Bee Hive pics, gray paper type, black bees

[oregon]

I spotted this hive (about the size of my head), attached to a Rhododendron branch, about 20 feet from the old homestead and it hangs only a foot or so above the ground. The black and white bees, larger than a honey bee, come and go without messing with me and I don't notice them in the yard.

Note the leaves embedded in the hive. Recent rain hasn't seemed to cause any damage of the exterior of the hive...bee's wax perhaps?



Is that a Smiley Face in the close shot of the bee at the portal to the hive or do I have a "Watchmen" movie fixation? :)



Anyone else have a hive in your neck of the woods? Pics please! Bonus points awarded to anyone crazy/brave enough to get a Spyderco into the shot.

oregon

[Noble]

Man o man. Ive never seen black and white bees. We have yellow jackets and black wasps where i live and getting the nest out is usually a professionals task. I dont recommend kicking down that one! LOL. But.....if you do, please have the vid camera rolling. That looks like a good size nest, prolly dont want it getting bigger than that, or you might have a vicious swarm of them buggers.

[fret]

We have the same bees but I have not seen the nest so far. :eek:

[Fred Sanford]

Those are Hornets my friend. They be bad mojo's!

Great pics. I notice a Holly bush trying to grow there too. :)

[gtrtech]

http://www.cirrusimage.com/Bald-faced_hornet.htm

[Jimd]

Yep, those are black hornets. They don't take kindly to being messed with, trust me on that one. We have them around here, and they often build their nests pretty high up in trees, although I've actually seen a nest in the ground years ago.

When I was a youngster, I spent many hours firing my BB rifle at yellow jacket nests. Got stung a time or two, as well. But I never messed with the big, black ones.

I was out back, weed-whacking over the weekend, and I think there was a nest of them nearby because I was seeing quite a few of them zooming out of the underbrush. Made me reaaaaalllll cautious, lol! Their sense of humor is rather ill.

[Delica_Nut]

My Grandfather got stung 26 times last summer walking his property by yellow jackets. I found the hole and poured a qrt of gas down the hole and lit it. I was rewarded with a poof that burned for a few hours and I then dug it up.
The nest was the same size and shape of a large trash can lid about 4 inches under the ground. Some more gas and their is nada left.

[Clawhammer]

Along these lines, I got a great email at work today of a "lost cat" flyer some asian exchange student had put up with a cat he'd 'rescued'.

"It's Not very friendly" was written on the 'found' poster, along with a picture of the nastiest, toughest looking possum I'd ever seen, complete with razor sharp claws and half chewed ear. I hope he hadn't tried to cuddle it!

[Hannibal Lecter]

My Dear Friend,

I grew up dealing with these evil bastards. They are in fact bald-faced hornets and are the member of the wasp family that I most despise with an intense passion. Being stung by one (at least in my memory as a child) is something akin to being skewered by a white-hot steel spike coated in battery acid, and the stings can actually cause local bleeding at the site. They can and will sting multiple times - they're not bashful in the slightest. It also doesn't help that they are one of the most aggressive, territorial wasps I have ever encountered.

They are also ridiculously defensive of their nests and highly intelligent, at least as far as wasps go. A friend of mine was out bowhunting for whitetailed deer a few years back and encountered a nest of these evil stinging menaces and decided in a fit of stupidity that it would be fun to take a shot at the nest with one of his old arrows (it had a slight permanent bend to it, making it disposable in his eyes). He levelled down on the nest from about thirty yards away, fired the shot, and before he could lower his bow was struck in the forehead by one of the nest's occupants. These particular hornets can actually follow disturbances in the air back to their source, allowing them to pinpoint where attacks on the nest come from.

Screw with them at your peril. :D

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Hannibal

[Hannibal Lecter]

My Dear Friend,

My Grandfather got stung 26 times last summer walking his property by yellow jackets. I found the hole and poured a qrt of gas down the hole and lit it. I was rewarded with a poof that burned for a few hours and I then dug it up.
The nest was the same size and shape of a large trash can lid about 4 inches under the ground. Some more gas and their is nada left.

A couple of things that might help out a bit.

First, burning the nest isn't really necessary - the gasoline vapors are quite sufficient to kill the yellowjackets (though I grant you it isn't nearly as gratifying as burning them out).

If you aren't in a huge hurry you may also simply go out at night and place a clear glass Pyrex bowl over the nest opening - the yellowjackets will starve out over time. If you fill in the hole they'll dig a new exit, but if you allow them out of the ground but confine them under the glass they will not dig out and will starve. Granted, it takes time, but is a viable alternative in places where flaming petrol isn't an option.

Of the entire wasp family I dislike yellowjackets the least, largely because they're amazingly stupid (aggressive, but stupid). I have walked up to a nest in broad daylight and poured in petrol without getting stung. They infested my house once and I fought them for a month, but eventually prevailed, never once getting stung. Know thine enemy - a little research goes a long way.

Good luck on keeping them under control, and a special warning to you all, my friends - very wet springtimes will often make the ground too damp for nest-building, and they have no issues building above-ground under eaves and in cinder block walls.

One final note - if they do get into your cinder block walls to nest, do not spray the nest from the outside if you can prevent it - they will follow the openings in the block into your house.

Don't ask me how I know this. :mad:

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Hannibal

[Jimd]

My Dear Friend,
One final note - if they do get into your cinder block walls to nest, do not spray the nest from the outside if you can prevent it - they will follow the openings in the block into your house.

Don't ask me how I know this. :mad:

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Hannibal

I will second Dr. Lechter's claim here. When I was a youngin', my dad sprayed a nest of yellow jackets that had built a nest under the eaves on the second story of the house. From the outside.

It drove the insidious swarm inside of our house, and the **** things were everywhere!! Again...these beasts are fairly ill-tempered.

Without fail, every summer I'd find where they built a nest around our pond when I was a youngster. Once a nest was located, the siege would begin. Normally, my BB rifle was the first ordinance brought to bear on the colony. This was often followed up with firecrackers. If all of that grew boring, I'd haul out my .22 rifle and snipe them from a distance.

I have to smile now, looking back on it. There I was, a teenager, crouched across the pond with my .22, sending rounds through the nest entrance in the bank of our pond. They'd send scouts out, searching for me, to no avail.

Ah, the good ol' days, carefree, with no work, no school, no bills, no troubles.

I grew skilled with the BB rifles that I had; it was nothing for me to go through a package of 2,500 BBs in a few days. By the end of every summer, my BB rifle would be worn out. I credit those days as the reason I'm a decent shot now. I miss it so.

[Jimd]

My Dear Friend,

I grew up dealing with these evil bastards. They are in fact bald-faced hornets and are the member of the wasp family that I most despise with an intense passion. Being stung by one (at least in my memory as a child) is something akin to being skewered by a white-hot steel spike coated in battery acid, and the stings can actually cause local bleeding at the site. They can and will sting multiple times - they're not bashful in the slightest. It also doesn't help that they are one of the most aggressive, territorial wasps I have ever encountered.
Hannibal

As I read your description of these winged devil-beasts, I couldn't help but smile and then giggle to myself. It's so descriptive, and your hatred of them is so palpable in your words. ROFLMAO!!
Don't be shy...tell us how you really feel! :D :p

[mr_bsii]

My parents have a cabin on a river in north GA, and these beasts inevitably build around the river every year. They may have been brown instead of black, but I'm pretty sure we have those too. My then 5 yr old son found a nest, and being especially curious about bugs and other wildlife, he went to investigate. My first awareness of what’s going on was his screaming. A few quick seconds later he’s been stung ~20 times, and I’ve been stung in the teens (one tried to get into my mouth and got me on the lip). About an hour later after some Benadryl and holding by Mama, he’s fine and back into the river. My shins were destroyed (skinned to the bones) from getting him away from the nest and getting the hornets off of him. It was remarkable how they focused they were on him despite my efforts to get them off. I distinctly remember running my hand over his head (many were swarmed there) and they would simply fly up to avoid my hand and then fly back down to resume stinging him. This was observed with the strange detachment that comes in those types of situations coupled with the “time slowing effect” that can happen as well. I ended up having to submerge him to get the hornets off. What was merciful was that they didn’t follow us too far. Once I got him about 20 ft away and dunked, we were in the clear. I’m sure that they fulfill some vital role in a balanced ecosystem, but my future interaction with them will be directed to ending their existence. Fortunately, my parents’ new pup handled the latest nest finding. She seemed to weather the swarming and stinging far better.

[Jimd]

Mr. Bsii, I'm so sorry that your son had to endure the wrath of those bastards. Little children should never have to go through stuff like that.

I don't blame you one bit; I'd be bent on their destruction, too. In fact, if I ever see any nests of these cretins around my place, I will take special interest in their destruction.

The way they focus on the victim strikes me as especially scary.

[Axlis]

They are hornets, and they WILL hurt you.

[oregon]

Thank you for the stories, information and warnings everyone.

I've lived here most of my life and don't recall ever seeing these bees or such a colorful nest before.

You have spared me considerable suffering as I usually move thru the foliage around the old homestead this time of year watering, trimming and such.

I discoverd the nest while standing about ten feet from it spraying a garden hose on the wilting and thirsty Rhodys. It is just dumb like that I didn't accidently hose down the bee's nest, stiring them up, before I noticed the hive.

oregon

[JLS]

I didn't see this until now, but I must add to the voices that proclaim them as EVIL! I grew up in Pennsylvania, in a little town about 30 miles from Jimd, and they are a constant threat.

Like others, I taunted them with bb guns in my youth and often paid for those antics.

My uncle has a Christmas tree farm and they love to build their nests inside them. During the summer, I would work for him and trim the trees. We had two guys that would do the "rough cutting" with a motorized backpack that attached to a sicklebar. This would trim the outside to a nice even contour, but they also hindered mobility quite a bit. Normally, since they sounded like a big hornet, they would be able to trim and move on unharmed. When you heard loud cursing, you knew they got hit...bad. As often as not, they would be fine, but the hornets would often be quite mad by the time the rest of us came through to do the detail trimming. Despite my best efforts, I got stung multiple times each summer.

One thing that worked great on them was a cylinder bore shotgun. One one occasion, they built a volleyball-sized nest in a dead Christmas tree. I fired 4 quick shots (#8 shot IIRC) and ran like ****. After a few minutes I ventured back and there was almost nothing left of the hive and NO live hornets buzzing around. I don't know if I'd recommend this as standard practice, but it did work on that occasion.

I would recommend taking care of them in some fashion, remembering that on a cold, wet morning they can't move fast at all. If you don't take care of them, they'll take care of you.

Those are lovely pictures that we rarely see because normally people don't take the time to photograph them...we'd rather just kill them.

[Hannibal Lecter]

My Dear Friend,

Those are lovely pictures that we rarely see because normally people don't take the time to photograph them...we'd rather just kill them.

+1

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Hannibal

[D1omedes]

The only winged insects I have no problem with are dragonflies and European honey bees.

When I was three or four years old I went into my backyard. We have a retaining wall filled with old, rotted wood. Unknown to me, a yellowjacket nest had been formed in one of the beams. I stepped on the beam before jumping off and one of the bastards flew out and under my shirt. Once I hit the ground I began to scream as the sucker stung my chest 6~7 times. My father heard me screaming and ran down and tore the shirt clean from my body. I spent the rest of the day lying on the sofa with ice on my chest.

I hate those bastards as much as anyone else. Thanks for the valuable intel, Mr. Hannibal. That will be of importance in my future encounters with our winged enemies.

[dsmegst]

I found a few underground nests in my yard and some drione dust took care of the problem. I don't know if that works on an airborne nest though. I hate those things.