jab away.

 

For me, a wasp sting hurts for days, and takes 7-10 days to stop being noticable.

 

The cache I got stung at was under a bridge, and was a series of eight caches on a rail trail. I got stung at number 1 (by the wasp, and a DNF). I then went on to DNF on #2 and #3, both of which were under bridges with wasp nests.

 

Since then, I worked backward from #8 to #4, but I am leaving 1-3 for the cold weather!

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One thing to remember when caching is a good first aid kit. You should include some Benadryl in the kit. Even folks who have never shown signs of a sting allergy may have a reaction if they are stung repeatedly. This stuff can really be a lifesaver.

 

Oh, and fireants (did you know all ants evolved from small wasps), don't ya hate them?

 

- T of TandS

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One thing to remember if you happen to get into a Yellow Jacket nest, do not swat them! They will release a phermone (Hope I spelled that right.) that will make the others more angry. Try to brush them off of you. I know that's hard to remember when being attacked.

 

El Diablo

I am soooooo terrifed of bees/wasps/hornets that I get teary eyed even reading this thread. . .I don't even like cartoon bees!! Thankfully, I have not run into any nests as that might end my caching career.

I'm a weenie.

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Yellowjackets.  I HATE yellowjackets.  I've gotten into them twice so far.

 

I don't think I can remember a summer in 30 years that I have not gotten stung at least once by yellow jackets. I can be walking down a trail in the middle of a group and get hit by one that just happens to pass by. Needless to say I am fortunate not to be allergic to them. The one thing that it has taught me is to watch for little holes in the ground with yellow insects zooming in and out. (And to carry an extractor kit with me to vacuum out the venom after I get stung. Tobacco helps too, but I gave up smoking years ago, so never have that on me anymore.)

 

Oh yeah. More than 80% of the stings that I have gotten I recieved while cutting grass for friends and family in the mountains. I swear those boogers have my face on a wanted sign inside their nest. :D:D:)

 

stupid bees

Edited by The Bookends
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I have an extremely irrational fear of ALL flying, stinging insects... I consider them evolution's cruel joke. :)

 

I hate being around bees, hornets, wasps, the whole lot of them. Luckily, I haven't been stung by them, but if I notice them buzzing around a bush hiding a micro or something like that, I'll leave instantly.

 

Let me put it this way - I'd much rather get ant bites than bee stings. Also, it seems as if I'm a magnet for mosquitoes in the Summer months, so I don't need to become one for bees.

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We hit one last year that was hidden in an old outhouse. When I opened the door, they were everywhere. Not one, but several nests of different sizes all over the interior. I went back to the car to retrieve the bee spray. After using the entire can, and not getting all of them, I finished them off with 1/2 a can of WD40. Signed the log, and left the cache site free of bees for the next visitor.

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When I was a kid, maybe around 6 or 7, I went to a day camp during the summer. Well, we went on this walk and I'd say about half of the kids in my group were familiar with the woods we were in and so they snuck off away from the group. The rest of us crossed this small stone bridge only to be greeted with multiple stings, and then we all ran for it with our group leader. I got stung about 6 times and that created a real big phobia for Bees for me that lasted for a good number of years. Now, I stay away from them when I can, but if they start buzzing near me, I just set up to kung fu them (I'm not trying to be funny, I'm serious! :laughing:). I found out later that these kids that left the group were apparently whacking the bees nest with sticks. I know 6 year olds aren't bright but.... sheesh.

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At a cache near my home last summer:

Me - 67 stings

my son - 43 stings

my other son - 1 sting

a newbie with us - 0 stings

 

Honey bees these were. We couldn't run fast enough to get away. .12 miles back at parking, they're still getting us.

 

:laughing::rolleyes::angry::ph34r:

 

Here I thought I got it bad when I was a kid.

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My seven year old granddaughter knows about bees because her father is a forest manager and she went out in the woods nearly every day when they lived at the forest headquarters.

 

When the three of us go walking in the woods she has me be in the center. That's because the first one stirs up the nest but gets away. The second one gets stung and the third one can stop before getting nailed. I noticed that her father and his forestry partner would also have me walking in the middle.

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You know, there are easier ways to "catch a buzz."

 

Mmmmm, beer.

 

I'm posting to remind everyone that guardrail caches are a prime spot for bee stings. Don't blindly stick your hand into the end of the guardrail to feel around for a cache container. You can get a handful of bee stings instead, as those protected enclosed spaces are popular sites for bee nests. Not that I would know anything about that. :laughing:

 

Thanks for a good reminder on guardrails. I started caching in late fall and haven't had a bee encounter yet. (Deer Ticks, that's another thread...) There are a lot of guardrail caches around here.

 

I used to work as an electrician at a lumber mill and one thing I learned there was that you NEVER opened an outdoor electrical enclosure with your face right in front of it. Not only because of the electrical danger, but because bees and wasps love to make homes in these warm & dry spaces. A rainproof enclosure protects from falling water but there are usually small holes in the bottom and a bee can get into an opening much smaller than you think. You opened the box with one hand and held on to your Raid can with the other.

 

I am always wary of any kind of enclosure now because you never know what's in there. And the Paper Wasps up here in the Northeast like to build into hidden corners of wood and metal structures. Sunglasses or safety glasses could be a good idea when probing because wasps will go for your eyes.

 

I was afraid of bees as a kid but as I have gotten older I have learned to live with them, as long as we stay on our own territory. If they cross the line and start nesting on my porch, it's war...

 

UncaBee

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Okay, I misread the thread title. I thought it said, "BeeR Attack". My bad.

 

:laughing:

 

Funny thing about that. I stepped on a nest of bees once. The bees were all over my leg stinging me. I had to pour my beer down my leg to get them off. At the same time I ran as fast as I could. I got away with only 5 stings and a leg covered with beer. :rolleyes:

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