Beware the insects

[Glenn]

And when the bees wake up, they have a monstrous hang over, reek of smoke, and are looking for revenge.

Consider a side blast forge, this way when you crank up the air, they get a direct route into the fire. They don't add much in the way of fuel, but they are not coming back mad either.

[pete46]

YES PEACE THROUGH SUPERIOR FIRE POWER !
I LIKE IT!

[Hollon]

I know this is sort of off topic, but is anyone else witnessing a HUGE amount of those Crane Flies/large mosquito looking things/skeeter eaters/whatever else they are called. Does anyone know what Im talking about?

[jayco]

Originally Posted by JerryCarroll

James--you wanna trade for some of our blood thirsty skeeters and black flies?? We got some healthy black gnats that like to drink outta the corner of eyes too just when you got a hot piece lined up for punching on the anvil! These ain't no-see-ums like around the chicken house "down home in Harlan".

They don't have stingers?.........Do they?

[jayco]

Luckily, so far, the nights have been cool and we've not had much trouble with skeeters and gnats and stuff like that,.....but when the nights get warmer,.....look out!

I didn't make it to my shop to do battle with the giant bees today, but soon there will be confrontation.I still don't know if the bees were indeed attempting to build a nest in my blower pipe or were just attracted to the sound of the whirring blades.

Even though I'm a 'live and let live' kinda guy, if they are hostile.........I shall be hostile as well.

All this talk of bees reminds me of something that happened when I was a kid.......
Have you ever heard that if you throw a rock into a hornet's nest it(the rock) will come back and hit you right between the eyes?
Well, I'd heard that saying.....and thought..........'well that's just silly!'
So....one day I happened onto a hornet's nest hanging on a low tree limb and decided to test the validity of the old saying.

I was probably 30 ft. from the hornet's nest........I picked up a rock.....threw it and hit the nest dead on target.

One second later.....something hit my upper lip.......and I felt severe pain.
For an instant, I thought the rock had somehow come back and hit me.
It turn out that the hornet is capable of retracing the trajectory of a thrown object back to it's source.

I guess his aim was off a little ....4 inches low........but I went to school all the next week with a swollen upper lip.
Some things you just gotta learn the hard way, I reckon.

James Flannery

[pete46]

tempt fate MUCH!?

[philip in china]

I have a block of wood next to my drill press. It has holes drilled in it to take bits, chuck key etc. Yellow jackets love those holes. If I see one go into a hole I just push a drill in behind him.

[BeaverDamForge]

At least there ARE bees this year...

Good Luck!

[GOATMAN]

I noticed these little mud-tunnels running up my walls in a few locations (TERMITES!). This is a wooden structure with a dirt and gravel floor; there is a “foundation” of pressure treated wood about a foot high off the dirt. My strategy has been to scrape the adobe tunnels off, dig the dirt up next to the wall a few inches deep, and sprinkle BORAX next to the wall. Any time I have untreated wood setting directly on the floor, I sprinkle (dump) borax under it. Haven’t seen them come back, yet…..

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

Originally Posted by solvarr

Anyone else having infestation problems?

Mice are always a problem... but that's been covered here somewhere before...

We got a nice mess with mosquitoes already. Illinois River's been backed up, backwaters are flooded and making prime breeding grounds for all sorts of buzzing, humming, flying monsters.

On another wildlife note, I haven't seen Mr. Toad or Ms. Dove yet this year. Usually Mr. Toad crawls out from under my shelfs about late April/early May and manages to be underfoot for the rest of the summer. He'd been around for the last few years though, so age mighta finally caught up with him.
I usually see Ms. Dove getting her nest back together about the same time (she's particularly fond of the post tops on the north side of the shop). No matter how loud I get, she just sits right there on her nest. I figure she's either deaf or possibly the only creature in the world more stubborn than I am

-Aaron @ the SCF