Hood on suit keeps getting stung

[cork beek]

I assume you remove all lthe stings before washing.

Strange they only go for the 3rd band.

When i get home, i take a look straight away to see how bad its been and take them out, but i actually go out with a friend and he can see how bad it is during the inspection. He, rearly if ever gets stung in any part of his hood.

and yes, very strange. Ive emailed BB wear so ill see what they say about it

 

[nelletap]

As well as being near your face it is possibly near your hair? not sure whether you are male or female - but I wonder whether it could be a shampoo. I had something a little similar - I changed my shower gel to one with lavender and noticed that unusually I received a sting when I was strimming (a few metres from the hives previously had no trouble and not in a flight path or anything) and then later had a sting through my suit on the arm or leg. Plus a little more buzziness - enough to make it seem thare was a definite difference in their behaviour. Now I just keep that for the winter time and things subsided to a more normal situation.

 

[Into the lions den]

and yes, very strange. Ive emailed BB wear so ill see what they say about it

I should imagine Belinda will be sitting scratching her head.

What you have shown is not at all unusual, for ANY suits we have ever had from whatever maker. Its more a function of bee type and conditions, and possibly the way you handle them and for how long.

Some bees can be extremely nasty during dearths, and most of us are in a dearth right now. Once they get started on a part of your protective clothing it gets worse and worse, as the pheromones draw more to the same spot. Veils, gloves, knee pads, whatever, can end up encrusted in stings.

Try washing the hood, and I would not bother with the 'nice smells' thing. Its YOU who finds it nice, not the bees, and they cannot tell you. All scents about clothing seems to heighten the risk of hostility. No smell............clean........is best..........better even than 'new'.........as that can have other odours on it that to us are just 'newness'.

Smoker function is critical at such times.....it must be efficient, well lit, and have a good volume of thick smoke coming from it. You have to keep the bees very much under control, and as soon as they are all over the top bars smoke again, not forgetting that entrance smoking is almost as important, to 'pin' the bees between lower and upper smoking. Not a time for feeble substitutes.

 

[cork beek]

As well as being near your face it is possibly near your hair? not sure whether you are male or female - but I wonder whether it could be a shampoo. I had something a little similar - I changed my shower gel to one with lavender and noticed that unusually I received a sting when I was strimming (a few metres from the hives previously had no trouble and not in a flight path or anything) and then later had a sting through my suit on the arm or leg. Plus a little more buzziness - enough to make it seem thare was a definite difference in their behaviour. Now I just keep that for the winter time and things subsided to a more normal situation.

Last time i checked, i was male!

and ive used the same shampoo for years and never had any problems like this. this has only started since i got the suit/hood

 

[cork beek]

I should imagine Belinda will be sitting scratching her head.

What you have shown is not at all unusual, for ANY suits we have ever had from whatever maker. Its more a function of bee type and conditions, and possibly the way you handle them and for how long.

Some bees can be extremely nasty during dearths, and most of us are in a dearth right now. Once they get started on a part of your protective clothing it gets worse and worse, as the pheromones draw more to the same spot. Veils, gloves, knee pads, whatever, can end up encrusted in stings.

Try washing the hood, and I would not bother with the 'nice smells' thing. Its YOU who finds it nice, not the bees, and they cannot tell you. All scents about clothing seems to heighten the risk of hostility. No smell............clean........is best..........better even than 'new'.........as that can have other odours on it that to us are just 'newness'.

Smoker function is critical at such times.....it must be efficient, well lit, and have a good volume of thick smoke coming from it. You have to keep the bees very much under control, and as soon as they are all over the top bars smoke again, not forgetting that entrance smoking is almost as important, to 'pin' the bees between lower and upper smoking. Not a time for feeble substitutes.

I hear what you saying, but they are bringing in nectar, i think they are getting it from blackberry/clover but they are defo bringing it in and yes i noticed when they have been nasty, esp after the rape seed had finished.

But last week i was only walking up to an apiary, i didnt even have the gate open yet and they were on me and this was after i had boiled it, rubbed soap and vaseline in to it. It was the first apiary i went to that day as well.

I not only use smoke them, but use water spray to calm them when they are flying around my head and im with someone who is en experience beek. 6+ years and over 100 hives)

 

[Into the lions den]

But last week i was only walking up to an apiary, i didnt even have the gate open yet and they were on me and this was after i had boiled it, rubbed soap and vaseline in to it. It was the first apiary i went to that day as well.

How long between visits? The more razzled up a group of bees gets the longer it takes to settle, and they can be 'on edge' for days if the have been really riled by either a previous inspection or disturbance by four legged or two legged fauna. After rough handling, or stoning, they can attack on sight for a week or more.

Right now we would not expect to visit an apiary today with the A.m.m. type bees, and NOT be met at the truck door by the first interceptors. You usually get a clue when they start to have a go at the windscreen wipers and you are not even out of the vehicle yet............

 

[cork beek]

How long between visits? The more razzled up a group of bees gets the longer it takes to settle, and they can be 'on edge' for days if the have been really riled by either a previous inspection or disturbance by four legged or two legged fauna. After rough handling, or stoning, they can attack on sight for a week or more.

Right now we would not expect to visit an apiary today with the A.m.m. type bees, and NOT be met at the truck door by the first interceptors. You usually get a clue when they start to have a go at the windscreen wipers and you are not even out of the vehicle yet............

A week and i always go out with the experience beek. they do fly around his head but like i said he doesnt get stung, but me, thats a different story, im sure they dont like me.

I should clarify as well, its HIS apiary, not mine, i go out every week with him. I have 2 hives and 3 nucs of my own and the same happens. Not as bad but thats cause mine aren't as strong as his. some of his are on double BB's and 4/5 supers!

 

[alanf]

A week and i always go out with the experience beek. they do fly around his head but like i said he doesnt get stung, but me, thats a different story, im sure they dont like me.

I should clarify as well, its HIS apiary, not mine, i go out every week with him. I have 2 hives and 3 nucs of my own and the same happens. Not as bad but thats cause mine aren't as strong as his. some of his are on double BB's and 4/5 supers!

That sounds like the basis of some elimination experiments. General principle is change only one thing at a time, changing several items is too confusing. If (when, hopefully) you find a cause change it back again to confirm.

Would he agree to swap suits? Or hoods? Do the stings continue for the suit or you?

As others suggest, wear another (borrowed?) hood. Take the suspect one along. Is it the one you're wearing or carrying?

If the stings follow the suit on your mate or being carried, wash both hoods the same way. I'm sure BB would like to know if it's only their hood. If the stings follow you then use his brand of shampoo, washing powder, soap whatever else he uses instead of your usual version.

The fact that it's the band between mesh and cloth might be significant. Warm air from your body will chimney up inside your suit and where it meets mesh is going to be the strongest concentration of any odours emerging (from washed clothes, deoderant, whatever).

 

[cork beek]

That sounds like the basis of some elimination experiments. General principle is change only one thing at a time, changing several items is too confusing. If (when, hopefully) you find a cause change it back again to confirm.

Would he agree to swap suits? Or hoods? Do the stings continue for the suit or you?

As others suggest, wear another (borrowed?) hood. Take the suspect one along. Is it the one you're wearing or carrying?

I'm fairly confident its the hood, I've changed to my half jacket and ive also put on a different hood and I was fine. But the minute I out this one back on, it gets stung.

I emailed BB wear last night about it and they rang me today, but i missed the bloody call didnt I, Blinda said she would ring me back but hasnt yet, so im hoping she will ring again tomorrow

I'll try a different hood next week to wear and bring this one along and see what happens, should be interesting!

 

[richardbees]

Cork beek

Please keep us informed....the last thing i need is to buy something already flawed

rich

 

[Into the lions den]

Cork beek

Please keep us informed....the last thing i need is to buy something already flawed

rich

I think you have nothing to fear. These are our beesuits of choice, and in any season have at least 20 of them in service. They are the best allround suit combined with value for money available.

They are also the suit selected by the Scottish bee inspectors, requested and sourced after they had tried other brands.

Cork beeks experienced is a real outlier, not in keeping with anything else I ever heard of happening in quite that way.

 

[beebreeder]

I have 4 B wear suits in service varying in age from 12 plus years to last winter, and have never had any real problems, if they want to sting they will get through any suit, sweat makes it worse, my suits are all the lightweight ones as well, just washed very regularly, I cannot speak highly enough of their service and product.

 

[oliver90owner]

Don't think any one has really mentioned breath. Probably not too popular, but it could be as simple as that. A too strong curry or too much garlic could have started the problem and now it is a target area - however much cleaned, it may appear to the bees' sense of smell, to have traces still there that the bees can detect as a warning pheromone.

 

[Chris58]

Just a thought, as mentioned, the band is the one nearest your face/skin, is it your aftershave/deoderant or something you've eaten on your breath? I get attention when I've had a beer in the early evening, think they don't like the malted small, so I've cured that problem, beer after inspections. ALso I don't wear aftershave or use strong soaps.

 

[plumberman]

In your attempts to clean the band, have you altered it's texture? There was a thread a while back where someone was using wrist sweat bands (made of towel material) to stop bees between glove and jacket. Apparently made the bees furious and they very selectively stung this.

Having said that this could again have been as much to do with lingering pheremones.

 

[Teemore]

I too suspect the stinging of that hood band is due to lingering pheromones. I have the same suit and would comment that you notice stings in the hoops as they are white and the stings stand out in contrast to them. Also the material covering the hoops is slightly more textured/rougher than the rest of the suit and i thionk that also makes some bees tasrget it (like the sweat/toweling bands referred to previously). Periodically I notice that a less well tempered colony (I know which colonies I will be requeening in the next week or two...) is stinging one or more of the hoops in the hood and even after brushing off those stings and smoking around the hood, there will be even more stings visible after visiting another disgruntled hive. The sting pheromone does linger.
I would suggest washing the hood inside the suit using washing soda crystals rather than washing powder.

 

[madasafish]

Spray the affectd area with Glade - as in uniting hint from ITLD

 

[cork beek]

just to let everyone know, BB wear rang me this morning, they are gonna replace the hood for me.

They are as perplexed as I am, they asked if i wore any gel (which i dont) i also told them that ive used the same shampoo for years, i dont put on deodorant before i go out to an inspection. I shower the night before so they smell of body wash isnt as strong the next day. (sometimes i literally get out of bed, brush my teeth and go out to do an inspection, i have my breakfast when i come home)

I dont wear aftershave, i use an electric razor so no shaving gel either.

It could be as some have suggested that there are some lingering pheromones in the band, but that wouldnt explain why they went for it on day 1

And just to answer some of the points that were brought up in other posts. I brush my teeth twice a day, so im fairly certain that i don have bad breath, i shower everyday, sometimes twice a day, i dont eat anything strong like curries, i sometime have garlic, but thats usually on bread in the evening (i dont do inspections after 6 – 7 unless its a really good day which it hasnt been cause its been raining buckets for the last few weeks over here)

These are all valid points but i and BB wear cant understand what the hell is wrong with the hood. In any case, i will be sending my hood back to them so they cant take a look at it. They also told me that they will be changing the material that they use for these bands, not because of what happened to me, but they were “looking to change it anyway”

Interesting...i wonder if many others have contacted them with something similar.

In any case, ill let ye know what happens with my hood after i send it back

Thanks for all the suggestions as well guys, appreciate it although i have to admit when i started the thread, i didnt think id be explain my personal hygiene to everyone!

 

[Andre cardona]

I have 4 B wear suits in service varying in age from 12 plus years to last winter, and have never had any real problems, if they want to sting they will get through any suit, sweat makes it worse, my suits are all the lightweight ones as well, just washed very regularly, I cannot speak highly enough of their service and product.

Iv orderd 6 suits and have no probs it mite be your oder

 

[cork beek]

Iv orderd 6 suits and have no probs it mite be your oder

doubt it, i shower every evening, sometime twice a day so im fairly clean and also, why is it that they only attack this hood and not my half jacket or a different hood that ive tried on?

no...its defo something with the 3rd band on the hood