Ouch, bees! Lots of them...

[Blue2ndaries]

Now that we are in the low 30s/high 20s at night and 40s during the day, I began moving some wood in the other night from the back patio to the hearth grabbing a few armfuls at a time. I grabbed one split and felt a poke in my left hand and thought I must have grabbed a thorn or something. Nope. I looked down and there was a yellow-jacket. Ouch!

I wanted to inspect the splits during daylight and found just about every 3 out of 5 splits had one, or more, yellow jackets hibernating underneath! I've never had that many bees before, maybe one or two found during a whole season, but not this many! I must have killed at least 25 of them just flipping over 1-2 rows of splits. Here are some pics.

Be careful out there!

 

[ScotO]

youch! That almost happened to me the other evening. I have around a face cord of white oak/elm ranked against the overhang on the back of my little toolshed that I've been taking 'overnight' wood from. Well I went out the other evening to grab an armload to load the stove up for the night, and found a yellow jacket hybernating underneath, just before I threw it on my bare arm to carry it across the yard! It's the only one I found so far, hope it's the last for the season too!

 

[PapaDave]

Thanks for the heads up.
Anybody know where to get those beekeeper outfits?
Had a bat go flying out of a stack in the field early this summer while moving some wood.
That was interesting.

 

[Blue Vomit]

I got flambasted by a few hornets cutting last fall. One got me right in the forehead, a few minutes later I looked like a rhino. The swelling was unreal. A friends told me they are jam packed with venom at the end of the season for some reason.
Be careful.

 

[bogydave]

Glad you didn't get into them before it got cold.
That many around means a nest is close.
They'd have got you more than once.

Maybe they like the wood type, what kind is ti?

 

[fabsroman]

Think I would take yellow jacket stings over wasps. Got into a wasp nest on Friday, July 13th, and man was that painful. Knew I was in trouble as soon as I heard the buzz and felt the sting on my hand. Never run that fast before. Got stung on the hand, the bicep, and the ankle. Hurt a lot and itched for a week. The swelling was insane. Took same spray to the hive and then a torch. Must have been around 100 in that thing. Just happy the kids did not get into it. Will be careful with the wood stacks now.

 

[eclecticcottage]

Had one hitch a ride into the house last year off the wood stack. Spent a bit of time looking for others lemme tell ya. Had a nest in the wall at the old house once, hundreds of them ended up in the house. That's enough to make your hair stand on end for a week. Had to set off a bug bomb to kill them.

 

[Gark]

For stinging bugs, we didn't see this thing up in a maple until the leaves all fell. It looks just like another found in a different maple 2 summers ago. That one was occupied by black & white striped nasty-agressive wasps. Luckily, all residents of this wasp condo have been frozen off. It's 18 in. dia. and about 20 in. long. For sure, bees and wasps love to lurk in the stacks.

 

[Cross Cut Saw]

Listen to the whole thing, then go find more of their music. You can thank me later...

 

[Backwoods Savage]

And just think of all the folks who insist on stacking wood inside the house. Wouldn't it be great to find a whole bunch of yellow jackets flying around your living room?

 

[Blue2ndaries]

@ Dave, I checked again and found a few more this am. These guys must have snuck in between the time I moved these from my seasoned stacks to the back patio. I was curious as to the wood myself, and believe it or not, they mostly hibernated on the ash and oak, and not the maple or fir. I wonder why?

 

[Kevin*]

And just think of all the folks who insist on stacking wood inside the house. Wouldn't it be great to find a whole bunch of yellow jackets flying around your living room?

Though i don't store my wood inside I did find 1 flying around my living room and thought it must have come in for the open door. The next day I found another, after looking around the house for a nest I found them in the wood pile, I had been bringing them inside, maybe I got lucky and put some into the fire.

Now I only get wood in daylight.

 

[Elderthewelder]

I find them in my wood at times as well, I try to remember to knock the splits together when I take them out of the wood shed

 

[Adabiviak]

[...]remember to knock the splits together when I take them out of the wood shed

Who doesn't do this? At worst, it keeps a little dirt out of the house; at best, it keeps rodent droppings and any number of bugs out of the house. I rotate my wood a lot, and the splits get knocked together at every step.

 

[blacktail]

I've been surprised by the number of bees in my wood stacks too. I always check my wood before I bring it in, but more for spiders.

 

[maple1]

And just think of all the folks who insist on stacking wood inside the house. Wouldn't it be great to find a whole bunch of yellow jackets flying around your living room?

Everyone brings their wood inside at some point before they burn it. If you put your winters wood into the basement all at once, chances are you're more apt to find bees when putting it in then (late summer/early fall) than if you bring it in by the armload in the middle of winter when they'll be asleep in it, only to wake up when the warmth hits them. I insist on stacking my wood inside - all of it, all at once, right into the basement right beside my boiler. Never an issue.

I did have a bad experience with a huge wasp nest plugging up my venmar outlet pipe once. I waited until late fall after they abandoned it, then had to cut it all out & replace with new. Thing was a good 5 feet long inside a 6in. duct.

 

[blades]

Those are queens hibernating for next year, workers all die off in the cold. Get a lot of that in my stacks. I just bang the splits around. If i happen to see one it get the pressure treatment. Last year had a bald faced hornet nest in one of my trees around 25-35 ft up. Great fun sitting in back yard picking off hornets with the air rifle as they were buzzing around the nest, added bennie was all those pellets going through nest open it up for the birds and within a week it was pretty well destroyed, mother nature finished the job with a windy rainy storm.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Everyone brings their wood inside at some point before they burn it. If you put your winters wood into the basement all at once, chances are you're more apt to find bees when putting it in then (late summer/early fall) than if you bring it in by the armload in the middle of winter when they'll be asleep in it, only to wake up when the warmth hits them. I insist on stacking my wood inside - all of it, all at once, right into the basement right beside my boiler. Never an issue.

I did have a bad experience with a huge wasp nest plugging up my venmar outlet pipe once. I waited until late fall after they abandoned it, then had to cut it all out & replace with new. Thing was a good 5 feet long inside a 6in. duct.

Not everone! Of course we have to bring it in to put it into the stove but that is all. The rest will stay outdoors and so can the bugs and critters.

 

[Blue2ndaries]

Likewise Backwoods. My unit is only about 8feet away (can see it thru the window), but I like to bring in a few armloads so I don't have to go outside multiple times if it's cold out. I guess I could just leave it all on under the covered patio and just do a better job of checking before grabbing pieces to put into the stove.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I'd say that patio is placed rather nicely!

 

[weatherguy]

I changed this year to putting a rack just outside the door and having a wagon full in the house at a time. I got stung from a yellowjacket in my woodpile over the summer, Ive stayed away from that portion of my woodpile until now. Ill grab some from that area when its zero outside.

 

[geoxman]

I was moving a stack too the deck and I found the same sort of thing. I found 8 strange looking bees, not yellow jackets, sleeping in between some splits. I have been burning many years and I have never run across this while living in the city

 

[jackofalltrades]

Gark, in the south we call that a hornet nest. The black and white striped ones are the worse for sure, but there are also black and yellow striped ones. I have seen them hit a grown man and knock him down stinging him.