In most of Montana, we've rattlesnakes that like to curl up under pallets/hive stands. I wear boots - not for the bees, but for the snake strikes - especially when they are shedding their skins and don't give you a warning. I remember well the day when I had to remove a snake from under a 4-pac pallet, then found several black widow spiders between the hives. At least we don't have scorpions here - found them down in Yuma - they seem to like the cavity of the hand holds at night. We eventually started using a black light at night to scan the hives before picking them up. Jerry *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm