Hornets, Wasp, and Bees.

[Allen]

If there's a next time you could just build a small fire as close to the swam as possible, maybe more than one fire. Bee's don't like smoke and would leave. Usually when you see honeybee's on a limb like that they are moving from one place to another. Obviously they aren't going to make a hive there in the open.

Conditions may have been different for you though. None of us were there and the size of the swam may have made for unusual circumstances as well.

At least they are gone.

[fguffey]

If the SIG was used in a crime, then it will be documented and destroyed.

I agree, they knew he had the gun when he shot the officer, they knew he did not have the gun when the found him, so they went on a gun hunt. I do not believe they have any interest in telling the suspect they have possession of the firearm. No one put me in charge of the pistol when it was found, no one put me in charge of security at a shopping center next to my house when I heard a sound that should not have been there. 4:AM, I had gone out front to get my newspaper, that is when I heard noise in the shopping center that should not have been there. I came back into the house, thought about it and wondered if I should take a gun of not. I decided against it, I drove about 100 yeads and found 2 thieve stealing wire. I called 911, I felt silly afterwards, but I started giving the 911 operator a description and then she asked me who put me in charge of security at the shopping center, and if I was not asked drive around looking for burglars, I had no business there. It got better, she asked me what the name of the shopping center, that is when I realized I was getting nowhere. I told her I would drive around to the front of the building to get the name and then I told her I would drove around until I found a policeman in a police car. I hung up, I started to exit the shopping center when 2 squads drove in.

They stopped next to my pickup, first thing I said was "I did not bring a gun" and then they smiled, anyhow, the two that I found in the back of the store did not go inside to warn their help. The two Patrolmen went into the busted back door and found 11 assistants to the 2 I found.

As for me and any consideration I will assure everyone as soon as the pistol was found it was going to the Police Department even if we had to take it to them.

Back to 911: I reminded the 911 operator they had searched the neighborhood for a pistol, I informed her we found it, I explained to her we donated an auto, I explained to her the driver of the wrecker found the pistol, he picked it up and handed it to me. I told her how proud I was of the wrecker driver; he had many chances to take the pistol and we would have never known. She went off on me about fingerprints, same 911 operator. I tried to tell her that pistol was never designed to yield fingerprints. The auto was parked on a hill, ever time it rained water came from the roof and blasted the pistol with dirt, grit and leaves. And then I told her the gun was not loaded and no one has touched the clip.

My wife and I waited for someone to contact us about picking it up, we had to leave, we were so proud when we returned, in front of the house was a squad car with two patrolmen. They walked around the house, they bagged the pistol and then made a report. It was about that time it turned into the good old times. They knew policemen in the neighborhood that we knew and then there are those she has made cookies for during Christmas.

My neighbor, at the time was a lawyer, the next day after the shopping center theft, I went next door to inform him. I told him I decided not to take a gun. He said that was a very wise decision, he claimed he could not defend me had thing gone wrong, because I left the house looking for a gun fight and found one.

F. Guffey

[fguffey]

If there's a next time you could just build a small fire as close to the swam as possible, maybe more than one fire

I have a bee smoker, never used it for anything but for calming bees.

I noticed your

"Let's go Brandon"

, we have two grandsons attending Alabama and a granddaughter attending Ole Miss, this is the last year for the grandsons. Our son thinks the world of Gene Stallings.

F. Guffey

[fguffey]

The biggest problem, as you well may know, is they pack every hole they can find with mud. Your air tools, hose ends, etc., can end up needing a cleaning every time you use them. I have to put tape or a plastic bag on small openings.

I was involved in a conversation with a Japanese gunsmith about 'the Japanese strongest rifles in the world' years ago. I thought he was most helpful. And then he said I should be happy about the 30 Cal. bees we have in the states, he said he was surrounded with 20 Cal. bees, that is when he basically said the same thing you said only, he added the part about the guarantee, the 20 Cal. bees do not miss anything.

F. Guffey

[Allen]

Stallings was a great coach but you got to admit Sabin is pretty good too.

I use to work in Miss. I probably saw more Alabama bumper stickers there than in Alabama.

And yes, like the liberal NBC reporter announced at the Talladega Speedway "Let's Go Brandon".

[fguffey]

Stallings was a great coach, but you got to admit Sabin is pretty good too.

I could say "You should have been there" but if I did, I would be lying. My son was a Texas fan until his oldest son received an offer from Alabama Baseball as a pitcher. And now we are all Alabama fans, it is easy for us to root for all things Alabama. Gene Stallings was a neighbor and attended the same church. The first thing we think of when we think of Gene Stallings is his son John Mark.

And that is the reason "you should have been there", Alabama lost, I was in a restaurant in Mobile, Alabama minding my own business when a man started in on Gene Stallings, he went on and on and then I interrupted him. I ask him if he knew Gene Stallings, he said yes so, I asked him to tell me about Gene Stallings (He had an audience). He started with the Junction Boys and coaching at A&M and the Cowboys and then stopped as though that was all there was to know. When finished I reminded him, he assured me he knew Gene Stallings. I assured him that anyone that know Gene Stallings is going to know about his son John Mark, he is also going to know about God and family, and he is going to know about
Ben Hogan. Gene Stallings finished up at A&M as a therapist. That was when Ben Hogan had his wreck, all had given up hope, Byron Nelson and Bens friends surrounded Ben's bed, all wishing him well and then they left leaving Gene Stallings alone with Ben. Stallings walked up to Ben and started to introduce himself. He hardly had a chance to finish before Ben told him how it was going to be. He told Stallings "You are the student; I am the teacher". After that all Stallings could do was hang on, he has never said it was easy. I was finished with my meal and thought it was a good time to leave because the place was very quiet.

If someone wants to add football, they can start somewhere around #5 or #6, we have known players that played for him like Josh Niblett, the former coach at Hoover Alabama.
My longest day: I was in Selma when the march began, I was in Motgomery when it came to an end, at the beginning of that day I had no friends. By the end of that day, I had 6 hard earned friends, those are the best kind. They never took me to Talladega but there was nothing they did not teach me about being a good spectator at the dirt track/flat track oval.

F. Guffey

[Art]

Any type of hydrocarbon will kill them instantly. I don't see why WD-40 wouldn't kill them too.

I have a friend who uses WD-40 on wasps of all kinds. It does work.

[fguffey]

I had two older brothers, and three younger ones. The older brothers found a bumblebee hive in a large old barn. The bees were located underneath a pile of lumber, for some reason that was enough information to arouse their curiosity, they could not leave the bees alone. They made a set of paddles that were very similar to ping-pong paddles. With nothing more that the paddles and an ideal they started on the bees. The ideal was to swat the bees with the paddles as soon as they got air born. It did not take long before they became overwhelmed. They headed for the house. They made a few inquiries about their paddle failure. They were told the bees were escaping the paddles by flying around them. They were told to drill holes in the paddles, the holes would allow the air to flow through the paddles and increase the chances to hit the bees.

The next morning, they got a new fresh start. My two brothers had more sucess, but the bees still overwhelmed them and then that caused another retreat to the house: problem, dear old dad was headed to the barn to check on his oldest children. He never looked up, one son passed dad on the right and the other passed him on the left with the bees in the middle. The bees hit dad from head to toe, the surprise laid him on his back. He recovered and then joined his sons to the house.

I thought they should have applied the 'leaver policy' the bees had never bothered anyone, or anything so just leave them alone. Dad knew those two boys were not going to give up, so he got involved. That night he took a quart of gasoline to the hive and poured it down the hole. Another morning, bright and early they started over, they started moving the stack of planks/wood and then here comes the bees. They could not fly so they walked out of the hole and up every leg they could find. Olde dad and his oldest 2 sons started ripping off cloths.
The bees finally lost.

They almost orphaned us on another occasion. Dad was working on his 38 Chevrolet knee-action suspension 4 door auto while his two oldest had nothing to do. I do not know why they were curious, but they found some loaded ammo somewhere. With only shotguns and 22 rifles they started to devise a method to busts the ammo off. The tools were with dad, so they found a brick and then headed for the toolbox. They selected a shop hammer then placed a loaded round on the brick and then shattered the brick. Dear old dad almost tore the auto up getting out from under it. He had no clue what caused the noise. Serious? I had 5 brothers and 4 sisters. The only thing I could imagine dad was thinking. I got to get these kids off this farm and take them to town.

16 Years later Bruce Hodgdon came to our house, He exonerated all involved and then put the blame on a bullet maker named Sisk.

F. Guffey

[dogtag]

Wasps are yellow long and skinny, Yellow jackets are nasty
Hornets are small, Bees mind their own business and Bumble Bees are cute.
They can all sting if provoked (Yellow Jackets don't need provoking)
Bees die after stinging as it tears their abdomen out because sting is shaped like a corkscrew.

[dryheat]

That seems pretty accurate. You know your bees.

[fguffey]

I took a load of bees? down to Port Lavaca, on the way down I was accused to importing very large killer looking bees. I was purchasing gas when I was asked to leave, and they wanted me to take the bees with me. I did not know if the bees followed me or decided to take a break while stretch their wings. I could not deny they were hovering over my p/u and the logs I was hauling. I paid my bill and then left, out of fear of losing one of the bees I drove slow for about two blocks.

The big bees were cicada killers, up until that trip I did not know they existed, I have raised cicadas all of my life. I helped my father-in-law build a sawmill and agreed to help him find logs to saw. The logs were cedar and pecan, friends in east Texas warned me about Copper Head and Coral snakes around the logs, no one said anything about large bees. I warned my father-in-law, I checked on him after unloading for two weeks, he said the bees did not make it to Port Lavaca.

Back to the hornet yellow jackets, I still have them, but I have found another nest in my back yard. And now I wonder if my neighbors are benefiting from my hornets. What would the world be like without them (hornets)?

[Allen]

Strange, I have mentioned the "cicada killer wasp" here on this forum before. I have seen only one but saw it in action stinging a racket making cicada up in a tree, falling to the ground with it, climbing and dragging up top of a watermelon that was parked in the yard, then flying off with the pest. You could see them for quite a distance as they flew off. These are large wasp obviously but are still smaller than the cicada.

https://animalcorner.org/animals/cicada-killer-wasps/

[fguffey]

Strange, I have mentioned the "cicada killer wasp" here on this forum before.

Had I known I would not have mentioned the cicada killers, I was hesitant to mention them today because I do not know what the cicada killer eats when it is not eating cicadas. Around here the cicada is seasonal. We have grub worms; I have thought about using grub worm poison many years ago but then I had to wonder about the cicadas attached to the roots of all of our trees.

When raising birds, I had to determine what they ate and then I discovered silkworms. Raising silkworms. that starts with 'all you got to do is etc.'. The first thing I had to do was find mulberry trees, lots of mulberry trees and I had to find owners of the trees that wanted the trees trimmed, lots and lots of work.

F. Guffey

[Allen]

Where there's mulberry trees there's purple bird crap on absolutely everything.

As you know, the cicada lives in the ground for 17 years, comes out, sheds it's skin (often seen on the side of trees), climbs up in the trees, makes a hell of a racket which is their mating call, lays eggs in the small ends of branches, the branches fall off, eggs hatch, they tunnel in the ground and live for 17 years.

No ones going to miss them if you poison them. If birds eat them they don't eat near enough.

[fguffey]

As you know, the cicada lives in the ground for 17 years,

There is a chance I will have to start over, I have green cicadas and I have brown cicadas, I have been lead to believe the green ones are 15 years old and the brown ones are 17 years old. 50 years ago my wife and I planted a few trees, we could have made better choices but at the time I knew nothing about a man named Silverstine. The first tree to start failing was the Arizona Ash. That was when neighbors started telling me what I should do about the ugly tree. I explained to my critics I was raising woodpeckers. I took the time to explain to them woodpeckers did not build nest to raise their young, woodpeckers hammer out holes in in wood that is easy to chisel holes in. It took a few years but eventually the tree would not support the holes.

I did not have a sign advertising the woodpeckers, parents and children noticed there was always at least three families of woodpeckers in the old ugly tree. Day after day mothers would stop in front of the house with their children and watch the wood peckers raise their young. We found out wood peckers will not tolerate other woodpeckers of their own species but will live in the same tree with other species.

And then came 'show and tell' at the neighborhood elementary school.

F. Guffey