+GlobalRat Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 Seems like there was another successful event in Gauteng this weekend. Congrats to the organisers, perhaps one day we'll escape work and get to attend one. No, I'm not whingeing about slaving away on weekends while the rest of you play...ok I am... Nothing like starting a topic off topic eh! Back to the matter at hand....err underfoot... While taking a brief break from the salt mines today I whipped out to do two unfound caches near home. One turned out to be a DNF and it very nearly turned into a major disaster as well when I came within inches of standing on these critters swarming on the grass below the cache location. I always keep an eye out for turdtraps and other nasties such as snakes, scorpions and those wicked hornets (they got me at It's a bugs life, how appropriate ), but I didn't expect these chaps on the ground. Quote Link to comment
+Wazat Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 What that, Bees? I was a kid once (well still am in my heart, the body got old) and I was teasing my dog. Would run round the house with the mutt hot on my trail and usually would round the cottage in our garden, grab the fence post, and clamber over the fence before the mutt could get me. The one day I came charging round the corner and raced up to the fence to grab the pole and I ground to a halt about a meter from the pole horrified at what I saw. There must have been hundreds, if not thousands of bees all over the pole. The majority were right where I usually grabbed on. It was a ball of these guys I would say roughly the size of a standard rugby ball just crawling all over each other. The entire post of about 2.5 meter was covered with them. I was lucky that I didn't aggravate them or I was surely a dead kid that day. Nature, unfortunately, is something that we need to be very aware and cautious of. I think that you would have at least killed most of them in the picture had you stepped on them. But it takes a few stings to do the damage if you are allergic to them. It is unfortunate that we have to deal with these guys out in the nature and it is a pity that we somehow overlook these things. I guess that we need to look at these things a bit more seriously from now on. I tend to forget that these guys are out there. I have already come across a Puff adder up in the berg and some small snake in Durban while out caching, spiders at most caches and the odd scorpion or two. Bees just yesterday and thankfully no wasps as yet. Quote Link to comment
+GlobalRat Posted March 2, 2008 Author Share Posted March 2, 2008 (edited) What that, Bees? Yep bees. Image is slightly misleading in that the grass is quite thick and I would only have managed to trample about 1/3 of them leaving 2/3 to savagely attack me. We have two hives in our garden so I'm used to having bees swarm and hang in huge balls from a tree. This, although a small swarm took me by surprise as I almost stood on them before I noticed that they were there. My last bee sting experience was less than pleasant with a trip to hospital a few days after to get some jabs and some expensive muti...and I'm not even allergic.... well not yet Thankfully seen few snakes while caching, saw way too many of them well hiking in my youth with a missed strike on the side of my hiking boot in the middle of Devils Knuckles still haunting me. Have seen QFC leap out of a tree when his arm was down a hollow and what suspiciously looked like a black mamba entering the other end of the hollow. Edited March 2, 2008 by GlobalRat Quote Link to comment
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