[at-l] Not OT at all - Dangerous turtles?

[saunterer@jimbullard.org (saunterer@jimbullard.org)]

At 11:22 AM 07/03/2002 -0400, DTimm65344@aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 07/03/02 10:51:27 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
>saunterer@jimbullard.org writes:
>
>
>>The only thing I've been "attacked" by when hiking was ground bees.  There
>>was a nest in the trail (the nest is underground with a small entrance that
>>is a hole in the dirt about the diameter of your thumb) and when I walked
>>over it, it riled them.  They chased me for quite a ways and were true
>>kamakazi types.  They had no fear of being swatted.  Their one and only
>>objective was to sting me which 4-5 succeeded in doing.
>
>
>Had the same problem in my backyard when I relandscaped it.  The previous 
>owners had put in railroad tie steps which I replaced with stone 
>steps.  Problem was that the ground bees had nested in the old 
>steps.  Became a long process of stirring them up, running away for a 
>while, coming back and moving the step a bit further which stirred them up 
>again, etc.  Even with the running away, got stung about a dozen times 
>across a weekend.

To keep it trail related the incident I related was one of 4 experiences 
with these creatures, 2 of which were in my yard.  My wife got nailed 
mowing the lawn the first time and a friend's daughter later that day.  The 
second time one of the dogs stumbled onto it, then me when trying to find 
out what was ailing the dog. Hardware storms sell a pressure can of foam 
beeicide (invented word) which you shoot into the entrance of the nest 
after sundown when they've settled for the night.  I'm not one for poisons 
as a rule but these things are truly vicious and I don't want them in my 
yard so I swallow my ecological rationalization pills and go for it when 
confronted with a nest of ground bees.  On the trail I just give them a 
wide berth.

sAunTerer