There's honey that we collect from wild bees from the ground. We had a hive? at home in the village which someone dug out. The honey looked darker compared to I suppose the commercial one.
I didn't see if the honey was in combs or what, so I'm curious how that would look on a render like the one in the article.
Somehow, I just happened to find an underground beehive today. I was standing near it when bees were flying in and out, so I just got lucky enough for it to be almost impossible not to notice.
In the past, I enraged a hive that I think was also underground. I never saw it, but I suffered around 40 stings. The injuries sustained while running (and tripping, twice) were worse, though.
Those bees took a hat and a bucket of purple paint from me, that I never attempted to recover.
Just mask up and go back and you should be able to recover your gear. Wasps and bees do recognize individuals so if you have ever been a threat to them their guard bee will watch you closely when you are in the area. You should have no problem getting your things as long as you stay clear of the nest.
It has been brutally hot here in NTexas this summer, 110F (43.3C) yesterday and we are in a prolonged drought more than 13" (33cm) below normal precipitation for this year after ending last year more than 13.5" (34.3cm) below normal.
In order to keep insect pollinators and birds around my yard and garden I bought several solar powered fountain pumps and placed them in tubs with rocks and decaying wood so that the wasps could have water and plant fibers to build their nests. I replace everything lost to evaporation daily. These insects all apparently recognize me. I can sit beside the tub and rearrange everything inside while it fills and they buzz the tub waiting for an opportunity to land and get a drink. I have not had a single problem with any of the red wasps, yellowjackets, or paper wasps that use the tub all day. I think to them I am a necessary part of the landscape.
I sat at the tub while filling it at the beginning of the summer and watched where all the wasps and bees were coming from and returning to as they visited so I know pretty accurately where they are nesting. Doing this I discovered that one group was sheltering behind the engine cover panels of a piece of farm equipment. As it turned out I needed to do some maintenance on that engine a couple weeks ago.
I gathered my oil, air, and fuel filters, and a couple gallons (7.6l) of engine oil and raised the panel so I could get started. Sure enough there was a nest right beside the radiator fan with nearly a dozen wasps. They were all busy tending larval pods except one, the guard wasp, who oriented towards me and kept his wings in the swept-V, go position. I ignored them and went about my work removing old filters and installing new filters and then I hit the part where you have to refill the crankcase with oil.
The fill port is at the front of the engine in a location where I would have to keep my arm within 6" (15.2cm) of their nest as I poured oil into the funnel so I knew this would be the real test of whether they knew and trusted me.
I kept my motion slow and deliberate and carefully refilled the crankcase. My bare forearm was within 3" (7.62cm) of their nest for several minutes and yet none of them left the nest or made any attempt to bother me.
I am pretty sure that all those wasps know me, the sombrero guy who brings the water, and they understand that I am not gonna bother them.
I allow wasps to build nests anywhere on my place except right in the swing arc of a doorway. Experience shows that no matter how many times they see a door swing open and closed they never get used to it not being a threat so at some point one of them will drop down and tap the top of your head to let you know you have annoyed them. When wasps try to build in a doorway I remove the nest before there are two wasps and that single wasp will always find somewhere else to build.
These things have kept my garden producing all during this hot summer. Whenever I water my squash, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, herbs and fruit trees, I sometimes see a dozen wasps and bees swarming to escape the spray. Not a single one has ever buzzed or stung me even though I frequently reach into leaves to harvest.
Good luck with your wasps. Offer things that they need and they will be your friends.
Thanks! It was 9 years ago, so I'm hopeful they don't remember me. But I don't want to upset the new guard. I don't actually know where it was, either--I wasn't very familiar with my property then, and its the farthest, most inaccessible area.
I'm close to you geographically. We've had a brutal summer, as well. My spring & cistern ran out of water in July, so I've been on rainwater since then.
I'm not generally afraid of wasps or bees except at their home. I've never taken a sting from a random flyer out in a field or somewhere. The red wasps love colonizing my roofline, though. Those wasps have only hit me once, but they did get my ex-girlfriend twice, and her son once. Been years in either case.
The ones I'm most afraid of are under the propane tank lid. There's no way to get in there without pissing those guys off. So I just do it in the winter, haha.
Thanks for your comment, I enjoyed it and learned a few things.
Hey pardner. I too have some rainwater collection here at my place. I have not dipped very far into it this summer though since I only have about 1150 gallons and that would be gone a long time ago. I have a water well that we have been using this summer to keep our garden going and I am lucky that it still produces enough for us. When they drilled and started fracking all this out here about 12-15 years ago quite a few wells near me went dry or began to sand out.
This is the first year in more than 20 that I have used well water to water anything on the surface. I have always planted things and let them figure out whether they could survive on their own. That is the expensive way to start an orchard or manage a garden. I decided that I needed to do whatever it takes to keep things alive this year. Even with the rain over the last two days (meager accumulation) I am still in extreme drought conditions being more than 13" under normal average cumulative totals for this calendar day. This looks to be the driest year in more than 20 years unless we get more than 6" between now and end of the year.
With the propane tank lid you might try to screen it off with aluminum window screen to prevent access to the inside of the lid.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001670612...