Subject: Help identify please

From: [email-masked] (Elizabeth Tubbs)
Date: 21 Jul 1996 15:05:44 GMT

Yesterday while mowing field my husband was attacked and stung a lot by 
the bees that we can not identify . He did not disturb them but only went 
by where they were and he did not know where they were till after this 
happened , well any way they  built their nest so to speak in a bluebird 
house and the only thing in there were thes corn puff things maybe they 
were eggs and these grubs and one very large grub, if it was a future 
queen it was huge.

I know what hornets look like and yellow jackets and these bees were not 
them we are in Maryland , USA and could they be the African I had not 
heard about them in the area yet.

they look like a honey bee but colored like a bumble bee but they were 
not a bumble bee either any help appreciated we did keep some in a 
plastic bag in the freezer.

Elizabeth

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From: [email-masked] (Paul Petty)
Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 09:55:24

>Elizabeth

Your description of the nest sounds like bumblebees.  The inside of the nest 
is just a messy looking pile of egg cases (to someone used to the orderliness 
of honeybees).  I'm not an expert at identifying the bees, (there are lots of 
different kinds), but they do tend to be quite fuzzy looking.

Paul

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From: [email-masked] (Elizabeth Tubbs)
Date: 22 Jul 1996 21:24:49 GMT

They were indeed a type of bumble bee I had no idea ther were more than 
one type, I took them to the Govt. Farm and the bee dept. identified them 
for me and said they hate noise, we will stay clear of them in the future.

Thanks for your information I believe he said only the females sting , 
wouldn't you figure us women cause all the trouble.

Elizabeth