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Thread: Bumble Bees

  1. #1
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    Default Bumble Bees

    While working in the garden a few days ago I was watching all of the bumble bees on the field pea and butter bean blooms. I got to thinking, I've never seen a bumble bee nest. Where do they typically nest? Have you ever seen one?

  2. #2
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    They typically nest in the ground or frames of farm equipment you haven't used in a while. Meanest thing in the woods, and make hornets seem like butterflies when disturbed...

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by JABIII View Post
    They typically nest in the ground or frames of farm equipment you haven't used in a while. Meanest thing in the woods, and make hornets seem like butterflies when disturbed...
    Yep - I kicked an old washing machine abandoned in the woods once when I was in the 6th grade and got a bumblebee sting on the side of my leg. I was throwing up sick for three days and my leg was so swollen I couldn’t hardly walk. It seems like I get stung by something a couple of times a year – usually yellow jackets, paper wasps or red wasps. Red wasps are the worst out of that bunch by far but I’d take ten of them over a bumblebee. Luckily, bumblebees are not aggressive unless you mess with their home.
    Ephesians 2 : 8-9



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  4. #4
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    So far the most painful sting I've had was year before last whenever a hornet of some type hit me right on my hair line. Whenever I looked it up it looked more like a Japanese Hornet than a ball faced. It felt like the mix of a bee sting and a baseball bat. That's good to know about the bees. I was just thinking, I've been in the woods my entire life and have never come across them. Wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, honey bees, but never bumble bees. I'm glad that they are in the garden.
    Last edited by StrutnBPS; 07-11-2021 at 09:16 AM.

  5. #5
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    When they are nested in the ground, you can feel the earth shaking as they all try to swarm out of that one tiny hole at once to smoke your ass.

    It is my contention that tractor manufacturers have sold a billion dollars worth of cabbed tractors just because of those little beasts...

  6. #6
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    Saw my first one at Ashmore Heritage Trust Preserve & WMA.
    Huge nest in the ground and heard it before we saw it.

  7. #7
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    I've come across where something dug up a "bee hive" plenty of times, but I've always assumed it was yellowjackets. Some of them may have been bumble bees.

  8. #8
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    When I was 5 I stepped on a bumble bee while out playing bare footed. Yea, that sucked and is still my worst sting to date.

    4 years ago I was weed eating and got in a yellow jacket nest, they got me 7 times but the worst was on the top
    Ridge of my ear in the cartilage. You talk about hurting? Man alive, and then it itched for 4-6 weeks after
    I am a nobody, that met somebody, that can save anybody.

  9. #9
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    They like bird houses too. They will all buzz in unison when disturbed. That is their pre-attack warning

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