>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
Internet: [log in to unmask]
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