Stupid Bees

[tvropro]

Last night when I went to put my dish on G1 for nightly guide updates I noticed my reception was weak again. I was like now what I just peaked the dish two weeks ago. I also noticed reception was down all over the arc. I was looking at HSN analog and it looked like there was a polarity issue. The skew made no difference, so I went to look at the dish and noticed something in the feedhorn throat. I took a screw driver and scraped it out. Out fell about 10 sedated bees, and a honeycomb. I stepped on the bee's trying to walk away. They were pretty sedated couldn't fly. I don't know if they were asleep or what it was 11pm. I was lucky they were sort of dead, it was 66 degrees at that point that may have been a factor. This was the first time I had a bee's nest in my dish in my life, hope it's the last.

Oh BTW the signal quality is way up there now and even better then when I peaked it two weeks ago. This probably was causing part of my issue then but I didn't know it.

Like I said Stupid Bee's :rant:

 

[Cadsulfide]

I used to work for a big Telco, bees are sluggish when it is cool, the best time to evict them. They're not so dumb, they found a nice, dry place to live sheltered from the elements!

 

[sergei]

From your picture the nest was not bee's, but a paper wasp nest they are fond of the little enclosures and they have a real bad attidue during the daytime.

 

[tvropro]

From your picture the nest was not bee's, but a paper wasp nest they are fond of the little enclosures and they have a real bad attidue during the daytime.

They looked like bee's but I don't know it was dark (they all look the same to me). I remember something about best time to spray a nest is late so I guess I picked a good time. I know that at cooler temperatures they get sluggish (these buggers could barely walk) and met up with my shoe

TvroPro - 1
Bees (whatever) - 0

Satellite viewing wins out :up

 

[eodjeep2000]

I'm getting my satellite dish functional after the previous owners neglect. When I took off the cover there were about 7 or 8 nests crammed inside. I'm glad no one was watching as I ran away like a little girl....

 

[gabshere]

I'm glad no one was watching as I ran away like a little girl....

Ha Ha Ha I bet i can run faster

 

[sergei]

You should talk with the driver who fills out propane tank I had to ask him one time why he hit the lid with a long stick it seems they love to make nest in the lid. It only takes getting stung once or twice to get the message. And yes the best time to get them is when it's dark or good and cold.

 

[sergei]

Ha Ha Ha I bet i can run faster

I wouldn't bet money on that, their not dumb. many years ago when working on my grandparents farm I use to shot the nests with a BB gun hanging under the barn roof eave and I've had them follow where the BB's came from, then I ran but still got nailed a couple times and the height to the eave was 30 feet and I was back at least 20 feet shooting. Final upgraded to a 22 rifle using birdshot rounds.

 

[eodjeep2000]

I think that he was talking about running faster than me...


and in answer, I think that it depends on how motivated I am!

 

[14karat]

They looked like bee's but I don't know it was dark (they all look the same to me).

Bet they were what we affectionately know as 'yellow jackets'...
If you mess with them during the heat of the day, they get really :rant: and you don't fight them one at a time... it's all or none

 

[turbosat]

Yellow jacket wasps build nests in the ground, like bumblebees. And yes they will eat you alive if provoked. What the OP had was prob red wasps, and was lucky they were cool and couldnt attack (they can sting repeatedly, not once like bees). I've been hit by all of 'em except the hornets, and hope I can live out my life without that experience. The yellow jackets hurt me the worst-as they usually do attack in hordes.

 

[tvropro]

I was talking with a neighbor today he said it sounded like yellow jackets. They had yellow and black stripes on there stinger. They met up with my shoe. I torched the nest today, little starter booster fluid and a match. Then I blasted the feedhorn and dish down with water this afternoon. A few seemed to be hanging around the water sent them away. I don't want them back in there to build again. I will have to keep an eye on things.

My neighbor said that they are looking for the queen if she's gone they will die off in a couple weeks. I don't know much about them but don't need to be stung.

 

[meinename]

Yellow jacket wasps build nests in the ground, like bumblebees. And yes they will eat you alive if provoked. What the OP had was prob red wasps, and was lucky they were cool and couldnt attack (they can sting repeatedly, not once like bees). I've been hit by all of 'em except the hornets, and hope I can live out my life without that experience. The yellow jackets hurt me the worst-as they usually do attack in hordes.

I disagree turbosat
I ever see any other hornet than a yellow-jacket round these parts.
When we talk about yellow-jackets were I am, tvropro's picture there is exactly what we look for- above in the eaves, or anywhere else dry and warm.

There's no shame running like a "little sissy girl" right after you disturb the nest- Empty or not- until you're sure it's abandoned or otherwise from a safe distance/enclosure

When you do find an underground one- usually by stepping way to close- you run for your life while praying it's a small one of less than 100.
Worse, if you do squish one, the fluid gives off a scent that attracts more even from unrelated nests...:yikes

My last attack was hitting an underground one. Got lucky.

 

[B.J.]

Originally Posted by turbosat
Yellow jacket wasps build nests in the ground, like bumblebees. And yes they will eat you alive if provoked. What the OP had was prob red wasps, and was lucky they were cool and couldnt attack (they can sting repeatedly, not once like bees). I've been hit by all of 'em except the hornets, and hope I can live out my life without that experience. The yellow jackets hurt me the worst-as they usually do attack in hordes.

I disagree turbosat
I ever see any other hornet than a yellow-jacket round these parts.
When we talk about yellow-jackets were I am, tvropro's picture there is exactly what we look for- above in the eaves, or anywhere else dry and warm.

There's no shame running like a "little sissy girl" right after you disturb the nest- Empty or not- until you're sure it's abandoned or otherwise from a safe distance/enclosure

When you do find an underground one- usually by stepping way to close- you run for your life while praying it's a small one of less than 100.
Worse, if you do squish one, the fluid gives off a scent that attracts more even from unrelated nests...:yikes

My last attack was hitting an underground one. Got lucky.

Just a clarification and slightly different opinion. Wasps and hornets are different things. Yellow jackets are hornets, and every yellow jacket nest I've seen has been in the ground. There are other hornets that make nests above ground. I think that all hornets are VERY agressive, and when you make them mad, they will chase you across the yard into one side of the house, through the house and out the other side, and still be going after you. Truely nasty guys. There are lots of different kinds of wasps, but the ones I've seen make nests above ground, and they often look similar to the one pictured, although some are much bigger than that, sometimes about the size of a quartered cantelope. Wasps can sting of course, but they really are not very agressive. Usually if you just back off a few feet away from their nest, they will leave you alone. The only thing I've seen build nests in feedhorn covers have been wasps, not hornets, but there are hornets that might do this.
I too have done silly things upon discovering wasp nests. I was up on top of a 6' ladder taking off the feedhorn cover, when I found a wasp nest inside. Even though I was and still am convinced that they aren't agressive, I started running whil still on the top step, and ended up doing a superman horizontal flight to the ground, where I landed across a big 4' rock. I was limping for several weeks after that one. And the wasps didn't chase me, even though I was a helpless mass laying on the ground below them.

And I found a fairly good way to get rid of a yellow jacket nest. Get a BIG clear glass bowl, and go to the nest a couple hours after dark, and put the bowl over the nest. The hornets will come out of the nest, and go to the light, and will basically exhaust themselves trying. If you put the bowl on while the yellow jackets are not in the nest, they will simply tunnel under the bowl from the outside in, but they don't seem to tunnel out from inside out.

 

[14karat]

Apparently there are different versions of bugs in different parts of the world ...
Here we have:
Bees - Regular honey bees that love bare feet.
Boring bees (or carpenter bees) The resemble bumble bees and they like to ruin anything made of wood, hard to get rid of - never been stung by one tho.
Bumblebees - generally docile if you leave their nests alone, build nests in tree stumps and abandoned vehicles... sometimes in the ground - I've personally seen them in all 3 places - I lost count of how many times they've gotten me.
Red wasps - 2 different versions... "small" ones (usually about an inch or so long) and "big" ones that get upwards of 2 inches or more. I can tell you from experience, the big ones hurt worse, but you generally only get one or two stings at a time with red wasps.
Yellow jackets - no these aren't ground hornets... they are closer to red wasps only smaller, but they seem to have a lot bigger groups. I've seen them build nests ANYWHERE. Example, I try and keep our house sprayed around eaves, shutters, etc, well... last year they couldn't find anywhere on the house to build a nest so they built beneath the 1" ledge under the top brick layer around our foundation bricks. I found out where they were when I got too close with the weedeater. The nest was about 8 FOOT long and ran underneath that 1" brick ledge. If I had to guess, there were probably in the neighborhood of 500 yellowjackets on the thing. I was hit no less than 50 times before putting an end to the war.
Ground hornets - yes they are a lot like yellowjackets, but they are smaller... probably about a half-inch long max. Normally don't carry much of a punch but there's usually a bunch of them.
Last, there are what I call hornets - they're the size of the BIG red wasps, but they're black. Usually have translucent wings. Usually have nests that hang in trees. If you ever shoot one with a shotgun, make sure you have a well thought out plan of escape, because they will come for you. I've only been hit by a hornet once. I was on a tractor at the time. It felt like someone hit me with a rock right on the forehead, just above my left eye. Almost knocked me off the tractor - I definitely saw stars. The thing was stuck to my forehead with its stinger in my skull and was also biting me!
My left eye was swollen shut for nearly 3 days. My right eye I could just barely see out of.

 

[gw04]

bees in mast and bird poop on the lnb

Apparently there are different versions of bugs in different parts of the world .......The thing was stuck to my forehead with its stinger in my skull and was also biting me!
My left eye was swollen shut for nearly 3 days. My right eye I could just barely see out of.

Incredible story! Did you think to write a book? I was a kid when hornet hit me. I experienced normal honey bee's bites and we had at least two families at all times, so I thought bee is a bee, hurts around the same as a fire ant, but after Hornet hit me, I've developed hornet-phobia i don't want that thing anywhere near me... and if I see anything resembling the thing, i grab my anti-hornet/yellowjacket 20ft shooting repellant...

I've had yellow-jackets in my satellite dish though.. found them filling up the whole mast. The other family lived in the Channel Master LNBF cover.

One person told me a story (Ben from TBN i think) that Birdies pooped on the uplink bucket to the point they thought the 21ft dish is no longer working...

I guess, we are part of nature, we'll deal with it appropriately :

 

[Corrado]

Here's what I found last year.

 

[sergei]

This is from the



Social Wasps | Iowa Insect Information Notes

Yellowjackets are honey bee size (about 1/2 to 3/4 inch long) and black with bright yellow markings. (Honey bees are golden or brown.) Yellowjackets build paper nests similar to hornets but either in the ground, a log or landscape timber or building wall or attic. Yellowjackets are commonly observed hovering back and forth at the small nest opening or around garbage cans and other areas where they forage for food. Nests may contain up to 5,000 workers, most of which never travel more than a few hundred yards from the nest while looking for food. Yellowjacket stings are quite painful, but the wasps are usually not aggressive except when disturbed at the nest.

Paper wasps build the familiar umbrella shaped nests found hanging by a short stalk on the undersides of building eaves. Only a single tier of cells is constructed and there is no external covering over the nest. Each colony normally contains fewer than 25 wasps, but late in the season, the number may swell to over 100. Paper wasps are slightly longer and more slender than yellowjackets, and color is variable among the many species.


Maybe this will help some identify what most people are finding around their dishes.

 

[GreatFTA]

I spray the area with wasp spray when I come across the nest. After getting the nest out, I soak the areas in my dish wiith the spray. The scent will keep the wasps away. Best to spray these areas early spring to keep those insects at bay. Work for me!

 

[B.J.]

This is from the



Social Wasps | Iowa Insect Information Notes

Yellowjackets are honey bee size (about 1/2 to 3/4 inch long) and black with bright yellow markings. (Honey bees are golden or brown.) Yellowjackets build paper nests similar to hornets but either in the ground, a log or landscape timber or building wall or attic. Yellowjackets are commonly observed hovering back and forth at the small nest opening or around garbage cans and other areas where they forage for food. Nests may contain up to 5,000 workers, most of which never travel more than a few hundred yards from the nest while looking for food. Yellowjacket stings are quite painful, but the wasps are usually not aggressive except when disturbed at the nest.

Paper wasps build the familiar umbrella shaped nests found hanging by a short stalk on the undersides of building eaves. Only a single tier of cells is constructed and there is no external covering over the nest. Each colony normally contains fewer than 25 wasps, but late in the season, the number may swell to over 100. Paper wasps are slightly longer and more slender than yellowjackets, and color is variable among the many species.


Maybe this will help some identify what most people are finding around their dishes.

Thanks. This has been very educational. I was really surprised when the above described yellowjackets as wasps and not hornets, so I've spent the last hour or so reading in my field guides and Wikipedia. I've always been under the assumption that wasps were the things that had a wide space between the front and back body part connected by a very narrow body part, and the hornets had the front and back body parts basically touching. Turns out that this is basically true to distinguish most of what I called wasps and what I called hornets, however the things that I (and most people) call hornets, ie the bald faced hornet, ie the big fat hornet that builds those huge basketball sized nests, are apparently not "true" hornets, but are instead a separate genus of wasps. Audubon lists yellowjackets and bald faced hornets as both being in genus vespula, however Wikipedia indicates a different genus for the bald faced, so I don't know if one of them is wrong or if there has been a change in the scientific names. Wikipedia does call bald faced hornets a type of yellowjacket however. But in any event, I do think that the "usually not aggressive" description for yellowjackets (or bald faced hornets) is quite misleading, because if you disturb either at their nests, they are extremely aggressive, while the paper wasps are hardly agressive at all. But thanks for the post. I never realized that yellowjackets and bald faced hornets were both technically wasps. It was also only recently that I learned that bald faced hornets were the same hornet that makes those huge nests, because we get these small horn shaped hornet nests every spring that the bald faced hornets make, and I usually get rid of them, but I never realized that if I'd leave them up that they would eventually be those huge nests. I thought those were a different species.