Ground bees

[Riverrose28]

My husbands 28 year old gelding came in for breakfast yesterday morning and his sheath was swollen. On observation there were three stings, one still had the stinger in, I pulled it out and hosed with cool water then applied triple antibiotic lotion, fed him and put him back out. We repeated the treatment last night and his sheath looks better, but, this morning when he came in for breakfst his left eyelid was swollen. red area just above the lashes, I went to the farm supply and bought some teremycin and applied to the eye and the lid. It is still very swollen, should I apply cold compresses, keep up with the teremycin or call the vet? HIs other eye is fine, but this one is swollen shut. also how do I get rid of the ground bees other then gas?

 

[bevann]

Try placing hot wet tea bags on his eye.It may draw out whatever is making it swell.Gas&fire is the only thing I know to get rid of ground bees.Be very careful.ground bees can be very deadly if there are lots of them.they are very visicious and sting lots.

 

[Riverrose28]

Thanks Bev, I din't think about tea bags, we have some and hubby is home now to help. I'll wait till I put them in for night feeding then look for them, I'll go out in the ranger as I have four acres to look for them. Daughter said to put gas in the hole and set on fire. I kept him in this morning for a few hour till he could open the eye a little, he's old and I was afraid for him to go out in the sun with limited vision. The swelling is going down some, but not enough, seems the bees must be in an area where he likes to graze. I've been fighting varments all year. I opened a electric panel to reset a breaker for my electric fence after a storm and was standing on a chair, wouldn't you know the front fell off and there was a hornet nest in there, I almost had a heart attack. We went ot split fire wood and stack and there was another nest in the pvc pipe. Dang critters! Getting too old to fight critters!

 

[HGFarm]

Oh no, poor old guy! Ow! My mama used to make a paste of baking soda & water and apply to stings....

 

[Miniv]

Plain Benedryl (without the additives) may help for your old fellow. He's been stung several times now and the bee venom can build in his system.

When killing a hive, it's best to do it at night when the bees are asleep. You have less risk for being stung and be more assured that all the bees are back to "homebase".

 

[JAX]

I know nothing of ground bees but have always been told never to pull out a stinger by grabbing it. The stinger has a small bulb full of poison at the end, by grabbing it you are pushing more venom into the victim. You are supposed to scrape it out with a credit card or razor blade, just dont grab the end of it. Of course if ground bees are different I have not a clue... We do have paper wasps that live in the ground here, nasty buggars!! Hope your guy is doing better. Oh and I agree that you should only go after them at night!! Safer that way!

 

[Riverrose28]

Thanks guys, the stinger that was still in his sheath I did scrap off, his sheath is getting much better. The eye is another problem, it is still swollen, the eye itself looks Ok and I don't see a stinger just a small round red spot. It must have been itching last night as he rubbed it and now has a small rub spot just under. Hubby and I went out in the ATV last night just before dusk to see if we could get the ground bees to show themselves, then gas them, but couldn't find the nest. I'm going to put horses up before dusk tonight and redo the looky lou. Hopefully we can find them and get rid of them before they do any more damage as all the horses in that pasture are oldsters.

 

[Sue_C.]

Be darned careful...I was reading somewhere about a ground bee or wasp nest that was HUGE...like around 3-5 feet in width/length.

 

[SampleMM]

I have used Benadryl in the past for what I believed to be several bee stings. Geez, it's going to be hard to keep him from rubbing unless you tie him.