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#Post#: 16046--------------------------------------------------
Anybody have a remedy for bee stings?
By: SHL Date: May 24, 2019, 12:54 am
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I know this is not much of a topic of discussion, but this has
not been my month for health issues. I’ll be lucky if I make it
to June 1st I’m starting to think and thank god Monday is a
holiday- Memorial Day where we remember all our military
veterans or something, whatever. At least it’s a holiday. (I’m
hoping I can make it to July 6, so if I have to crook I can just
crook in Germany and they can just bury me over there).
First, I get this cardiovascular disease thing that put me in
the hospital for two nights and I got put on all these blood
pressure pills and statins to get my cholesterol lowered, and
aspirin for blood thinning, and now I got stung three times
today by honey bees. As background, these honey bees, these
little monster insects, infested my house about 4 weeks ago and
got some kind of hive in the wall going, probably with their
queen bee inside. I’ve been battling them and had a bee man out
to try get rid of them. But that old guy wasn’t any good. I
tried patching up holes where they were getting in, but they
just won’t go away (we’ve got lemon, orange and grapefruit trees
out front and when the weather gets warm the bees have to come
out and start their pollinating routine). Well, the weather got
cool and it rained a bit and the bees disappeared, but as soon
as it warmed up the rotten little creatures came back. I tried
to vacuum up a whole bunch of them today outside my garage with
a shop vac, and they got mad at me and started to chase me. Then
they bit me twice on the forehead and once on my right eyelid.
The forehead bites are not so bad, but the one bite me on my
eyelid caused my right eye to swell up, so now I look like I
just got out of a prize fight. And I have to go to court
tomorrow looking like this.
Honey bees are the most aggressive and rotten little creatures
god ever put on this earth. I know everyone says you have to
love bees because they give us honey and without them there
would be no agriculture and we’d all starve or something,
because they pollinate everything, but they are sooooo annoying
(I am literally typing with one eye closed right now). This is
just a nightmare.
And, bees are the strangest creatures. If you leave them alone,
they won’t bother you. But, if you go after them, they go into
attack mode. And once they bite you they die because when they
sting you it pulls their guts out and they die. My bees are like
kamikaze bees, ready to die for the queen.
Does anyone know any home remedies for bee stings? The advice
nurse at the hospital I called said just take an
over-the-counter antihistamine and put a cold compress on my
eye, but it’s not helping.
I have to say, I am really starting to hate bees. And, I don’t
know what to do to get rid of them.
#Post#: 16047--------------------------------------------------
Re: Anybody have a remedy for bee stings?
By: NealC Date: May 24, 2019, 1:48 am
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We have bee hives, and the actual European Honeybees are rather
small and docile. I have never been stung by them. The larger
"Bumblebee",which is naturally more common in the US is more
aggressive.
Bees in your house is a big deal, I know you are saving for your
trip but you have to get a professional to get them out. They
will be busy all summer while you are away.
They really shouldn't be too hard to get rid of, I am surprised
the guy had difficulty. We once had Yellow Jackets at war with
our bees and we entered the battle armed with water hoses, fire,
and some over the counter pyrethroid sprays. There were dozens
of small nests all over the place, and a couple of big ones but
we got them all pretty easily. Bees are far to easy to disturb
and kill, that is more of a problem than the opposite.
You should not be trying to clear them out of the house. Once
they have a hive inside it is time to call a pro. Im sure your
heart doctor is not going to be thrilled with your new hobby.
Find someone professional and competent!
#Post#: 16049--------------------------------------------------
Re: Anybody have a remedy for bee stings?
By: Alharacas Date: May 24, 2019, 2:29 am
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Welcome to the club, Steven.
I'm typing this sitting slant-wise on my chair, my
elephant-sized left foot on another chair, covered with a cold
compress. Next to my notebook are the anti-histamines and the
pain meds. (sigh)
You might try covering your swollen eye with one of those
piratey black eye patches (if you can bear it) - I imagine it
would make you look quite dashingly rakish. ;)
As to your other question - not much you can do, unfortunately.
Even supposing it's legal, if you sprayed poison, you'd be
poisoning the inside of your house as well. And the only other
way would be to partly dismantle the wall they are living
behind.
The good news is, if you stop annoying them, they probably won't
sting you again. But don't leave any water hoses lying about (or
be very careful handling them), bees need water, too.
If you do try to do anything again, first cover yourself up like
a bee-keeper, very, very carefully (they will crawl up sleeves,
into gloves, up trousers and into boots, and under any veil if
that isn't fastened to whatever's covering your upper body), and
do it right before sunrise.
Oh, and in my case, the guilty party was one of these little
darlings:
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylocopa_violacea
Apparently, sitting bare-foot at the table amounts to forcing
them to attack.
Edited to say that Neal's right - get in a pro.
#Post#: 16050--------------------------------------------------
Re: Anybody have a remedy for bee stings?
By: NealC Date: May 24, 2019, 3:04 am
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Carpenter bees are scary huge, I have a small nest on the corner
of the house. We haven't done anything to remove them as they
are only really active in summer and it is kind of like seeing
old friends again when they show up. Carpenter bees are not
prolific are certainly not aggressive.
Well it is very amusing to see you both down with the same
rather rare thing, so far away :-)
#Post#: 16051--------------------------------------------------
Re: Anybody have a remedy for bee stings?
By: NealC Date: May 24, 2019, 3:10 am
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Oh - blocking their exit is not a good idea, the bees might
discover that another way out of the nest is through your house!
Another reason to call a pro - if it is honey making bees they
have to get the honey out. If they don't then you will soon
have an infestation of ants and beetles going after the left
behind honey.
#Post#: 16052--------------------------------------------------
Re: Anybody have a remedy for bee stings?
By: Truman Overby Date: May 24, 2019, 6:30 am
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The ground-dwelling bees are a problem in my part of the world.
A few years ago I was mowing my grass when I ran over a spot
above a nest of the little demons. Hundreds of them came out and
attacked me and Tesla, my miniature dachshund. They hit me a
bunch of times on my back. Fortunately I'm not allergic.
#Post#: 16062--------------------------------------------------
Re: Anybody have a remedy for bee stings?
By: SHL Date: May 24, 2019, 9:39 am
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Thanks guys.
Yes, I really have to get pro out. This old guy I got out wasn’t
any good. He changed $35.00. He was 78 or 80 and just patched up
the holes outside, which just forced the bees to find a way into
my bedroom it get out. What a mess.
A few years ago I had another been infestation. They had built a
huge hive in my fireplace. A good bee pro took a honeycomb out
that weighed like 40 pounds. Then he had to seal the top of the
chimney off with steel to keep them from coming back. It’s from
these fruit trees in front of the house my dad planted 50 years
ago. They start pollinating every April and May, but I gotta get
a pro out, because they are not going away, no matter what I do
(you know I even heard it was illegal to kill honey bees in
California. I thought that’s weird. I imagine there is an
exception if they invade your home or attack.
My right eye is swollen shut this morning, so it’s worse, not
better. After court, which should only last 10 minutes, I’m
coming back home and taking the day off. I don’t know if I
should call the hospital again, but they will probably just say
put ice on it and cold compresses and take antihistamines. Then
I’m calling in a pro.
When I leave for Berlin on July 4th, they could be a real mess
inside the walls by the time I get back on August 3rd, So I
better get on it.
Sorry to hear of Alharacas´bee sting too. They are no joke.
Funny thing is if you leave these little bastards alone they
don’t attack you. You can walk by a swarm of them and they won’t
bother you. But, if you try to disturb them, they come after you
with a vengeance, They go into attack mode, I guess to protect
the queen.
I heard once China had a bee problem some where so they tried to
wipe them out and do their own artificial pollinating but it
didn’t work so they are trying to bring the bees back. Strange
little creatures,
#Post#: 16063--------------------------------------------------
Re: Anybody have a remedy for bee stings?
By: Truman Overby Date: May 24, 2019, 9:51 am
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Well, I suppose bees are better than bed bugs. You can't get
honey out of bed bugs. So that's something.
#Post#: 16114--------------------------------------------------
Re: Anybody have a remedy for bee stings?
By: SHL Date: May 24, 2019, 9:45 pm
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[quote author=NealC link=topic=1091.msg16051#msg16051
date=1558685455]
Oh - blocking their exit is not a good idea, the bees might
discover that another way out of the nest is through your house!
Another reason to call a pro - if it is honey making bees they
have to get the honey out. If they don't then you will soon
have an infestation of ants and beetles going after the left
behind honey.
[/quote]
My mom is sort of the animal expert around here and calls Animal
Control anytime she has a question. Of course, she has to feed
all the stray cats out on her deck every night, and sometimes a
possum comes around and eats the cat food. Certain times of the
year we get a young fox family, a female with her babies (which
are actually pretty cute but I still keep a distance from them).
I think she feels sorry for the animals, especially for the
cats. She also feeds the occasional raccoon and her babies that
come around and my mom gave a name to the raccoon. And the deer
are everywhere too. Back in the 70s or so, they banned hunting
mountain lion (we have a lot of them in the surrounding hills)-
they go by various names, bobcats, pumas, mountain lions,
cougars. I have no idea why they have so many names for them,
but we always just called them mountain lions. So when they
couldn’t be hunted anymore, they overpopulated and drove all the
deer into town, since deer are their natural prey.
Livings here is like living in a wildlife sanctuary.
I ended up in the emergence room again today over that bee sting
(again, I having pretty rotten luck this month). I told the
doctor I had just gotten out of the hospital 2 weeks ago with my
heart condition. My eye was so swollen up she took a picture of
it and put it in my chart, did her exam and prescribed 5mgs of
prednisone, taken 6x day the first day, 5 the next until it
tapers down to 0. With an ice-pack added.
When my mom called Animal Control and told them the bee guy
walled off the bees, the lady acted astonished and asked “why?”
(Because the guy was a dummy is why). She said if they have a
nest with honey in the wall, the queen will stay alive eating
it and the bees will never stop trying to get in. So, I got the
number of a Pro.
Sometimes you just have to break down and hire the people who
know what they are doing.
#Post#: 16120--------------------------------------------------
Re: Anybody have a remedy for bee stings?
By: Alharacas Date: May 25, 2019, 5:09 am
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Sounds like a good idea, Steven.
Say, don't you get overrun by raccoons if you feed them?
I'm asking because I've lately discovered there are raccoons
living in the chimney of some sort of small outhouse I have
(originally, it was used to boil the washing, that's why it has
a chimney). Yes, I know, I could have the chimney blocked off,
but apart from the expense, there are so many other places here
for them to build nests, I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. On
the other hand, I'm starting to have visions of whole armies of
raccoons swarming around my house.
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