>Dave - Where are you?? I am a beekeeper in the Boston area.  I don't know
>what I can do to help, but I would be willing to chat via e-mail, or have you
>come visit my bees when you are ready.  I'm not sure what you really are
>looking for, and whether exposure to live bees would be helpful or harmful.
>Also, I would be curious if you have different reactions to honeybees vs.
>wasps (are you able to distinguish between them??).
 
Rick ... I appreciate the offer to visit your bees, however, I live in
Concord,  California. Once in the past few years I was invited to visit
a private apiary. I  didn't go, nor did I give it much thought.
However, if I and a beekeeper were  to come to a very clear
understanding as to what to expect from one another, it's  something I
believe I'd like to try, I'm just not sure how soon.
 
The books I have read (which doesn't account for a lot) concentrate
more on the  different kinds of bees/wasps, their living habits,
aggressiveness, social habits,  etc. What they do not concentrate on is
how people interact with bees/wasps. I  am often afraid to venture out
into my front or backyard because of bees or  wasps. My wife, on the
other hand, respects the fuzzy critters, but rarely has a  problem with
them. I have a good friend who's never been stung and seems  almost
totally un-intimidated by them. We were on a bus together when I
noticed a wasp a couple feet to my left buzzing against the inside of
the  window. I got up and moved hastily to a seat on the other side. My
friend saw  the wasp and just reached over with his hand a slid the
wasp down the window jamming it into the ventilation slot at its base.
End of wasp.
 
I have a real problem on how to, or how not to react when a yellow
jacket for  example decides to investigate where I'm peacefully sitting
under the shade on  my patio with no food or drink around. I have this
horrible premonition that this  obviously deranged wasp has decided to
zero in on me and see how many times  he/she can sting me, at which
point I generally enter a semi-panic state and dash  into the house;
the door to which is usually never far away. Other people seem  to
ignore the deranged wasp.
 
I need to watch from "safe" vantage point how people deal with these
critters.
 
I have been stung 3 times. 2 by wasps and one by something I'm not sure
of.  The offended critter got stuck between my eyelid and glasses when
I was riding  my bicycle home from grade school one afternoon. Needless
to say the critter got annoyed and stung me. I through off my glasses
and ran head on into a  parked car. This all happened back in the late
'50s.
 
I don't believe I swell up any worse than other people the times I've
been  stung.
 
I'm looking for information on observing "normal" reactions (compared
to  people like myself who too often enter a panic state) of people
confronted with  bees/wasps/hornets in their environment immediate
environment.
 
Thanks ... Dave Stolzenbach
 
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