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I am searching about the same problem and came up on your post. I just go certified as a yoga teacher. So I set up a little make shift yoga studio next to my little creek. I'm sitting there trying to meditate and this small bumblebee keeps landing on me and bitting me! He/she first landed on my tank top and bit me through my shirt! Then, it landed on my eye brow and BIT me!! It felt like something between a bite and a sting...huge welt on my eye now. The little punk would not be shoo'd away! I am a very critter friendly, pick up the spiders and set them outside kinda person, but this guy was relentless! I've never seen anything like it in all of my life.
I can't figure out what to do. I was flailing around as you described with little towel in hand...would have made a great youtube. I am afraid to go out there now. I don't even know where he came from.
i didn't swat or do anything toward the bee, fyi. i am a serious country girl and i know that ignoring and even saying to the bee "go on and get" works with regular bees and every other bumblebee i have come into contact with. not this guy! he means business! i just sat there and watched him land on me. when he zapped me, i got up and started smacking because he was dive bombing and landing and biting/stinging. very scary!
It may be a native solitary bee... I had one that used to chase me when I was attaching solar lights to the shed. LOL I guess its little bee house was under the shed. I looked funny running and screaming, but I am not allergic to bees...I don't think. One of my neighbor's evil European honey bees stung me, and I'm still alive.
Honestly, do you have a long extension cord and a vacuum cleaner? That's how I got rid of my wasps. Moo ha ha. If you're an animal lover, it is difficult because the insect dies of thirst really in the vacuum...but in some cases it is man against beast.
Cover yourself in clothes and wear ski goggles and gloves or something. A winter coat and long, thick pants are good. Then go after Mr. Buzzle with the vacuum. In all likelihood, if you use the long attachment on the vacuum, he'll go after that and will be a territorial little memory before you know it.
We have a bumble bee that hovers just outside our deck he's been there a couple of years now. He is always there in the warm weather. He chases other bugs away. We have no idea what he is protecting but so far he does not bother us. We sit out there in our lawn chairs right under him and he does not bother us, except sometimes he gets too close when he's chasing other insects and annoys me. Effie V.
I don't have a clue about killer or any other kind of bees, I just hope we see enough bees this year to pollinate the veggies and I want to know what to do about the wasps? a couple of nice days and they are already swarming all over the yard...
When warm weather comes around big round Bumble Bees come out at our home.Someone told us they were Wood Bees.Much larger than a regular Bumble Bee.They bore holes,big hole as large as them in your wood.
Sometimes they do act somewhat agressive.I dont like the fact that they are boreing big holes in my wooden porch rockers,also I dont want them to multiply.
I will watch and see how many are around this year and how much damage they are up to.I f they start to go overboard I will swat them down with a Fly Swat and have to kill them.
Maybe Ill look into Wood Bees and see what their purpose is other than inflecting damage.
Has anyone here mentioned that this thread is really about Carpenter Bees, not Bumble Bees - and that Bumble Bees tend to be female and sting, while the aggressive-acting, noisy bees that this thread is about are male and can't even sting you? (the female Carpenter bees can, but they're usually in some hole in some wood raising babies and aren't interested).
I admit I only read a couple pages at the start and the last post above mine before replying, so perhaps The Truth has already been mentioned somewhere herein.
BTW - irritated Bumble Bees sting, can sting multiple times, and like bees everywhere (apparently), release a pherome that tells all their BFFs to come sting, too. My Dear Ol' Ma had a bumble bee nest in front of her porch underground. She was sitting out there, a bee flew around her, instead of leaving it alone she whacked at it, it got upset and stung her twice, and before she knew it there were a bunch flying around her. She made it back into the house before THEY nailed her. An exterminator was called in (that guy had gnarled hands - good use of the word "gnarled" - and about 5000 years of experience). Anyway, he used a vacuum cleaner on their hole/nest and later told DoM there had been thousands in there...there may have been a little padding of the numbers for effect there...
I , on the other hand, had a yellow jacket nest burrowed down through some mulch around a small tree in next to my porch. As I was mowing the vibration apparently upset the residents and a few came out of the hole looking for trouble, one nailed my daughter, two nailed me, we ran into the house - later I emptied a can or two of wasp/bee spray at the hole, then dug down into the mulch/dirt somewhat later and made sure the deed was complete. Anytime since I've always kept a lookout for yellow jackets flying INTO things, like siding or logs or whatever, and make sure that particular location receives a blast or two of the same poison, not necessarily to kill them but to discourage them from nesting there - it's worked so far.
But we have a few carpenter bees all the time - my concern isn't the literally-harmless big showoffs but, instead, their female friends who are actually burrowing somewhere in some wood (I found a hole a few years back BEHIND a wood column on my porch that was, like, two inches from the wall of the house).
Speaking of big showoffs but relatively harmless bees - this year we should see LOTS of Cicada Killers - those, too, are huge, noisy, and appear so wasp-like that one can fear for one's life just seeing one - but they typically do NOT sting humans, instead preserving their venom for their cicada prey; those of us NOT allergic to bee stings have no wrorry from them - the sting has been wimply compared to a slight pin prick with a very small swelling that goes away very quickly (nothing wasp-like at ALL about it).
Sounds to me like you have a nest that you've let go for a few summers. That fat bee sounds like the queen. The fact you only see 1-3 bees is that you are seeing bees consistently.....not the same 1-3 bees. You should call an exterminator because you sound very inexperienced and you do not want to have a nest of bees attack you. I'd call an exterminator right away, and make sure that they remove the nest or the bees will keep returning. Also, this exterminator will likely need to get access to the apartment deck below you too.
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Bumble bee hovering
Glad you enjoyed the thread qwertttt
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