Hi ROME K/G.
Yep, those MEN did it hard over there - and you never knew when most of those were going to be coming at you. At least you could see the rain. The rest, you didn't know about 'em until they hit you.

HATZOFF to all service personnel, past and present, and thank you for your service.

A merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous new year to all.

Just my 0.02.

yep ive heard of that happening and a root comes up and says g'day to the sump. gotta watch that sweeping up wattle suckers and already pushed timber with wheel tractors and a front blade. dozers tend to have belly protection most wheel tractors dont. most sweeping up ive done involved using a 3pl spring tine trash rake and you just tickled the ground going backwards or drove over the felled material and dragged it into windrows. taking care you dont stake a tire (use old hard tires harder to stake em new ones seem to attract it like a magnet)

keloz yes bees are attracted to bright colours the main one being yellow. which of course most equipment is painted for safety which by the way people's attention is attracted too aswell.
when we worked with bees at school the teacher told us to wear light dull colours. hence why most beekeepers clothing is white or light tan. native bees arent as aggressive but they certainly where all over us when we cut down a iron bark that had a nest in it. we raided some of the honey are repositioned a piece of the log containing the nest to save it and were sucessful in keeping it going. they had a hate on for the chain saw and the person holding it.

Hi, Folks.
I'm no bee - although some have called me a 'B' at times - and so I don't know what turns 'em on but an 'oldtimer' told me that it was the exhaust sound of the old N/A engines that attracted them, especially if they had a muffler. Apparently, there was a 'drumming' note from the muffler that 'got 'em'. He also told me that you could get a swarm of bees down out of a tree by banging not to violently but rapidly with wooden stick on a tin bucket or tub.

I dunno. I never tried it.

Apparently they don't like the smell of sweat either, especially horse sweat. They will often attack a sweaty horse for no visible reason.

I had 6 hives of Australian native bees in my back yard in Hervey Bay. Queensland, for several years from a clearing job that I did locally. For those who don't know them, they are about the size of a house fly, BLACK and don't have a sting. They apparently can bite, about like a small ant. They don't make honeycomb but store their honey in brown wax sacks joined together in random fashion. Their honey is about 1 1/2 times the nutritional value of normal 'domestic' bee honey with a flavour that can vary somewhat according to where they are gathering but most of it seems to have an element that puzzles the heck out of people unless they have ever tasted the malt flavouring used in milk shakes. Even then, it often takes a while for the penny to get to the bottom.

Trainzkid88, as fer 'aggression', I would suggest that the main reason you think they aren't as aggressive is 'coz you've never been stung by one - not surprising since they don't have stings.

Just my 0.02..

I have read bears are one of the oldest of the critters that love to rob honey from the bees. Bees have learned you need to sting a bear in the face around the mouth, nose, and eyes to have any hope of chasing bear off. So they also figured out there is co2 in this area. So the thinking is they look for co2 and attack in that area. All this was used to explain why they would attack the exhaust pipe on tractor.


I have never had a run in with honey bees, but many with Yellow Jackets or meat bees. They generally build there home in the ground. Not uncommon to disturb them doing fall tillage here. With dust and a 3 MPH speed have been lucky and got away unstrung. In this situation I have seen them fly into the exhaust pipe on purpose. But other days the yellow jackets have had there turn.

Hi, Ray54.
Our DowNunda 'domestic' honey bees have never had to contend with your 'nasty, honey-stealin' bahrs' within their lifetimes - or indeed for hundreds of their generations - but they were introduced to Downunda from Europe and could have LONNNNGGGGGG genetic memories and so retained their sting.

I do like 'domestic' bee honey but that DowNunda native bee honey is a whole nuther level of DELICIOUS. Itza LOTTT easier to get out of the brown wax sacks that they store it in too. A few of those sacks can contain up to a level teaspoonful each. It'd hafta be pretty cold to get more than a level teaspoon of it 'coz it's more 'runny' than domestic bee honey.

Just my 0.02..

oh yeah they bite. i havent been bitten but i know others that have. yes they dont produce much honey but its delicious particulary from ironbark flowers and very sweet hence the other name form em is sugar bag bees. ive had them go swimming in my drink fished em out and slowly they came back around. our neighbor had a few bush bee hives rescued from trees hed cut down. they are very important species as they are one of the few things that can pollinate many of the native wild flowers as the flowers are too small for european bees.

Hi, trainzkid88.
The other thing about native bees is that they don't only make their hives in trees. Cracks in rocks are another favorite place and Telecom in-ground junction boxes are apparently highly sought after as native bee real estate too.

Just my 0.02.

there not the only creatures the like telco pits. electrical pillar boxes are a favourite for ants and the gekos are drawn to the ants. the local bee club post video regularly of bee hive relocations. i think the considerations are cool dark places that are sheltered from wind and rain. the bloody paper wasps seem to love yellow equipment for homes too.