Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

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ahockenberry
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Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by ahockenberry »

Hi folks

I just got back from a week in Eastern Ontario for a cottage vacation and took the opportunity to go out for a couple of herping trips. On one of the trips, I was over turning some rocks and tin in a clearing in the forest, which is a good place to find snakes. I was uncovering a couple of Garter Snakes and hoping to find a Smooth Green Snake - which were also reported to be in the area.

I had pretty much looked everywhere except for a small woodpile which had a few dozen planks and some bigger plywood boards toward the bottom of the pile which I was hoping would yield a snake or two. I thought nothing of rearranging the wood pile since there are no venemous snakes in this part of Ontario to worry about; however, after I had removed the top few I revoved yet another which seemed to be encrusted in some earth underneath (which turned out to be a nest) and before I had a chance to even think about it - all of the sudden I was set upon by a cloud of bees -(Yellow Jackets) which poured out of the pile.

Dozens of them got to them and before I could process what was happening - I felt a horrific pain as I felt numerous stings hitting me simultaneously - and I dropped my camera and ran - all the while swatting them and trying to kill as many as possible. They did not give up easily and some followed me from the nest for a distance of about 100 feet - some getting me on the legs above the ankles, on the knees and on the ear.

I wear sweat pants to protect against ticks so this helped me somewhat - they could still sting through the pants in some places but they were baggy enough to save me in other areas. The Yellow Jackets (I believe and some of you may know more about this) can sting you numerous times compared with a honeybee which can only sting you once - so perhaps some of them got me more than once.

I think in total I was stung more tha 20 times, which can put a real damper on your day! My hands were covered with stings. After I had either killed, swatted or ran away from the 'swarm' I had to go back to retrieve my camera, which I was only able to do after bringing a long stick and using it to hook onto the strap which was on the ground - I managed to catch onto it and fish it back to me and got out of there fast.

In any case, I will be more careful in the future and did not expect this at all but would be curoius if you have faced similar situations. I suppose I should know that bees can build nests anywhere but was still surprised. Since I have been stung quite a few times by various types of bees throughout 45 years of outdoor acitivities, I did not really panic. I am also not allergic to bee stings, but if someone was allergic to bee stings 20-30 stings could bring on some real problems.

Anyway that is my story.
Jimi
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by Jimi »

Welcome to the club, ha ha.

I guess you're lucky to live in an area that doesn't happen too much? Further south it's pretty routine. You learn to be ready to run. Twenty must have been bad though, usually it's just one or two that hit you. When you run!

Glad you're OK.

Cheers,
Jimi
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withalligators
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by withalligators »

Boy, it's really to bad no one was video taping all this!
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Melissa Coakley
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by Melissa Coakley »

I have run across this same thing here in FL:

This first picture was down in the Canefields. My fiance Bill lifted a few boards - I have never seen him run so fast!
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This picture shows a field we like to herp. We have found several snakes (and eggs) in this field - anyway, one day we showed up and the entire field was filled with these hives.
Image

Here is another picture (poor quality thanks to all the zoom I used!) of some bees in an abandoned building we usually stop at in South Florida:
Image


Melissa
Shane_TX
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by Shane_TX »

Fieldherping is pretty much a non-sporting event unless flying ants are present.

Shane
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Mike Pingleton
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by Mike Pingleton »

I feel your pain. I stirred up a swarm of yellow jackets a few years ago in southern Illinois. I took 4-5 stings and counted myself lucky, because while I was running away (think Holy Grail) the little bastids were flying up both nostrils and got between my eyes and my eyeglasses. :thumb:

-Mike
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Ridge Walker
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by Ridge Walker »

If there's anything funnier than watching a cursing and wildly flailing herper get chased through the woods by yellowjackets, I have yet to see it. :lol:

RW
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Mark Brown
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by Mark Brown »

Yup, you've now officially been baptised into a real field herper! It's a damned shame that nobody has ever been able to clock a herper who just overturned a wasp nest - I'm sure the world record for the 100-yard dash has been broken many times by herpers in the field. :mrgreen:
DavidG
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by DavidG »

Haha, hilarious replies :thumb: !

Seriously though, i have experienced this as well here in Singapore; wasps and hornets :oops: ! Once i was about 30 feet from a tree. I noticed this black 'cloud' around the tree and wanted to take a picture to see what it was :? .... Not good, before i had the camera to my head i was injected by stings all across my face, ouch! I ran!

The hornet story is a bit of a long one, and better told in conversation than in my poor english writing :P !
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ahockenberry
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by ahockenberry »

I guess there is a humorous element to the story looking back on it - but it was not very funny at the time and I have noticed a number of deaths related to Yellow Jacket stings - actually I believe that more people die from bee and wasp stings than from venemous snake bites. Here are a couple of accounts:

Man Dies from Yellow Jacket Stings
http://www.ajlambert.com/shanks/obt_bct.pdf

Yellow Jackets p;ack deadly sting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjEXecVvjvU

State Trooper Killed by Yellow Jacket Sting
http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=64440
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Gluesenkamp
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by Gluesenkamp »

Ooof! I've had my run-ins as well. The worst was falling through the top of a beaver dam in BC and getting nailed by YJs about a dozen times before I could wrest free and plunge into the freezing creek.

In Mexico, bees are a serious problem. Often, bees will construct hives just under the overhang of large pits. Cavers need to be VERY careful, lest they become bee pinatas while dangling on rope. Some caves are only enterable at night for this reason. Experienced field folks don't even pause to assess the situation when bees are encountered. They just run like Hell. I learned long ago that when Peter starts running, you'd best run after him!
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Mark Brown
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by Mark Brown »

Gluesenkamp wrote: I learned long ago that when Peter starts running, you'd best run after him!
Like the old quote, "I don't have to outrun the bear - I just have to outrun you!" :lol:
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Gluesenkamp
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by Gluesenkamp »

Mark Brown wrote:
Gluesenkamp wrote: I learned long ago that when Peter starts running, you'd best run after him!
Like the old quote, "I don't have to outrun the bear - I just have to outrun you!" :lol:

Seriously, there are no heroes when killer bees are involved.
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Steve Atkins
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by Steve Atkins »

I found a nest of ground bees the other day under a rock and I was quick enough to grab my camera and my 5 year old son and run down a rocky mountainside wearing sandals w/out getting stung. I have no idea how I pulled it off. Many times before I have not been so lucky.
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Jon Wedow
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by Jon Wedow »

That sucks about the wasps! Something to keep an eye out for sure!

So did you end up finding a Smooth Green yet?

Jon
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chrish
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by chrish »

I've done the Yellow-jacket Dash a few times. Once I urinated onto a log full of them while wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. I got stung 10+ times, but only on the "exposed" parts and not on anything that had been exposed a few seconds before. :shock:

I did run into a house full of Africanized bees in southern Texas a few years back. If you are a herper, you learn very early the limits of herping around bees and I knew them pretty well. I had herped around this abandoned house many times, knowing to stay away from the back room and its bees and to be careful flipping tin near the back of the house. In all my trips there, the bees had never been any more than "something to watch out for".

One spring, I went down to flip the tin at this house and as I approached the house, I saw the bees going in and out - no big deal. I started to flip the tin and was about 50 feet from the bees side of the house when I suddenly became aware of a lot of bee activity right around me. I looked up and realized I was surrounded by thousands of pissed off bees. I dropped my stuff and ran. I was stung once on the eyelid, once on the ear, and once on the arm. Fortunately for me, I have dark hair and it was pretty long. That's where the bees were focused. I must have had dozens of bees clinging to and buzzing around my head. As I ran for my life, I shouted "BEES" to my herping buddy. He, being accustomed to herping around bees, simply walked away from the house onto the dirt road. I ran up towards him thinking "OK, I made it". As soon as my friend saw me running towards him with my bee-medusa hairdo and a cloud of angry bees swarming around my head, he took one look and ran off down the road. I think I probably ran 1/4 mile away from the house swatting at the bees around me and brushing them out of my hair. I was picking bees out of my hair for a good 10-15 minutes. It was mind blowing and more than a little scary. I have never had another run-in with bees that aggressive and an entomologist friend of mine said that was typical africanized bee behavior.

The other scary thing was that I had to go back to retrieve my stump ripper, so about an hour later, I tiptoed up to where I'd been attacked about 20 feet from the house and grabbed my stick and tiptoed back carefully. They were still swarming angrily, but only right around the house itself.

I know I wasn't the only person who must have had a problem here, because the next time I came down there (the next spring) the house had been burned to the ground.
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Ryan Thies
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by Ryan Thies »

Finding angry wasps and hornets absolutely sucks! I have found them more times than I can count. Luckily, I am always looking for the presence of a hive and thus am rarely surprised. I have been attacked by swarms of yellow jackets numerous times while out doing other things though. The one thing I have learned about them is that you may not see them flying after you when you are running away from them, but more times than not they are going for a ride on your cloths while you are running away. When I stumble into the middle of a nest I always run away from the hive and then search through my clothing to remove the bees attached to them. Usually, a few stings have already occured by the time all the wasps are found, but it beats running away and not understanding why I am still getting stung. I am unfortunately allergic to wasps and hornets and thus have become phobic of them. People laugh at me when I avoid certain rocks when out flipping, but it just isn't worth it to me to risk getting stung by a wasp or hornet.

Ryan
stlouisdude
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by stlouisdude »

I do not worry much about venomous snakes, but much smaller critters can be an issue. Not only yellow jackets, but also scorpions and wasps. The wasps make nests under boards and rocks. Scorpions clinging to the underside of a rock can sting and it does not feel very pleasant. I have no advice for avoiding these things as I tend to get stung by something every year, at least once.
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kyle loucks
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by kyle loucks »

Similarly ripped into a yellow jacket nest in a log pile... I escaped with only one sting though.

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Mitch Mimier
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by Mitch Mimier »

That probably would have killed me. I'm highly allergic to yellow jackets. Fortunately, it seems to be only yellow jackets that I react to as I've been stung by other bees and wasps and it didn't do much other than hurt.

Back in 2006 I was flipping some trash about half a mile back in the woods behind my grandparents house. I wasn't finding much, so I was just casually flipping what was in the area. I saw a piece of 4x4 piece of carpet on the ground and flipped it with my hook. The moment I lifted it I saw a hole in the ground and two yellow jackets coming out of it. I instantly dropped the carpet and ran like a madman. Unfortunately, two of the little buggers managed to get me. Once in the arm, and once on the side. Knowing I was allergic, but not to what degree, I made a beeline back to the house. On my way back, I noticed my feet tingling. I started itching and could feel my face beginning to swell. By the time I reached the house, the itching was so bad it was almost unbearable. My grandmother had a home remedy for allergies, lord only knows what it was, but it was some concoction that I managed to choke down while deciding whether to go to the ER. By this time my face was swelling to the size of a balloon and my skin was becoming grotesquely splotchy. I decided to have my grandpa drive me into town to the ER since I knew at this point the reaction couldn't be handled at the house. My grandpa, obviously not understanding how dangerous the situation could become at any moment, putters down the road at 45 mph with his flashers going. The hospital was about 20 minutes away, and about halfway there I could feel my throat tightening. I knew where an urgent care clinic was that was much closer, so I told my grandpa to go there. We pull up and I hop out and walk up to the desk. The nurse or CNA at the desk looks up and her eyes get as big as saucers because I look like an absolute freak and I tell her I'm having an allergic reaction. She runs to the back and comes back out with the doctor. They wisk me off to a room and give me the usual benadryl, epi, and solumedrol.

Now when I go herping, I carry enough epinephrine and benadryl to stock a pharmacy. If two little stings can cause that kind of reaction, I'd hate to think of what a dozen or more would do. I still find the little buggers fascinating though. Later that year I had a yellow jacket nest at the base of the steps to my back door. They didn't bother me coming in and out, so I just let them be. The following spring the nest was abandoned, so all's well that ends well, I guess.
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ahockenberry
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by ahockenberry »

Thanks Mitch (and others who contributed)
Well this conversation has opened my eyes to this potential threat - especially when moving and flipping rocks and debris - I will be much more cautious and bring a metal hook or pole and a supply of Benadry.

Regards
Ashley
Brendan Murray
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by Brendan Murray »

My suspicion that bees were the spawns of Satan was confirmed last week when a winged devil thrust its venomous sword into my thigh leaving me reeling and without my dignity.
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DCooper
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by DCooper »

Just this week my liitle boy, nearly 2, was attacked while playing around a bush at my Aunt and Uncles. They had a nest at the foundation of the house. My son was trying to hide from me and as he stepped out from behind the bush he said "ouch". I figured he just scraped against the barberry bush at his feet, but when I looked closer I realized he was covered in bees. I quickly grabbed him and started squashing them with my hands as I ripped his clothes off. The little bastards were everywhere and my poor little boy was screaming with every sting. He came out with 5 or 6 stings in total out of the 2 dozen or so bees on him and I had only 2 stings even though I squashed at least a dozen. I HATE BEES other than plain old honey bees.
stlouisdude
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by stlouisdude »

You can't really lift rocks of any size reliably with a snake hook, rocks will just slide off and smash whatever is under there. AC is the way to go anyway, works better than rocks, doesn't take much energy to lift, and can be done from the standing position. Still very likely to get stung sooner or later whether standing, leaning over, touching the boards, or whatever. Only way around that is wearing a bee keeper's suit.
hellihooks
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by hellihooks »

Many the times I've flipped ac to find swarming honeycones... drop it and run like hell... all you can do. just noticed this morning that I have a hive in a 2x3 ft empty speaker on the side of my yard :shock: Yaaaaaaa... :roll: jim
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DaneConley
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Re: Herping hazard (cautionary tale)

Post by DaneConley »

I flipped my AC and 50 wasps came after me.

1 year later, they were still there.

Well I learned my lesson. NOT! I flipped it again and 50 wasps came after me. So I just lost my AC spot to the flying ants.
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