# Meat Bees



## Yvonne G (Sep 25, 2008)

Speaking of meat bees, as Laura was on another thread, does anyone know if they sting? I have 7 cats which I feed canned cat food to every evening. There can be not a single flying creature in sight, but as soon as I come out the door with the open can of cat food, I'm swarmed by the meat bees. They have a really, REALLY good sense of smell. I just wave them away, but was curious if anyone knows if they actually sting.

Yvonne


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## RTfanatic (Sep 25, 2008)

If you smell like cat food they might...


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## Yvonne G (Sep 25, 2008)

RTfanatic said:


> If you smell like cat food they might...



LOL!! I've been known to smell like horse pee and horse poop, but, thankfully, NOT cat food!! That smell almost makes me gag!

Yvonne


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## Chucky (Sep 25, 2008)

I've never been stung by them but I would guess that if you trapped one it would protect itself.


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## Jacqui (Sep 26, 2008)

Yvonne, since I had never heard of them before when I read Laura's post I looked them up. There was an article about the higher then normal numbers and thus higher reports of folks getting stung by them, including multiple bees stinging one person.

I had heard of them as Yellow jackets before, but not meat bees. Always learn something new in here.


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## Crazy1 (Sep 26, 2008)

Yvonne, I know we have meat eating bees on some land we owned in the mountains. The bees (Not yellow jackets) would come down and actually take hamburger out of a skillet as it cooked. Yes they do sting especially if you dig into their nest. These bees nested in the ground. My bother dug into a nest and was stung many times. Fortunately they do not have the length of pain time from the stings and in about 20 min. he said he felt fine. No lingering pain or anything. And they do clean bones rather well also.


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## Itort (Sep 26, 2008)

Jacqui said:


> Yvonne, since I had never heard of them before when I read Laura's post I looked them up. There was an article about the higher then normal numbers and thus higher reports of folks getting stung by them, including multiple bees stinging one person.
> 
> I had heard of them as Yellow jackets before, but not meat bees. Always learn something new in here.


 Now I know what your talking about. I grow up calling them yellow jackets and for someone with "bee sting" allergy, they are deadly. One stung my wife and she got a trip with the EMTs. It was an eyeopener to this guy who grow up feeding them as a joke.


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## Crazy1 (Sep 26, 2008)

the bees I am talking about are actual bees, they looks somewhat similar to a bumble bee small and hairy. I have always known Yellow Jackets as wasps and are peditory bugs.


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## Laura (Sep 26, 2008)

Yes! the Meat bees sting.. Nasty painful... 
and we have a cat that killed a gopher and left it on our doorstep.. we are so loved!
we tossed it on top of the garbage.. two days later.. there was a perfect intact gopher skeleton. Kinda neat actually! They were very protective of it. 
I hear if you follow the bees when they fly away.. if you can.. and find thier nest. Usually in the ground,, you can sprinkle Sevin Dust around the opening, they will land and crawl thru it, take the dust into the Nest with them and they will die off.


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## Jacqui (Sep 26, 2008)

Crazy1 said:


> the bees I am talking about are actual bees, they looks somewhat similar to a bumble bee small and hairy. I have always known Yellow Jackets as wasps and are peditory bugs.



I think the confusion may come in with the fact that there are different varieties of Yellow Jackets. If you look up the term "Meat Bees" they all say they are indeed actually Yellow Jackets.


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## Yvonne G (Sep 26, 2008)

Laura said:


> I hear if you follow the bees when they fly away.. if you can.. and find thier nest. Usually in the ground,, you can sprinkle Sevin Dust around the opening, they will land and crawl thru it, take the dust into the Nest with them and they will die off.



O-o-o-o! I wouldn't want to kill them. They aren't hurting anything.

Yvonne


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