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Author Topic: Airport Trailer or how to get stung by something other than bees.  (Read 2580 times)

Offline Understudy

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I received an e-mail from our president of our association. It was a copy of an email from the Florida Dept of Health asking about doing a removal at Palm Beach Int. Airport.

I tried to reply back to the original sender only to have the email blocked by the stated wonderful email system. I called the phone number and spoke to the contact and made arraignments to get clearance to the airport and survey the situation.

I then called the state IT department to get on why my email was block. They weren't just blocking my email, they were blocking all the email servers from my ISP. Not because they spammed them, but because they had not registered with the state. Did I mention my ISP was in England. So I had to do a dance of messages between my ISP and the State to remove the blocks on the mail servers. This ended up taking over about a week.

Back to the cut out. The Dept of Health had a trailer at the airport to monitor air quality. They were removing the trailer. Under the trailer was a very nice hive. The bees were pretty docile and I made arraignments with airport personal to get clearance and a schedule made up. 

I returned to the airport loaded for a cut out. Now I have done under trailer cut outs. They are a pain because you have to lay on your back for a while and you really can't wear a veil.
So across the dirt I lay as I start cutting comb and moving bees. Then all of the sudden I fell like I am getting stung on my back. I thought okay maybe I laid on some bees. Then I am getting stung on the arms and shoulders and there are no bees there. Then I realize I am covered in ants....fire ants. This is not going to be a fun cut out. I was laying on top of an ant hill.

I put on my TyVek suit and went back to dealing with bees. I will later end up looking like I had an acne problem from when I was teen from the ant bites.

The cut out went well after that. I did not spot the queen but I think I got her because the bees moved into the hive box pretty quickly.

Pictures can be seen here.
http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/thumbnails.php?album=143

Sincerely,
Brendhan



The status is not quo. The world is a mess and I just need to rule it. Dr. Horrible

Offline JP

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Re: Airport Trailer or how to get stung by something other than bees.
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2008, 12:02:58 am »
What's up with the fireants, they got your number buddy? :-D Looks like a lot of bees. Hey Brendhan, do you ever use a beevac?

Good job on the cut-out!


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Offline Understudy

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Re: Airport Trailer or how to get stung by something other than bees.
« Reply #2 on: April 24, 2008, 12:07:36 am »
Yes I use a bee vac for tight places.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

The status is not quo. The world is a mess and I just need to rule it. Dr. Horrible

Offline Scadsobees

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Re: Airport Trailer or how to get stung by something other than bees.
« Reply #3 on: April 24, 2008, 09:23:15 am »
I had my first experience with fireants a couple weeks ago on vacation.  Within 5 minutes of getting into the campground my 8yr started yelling and hopping around, he had been looking at something in the bushes and accidentally kicked open and stood on on ant nest!  They were crawling all up his pants (yes, he had ants in his pants!)

The nasty critters are everywhere in the campground!  I got a couple of bites/stings and they itched for 2 weeks, they are finally healing.  I really wouldn't want to lay down on one of those nests, that is sure!!!

Rick
Rick