To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: RE: [NAFEX] bumble aggression
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 11:19:36 -0400
Lucky:
Great story. They are beautiful bees and good pollinators but rascals when
you mess with the nest. Folk who have had this experience do not confuse the
famous bumble bee with a blow fly.
Bruce
z5 MI
-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Lucky Pittman
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 9:26 AM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: [NAFEX] bumble aggression
The bumbles are working my blueberries at the moment.
I've only had a single encounter with a bumblebee nest, but it wasn't very
much fun. In my limited experience, they're every bit as aggressive as
yellowjackets if you disturb their nest.
I was mowing some fairly rank, overmature grass alongside the driveway a
number of years ago, when WHAM! out of nowhere, those rascals started
nailing me. Of course, I took off on a sprint - ran at least 50 yards to
escape them. Left the lawnmower running - I believe it as positioned
almost directly over the entrance to the nest at the point in time when I
departed. A significant number of bees committed suicide on the mower
blades as they exited the nest, but it still took a good 30 minutes before
I was able to sneak back up to the mower and shut it off. Left it there
until nightfall, when I was able to remove it safely. Hated to do it, but
since I had a 1 & 3 -yr old toddling around at the time, I poured a cup of
gasoline down the hole to finish off any survivors.