Wow...not a good way to go

[olyinaz]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/09/ar ... ee-stings/

Good Lord, I can think of a thousand other ways I'd rather lose the fight.

[Blaine]

Must have been those Africans.....

[olyinaz]

Must have been those Africans.....

Yep, I'd bet a dollar it will turn out so.

[Blaine]

That's all there were down in Panama....I was worried the whole two years I was down there. I liked to fish, and jungle trapse....saw a swarm take down a sloth on post.....not a pretty sight...that poor bastard took an hour to die.

[Tycer]

Must have been those Africans.....

Yep, I'd bet a dollar it will turn out so.

I'll take that bet. The word "bee" is used as a catch-all to include the Honeybee ( Apis mellifera) and Wasps/Hornets (Vespidae). Honeybees are generally docile, die after one sting and even the Africanized are less prone to attack than Hornets or Yellow Jackets.

I have a call in to the medical examiner that did the autopsy of Mr. Johnson to find out. I'll report my findings.

[olyinaz]

Must have been those Africans.....

Yep, I'd bet a dollar it will turn out so.

I'll take that bet. The word "bee" is used as a catch-all to include the Honeybee ( Apis mellifera) and Wasps/Hornets (Vespidae). Honeybees are generally docile, die after one sting and even the Africanized are less prone to attack than Hornets or Yellow Jackets.

I have a call in to the medical examiner that did the autopsy of Mr. Johnson to find out. I'll report my findings.

You could be right of course, but I'm in Tucson, not N.C., where we have had a bunch of Africanized bee attacks over the last years since they arrived, and in this case the poor guy had no where to run.

Or it could be the CIA... Perfect way to take out a threat.

[Streetstar]

I feel bad for the dog too ---- dang

[jeepnik]

Sad for the gent. But at least he went doing something he loved. The dog on the other hand proves the old story.

Die in your house with your dog, and three weeks later they find the dog lying dead next to you from starvation.

Die in your house with your cat, and three weeks later they find the cat has gained weight.

[Blaine]

Or it could be the CIA... Perfect way to take out a threat

X-Files....So, it must be true

[J35]

I believe it will be Africanized bee's.

I had a few close calls with them myself in the Santa Rita's, they love to set up house in ledges and cliff's,old burrows in the ground. The only thing that saved me was the Temp, it was in the low 30's. It's a pretty sobering sound when you start to drive in a trap stake and all you here is that low HMMMMM that a colony of Bee's make when disturbed. Another time I had a Grey Fox on a limb drag that got tangled right below a large colony in the side of a small canyon, I had pulled my pistol and was taking aim when I heard that Low HMMMM again, I went back to the truck and got my 22 rifle and killed the fox from around 75 yrds.

I had a friend who lived in El Frida he kept hounds, one afternoon he heard his dogs start yelping he went out and the bee's were in full attack mode, he tried to get the kennel gates open but the bee's blinded him, he made it back inside his house and had to lay there and listen to the bee's killing his dogs.

In Arivaca there is a old family by the name of Stockwell , they have been Bee Keeper's on a large scale for 30-40 years (The old man Ed had the world record Couse deer when i left in 98) . I was in the area one day so I stopped in to get some bee's wax and the son Eddie was there so he fixed me up and we talked about Africanized bees and he said they have pretty much taken over, I believe he said they had over a thousand hives and they were all Africanized .

I remember quite a few stories on the evening news in the 90's about people being attacked or killed in the Tucson area, a lot of them were people on tractors.

---J

[Buck Elliott]

Well... Scratch another place off the list of where I might like to retire to...

Stayin' in Wyoming gets to soundin' better all the time...

[Chuck 100 yd]

No kidding!! I hate bugs of any kind.

[Mescalero]

Buck,
Long as you can cut enough wood.

[olyinaz]

No kidding!! I hate bugs of any kind.

Well that is one thing we have plenty of. Wife stepped on a scorpion in the kitchen the other day (slippers thank goodness), tarantula waltzed in the back door to have a look around the other day (shooed him back out), five inch long poisonous centipede crawled down the side of the house outside the breakfast nook the other morning (killed that sucker - hate 'em), and a rattler was sunning himself in the middle of my driveway the other day. Now that's just in the last week!

If you don't like creepy crawlies stay away from AZ, and please spread the word.

[3leggedturtle]

No kidding!! I hate bugs of any kind.

Well that is one thing we have plenty of. Wife stepped on a scorpion in the kitchen the other day (slippers thank goodness), tarantula waltzed in the back door to have a look around the other day (shooed him back out), five inch long poisonous centipede crawled down the side of the house outside the breakfast nook the other morning (killed that sucker - hate 'em), and a rattler was sunning himself in the middle of my driveway the other day. Now that's just in the last week!

If you don't like creepy crawlies stay away from AZ, and please spread the word.

Oly; I was watching a show about the rain forest, they 2 acts that gave me shivers especially the one that showed a big Centipede ambush and attack a Fer-de-lance on the head, after it bit it, hung for about a minute or so while the snake thrashed around till it died. The other was a big brownish tarantula that did the same thing to another snake. The snakes weren't small either.

[olyinaz]

No kidding!! I hate bugs of any kind.

Well that is one thing we have plenty of. Wife stepped on a scorpion in the kitchen the other day (slippers thank goodness), tarantula waltzed in the back door to have a look around the other day (shooed him back out), five inch long poisonous centipede crawled down the side of the house outside the breakfast nook the other morning (killed that sucker - hate 'em), and a rattler was sunning himself in the middle of my driveway the other day. Now that's just in the last week!

If you don't like creepy crawlies stay away from AZ, and please spread the word.

Oly; I was watching a show about the rain forest, they 2 acts that gave me shivers especially the one that showed a big Centipede ambush and attack a Fer-de-lance on the head, after it bit it, hung for about a minute or so while the snake thrashed around till it died. The other was a big brownish tarantula that did the same thing to another snake. The snakes weren't small either.

Two things: I hate centipedes and I'd say the jungle is absolutely more inhospitable than our desert. I don't mind visiting jungles on day trips, but I do not like spending the night in them. That said, look at how centipedes fare in the jungle vs. against our desert grasshopper or wolf mice:

Jungle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNlKyJejJps

Desert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcYW31N96b4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xa-GSm1P0I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyqG1rI5l70

Of course rodents dig, cause house damage, and carry a deadly plague in Arizona so we've got that going for us.

[Blaine]

*shudder* I've been nailed by scorpions in Panama, Hawaii, and AZ..Those hurt some...A centipede that was in an Army tarp I was unrolling ran up my arm and nailed my just below my left elbow..sicker than a dog for two days, and a lump the size of a gumdrop I'm planning some future living in AZ....I suppose I better get over it....Your AZ Mojave Greens have an evil reputation for a strange brew they inject.....

[olyinaz]

Holy carp! Nailed multiple times!! Man, you just won some street cred there brother.



The mo-jav does indeed have a bad rep, but frankly any rattle snake bite sounds like a full day in non-stop root canal to me. The Pacific rattler is supposedly even worse, we don't usually stock anti-venom for it in AZ, and sometimes they turn up in AZ.

[Blaine]

Holy carp! Nailed multiple times!! Man, you just won some street cred there brother.



The mo-jav does indeed have a bad rep, but frankly any rattle snake bite sounds like a full day in non-stop root canal to me. The Pacific rattler is supposedly even worse, we don't usually stock anti-venom for it in AZ, and sometimes they turn up in AZ.

I seem to attract that riff-raff....During my land surveying, and water company jobs, I was getting nailed by wasps, and hornets on a regular basis. Sliced thru a basketball-sized nest with the machete while brushing line one time...and, the little bastards will follow you like you own them money

[awp101]

Well that is one thing we have plenty of. Wife stepped on a scorpion in the kitchen the other day (slippers thank goodness), tarantula waltzed in the back door to have a look around the other day (shooed him back out), five inch long poisonous centipede crawled down the side of the house outside the breakfast nook the other morning (killed that sucker - hate 'em), and a rattler was sunning himself in the middle of my driveway the other day. Now that's just in the last week!

Pish posh! We have stinging caterpillars (Puss Moth Caterpillar aka Asp)! I got hit by one a few years ago while mowing...

[jeepnik]

Geesh, all I've got around here are Black Widows and Brown Recluses. Some tiny centipedes, but I doubt they would do more than cause a slight irritation. Then again, most of you don't have to contend with jelly fish, Portuguese man of wars, and the odd occasional shark. I've managed to avoid the man of wars, and the sharks, but the darned jelly fish have lit me up a time or two.

[Mescalero]

I have heard that really hurts.

[jeepnik]

I have heard that really hurts.

Yep, but, don't laugh, urinating on it helps. Not sure why, but it does. Of course today if we just did that on the beach like we did as kids, you'd be arrested and made to register as a sex offender. Heck, I'm surprised no one has been accused of sexual assault for doing CPR.

[olyinaz]

By the way, the Coroner has confirmed that it was death by bee venom from multiple stings.

Also, this today a few miles from my place: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/51859876/ns/l ... ZA5FbXCZ8E

I love bees and don't fear them, but the Africanization has really made them far more aggressive in these parts than they used to be (no pun). It's too bad because a lot of people are terrified of bees and these kind of news articles don't help.

Oh well, like I said - terrible way to go.

[Blaine]

If bees get stung, do they get hives?

[92&94]

I feed centipedes to the chickens

First job I had after college was down in Mexico. Our camp manager was a guy about my age, one day he caught a scorpion and a praying mantis. Put them together in a jar to see which would eat the other, they were a good match for size. No contest. The mantis grabbed the tail of the scorpion, grabbed the head, and proceeded to eat everything in between.