Tell me if you've had this prob, and what you did about it: I was making the most of a sunny day layin' on some bondo-type glaze on the Effie, sanding it in and attracting the attention of bees. My project is outdoors, in a neighbor's driveway aside a bunch of bushes. Admittedly, I'm a ninny when it comes to things that sting, so I'd dart out of the way, waiting for the coast to clear (ninny). Don't know if it's the filler dust that bothers them, or if they're attracted to the smell. Either way- what the hell?! Anything I can do to avoid it? My co-worker said they sense fear and are drawn towards it. At least I'm not allergic to 'em. I think... Sound familiar to any of you? BTW, for those that still ask, the Phantom Helper is still at it. I'm not about to stop 'em either. Don't tell the neighbors, 'kay? Actually, I'm now wondering if it's my gf's son, Luke (15), who likes to pull pranks, even in the production way. It'd be a funny turn of events, too, since I've been telling him all about it.
Go by late one night and soak that tree with the harshest wasp/hornet spray you can find. That ought to take care of them the next time you are out there. I hate those fuckers. "Ignore it and it will leave you alone!" BULLSHIT. Tell that to the kid that got stung on his face every year in grammar school, because he ignored it.
Hey I had this same problem today. Had 3 bees some annoy me while I was spray painting. One got stomped, another got painted with ACE rust-stop in ruddy brown color, and the other got away.
[ QUOTE ] another got painted with ACE rust-stop in ruddy brown color [/ QUOTE ] So now you got yourself a trad B?
This is aninteresting post..I have noticed that the SOUNDS of air tools attract stinging wasps etc...is it just my wasps or is it universal?also once her at my home I was up early doin work with the door open on the side next to the 100 acres of timber north of the shop.....after a while of running the 5" sander -I "called up"an angry Buck deer pawing and scraping-shakin his rack! It was crazy -but did happen.
I've had the same problem ,but only with paint;bees aspecially wasps are very nosy and seem to always be drawn to new smells.usually i just jump around swatting at them then find something to hit them with,that usually works for me.since you 're working near some bushes there could be a nest in those bushes that there protecting.
Knew I could count on HAMB'ers. Thinking of trying that spraying-the-bushes idea. Sounds attracting bees/hornets, that I hadn't heard. Never encountered this before, but then the work was in a friend's garage for so long. Spiders were problems there. This'll be interesting when I've got the air compressor going, later, for primer (hopefully later this week). Will post updates soon. Gotta get back to Work.
This is gonna sound weird but I have also noticed that airborne insects like bright colors also, like red and yellow. Were you wearing a yellow Von Dutch trucker hat while doing the body work? We always have bee problems in my area and soaking the bush/tree with some killer will definately work. As mentioned earlier do it at night.
Colorwise, I've noticed that flies land on the white parts of my car more often than the blue parts. Weird, eh?
[ QUOTE ] This is gonna sound weird but I have also noticed that airborne insects like bright colors also, like red and yellow. [/ QUOTE ] Not so weird when you consider how an insects eyes work. They are geared toward bright colors. Flowers are not bright colors just for the beauteous aspect, rather as a signal to the pollinating bees etc. Didn't take us long to learn not to wear the yellow Yamaha jerseys when riding dirt bikes. Take note of what happens to yellow cars in the early evenings during summer rod runs. They'll be covered with flying bugs in pedestrian mode and the other cars will be pretty much left alone. I have heard that Killer Bees will attack a person wielding a chainsaw or weedwhacker without much provocation. Me too on the wasps wandering into the garage when using certain power tools. I usually shoot them with the wasp spray I keep in the garage. One small, but interesting one we used to do when our sailboat was anchored at one of California's offshore islands and we had the BBQ fired up. The yellowjackets and hornets would come around. What did the trick there was to lay a piece of raw hamburger on the transom for them. They ate that, we cooked and ate our meal in relative peace. Making blackmail a viable tool in the animal world as well as ours....
[ QUOTE ] Hey I had this same problem today. Had 3 bees some annoy me while I was spray painting. One got stomped, another got painted with ACE rust-stop in ruddy brown color, and the other got away. [/ QUOTE ] reminds me of the good old days as a (not so smart) youngster using wd-40 and a bic lighter to kill em in the garage....poooor bees kids ... don't try that at home!
Years ago most folks wouldm paint the ceilings of their porches a tourqoise color because wasps didn't like that color. Everyone knows that gasoline will kill most insects upon contact but for some reason some bugs are drawn to it. Its like heroin to them. Leave a fuel line open for a week in the summer and 99% of the time a dirt dauber will build a nest in it. Ants are attracted to the electric fields generated by motors (like water pumps) and contactors (like in your heat pump). I can't use my angle grinder or a power saw outdoors from May till Oct. without being wrapped up with katydids. Evidently these tools broadcast the sounds of sweet love to these critters. They will fly directly into the saw blade. Go figure
If you want your ride to have the splatterd bug look paint it YELLOW, guarantee you that every bug will "attack" it, on the serious side I keep a can of bug spray around on outdoor projects, comes in handy and cheap insurance
Ants dig Mustangs! I bought a 69 Mustang that had been parked under a big tree for quite a while. I drove it home at night and didn't notice anything...but the next morning when I went for a ride, there were ants EVERYWHERE!! They'd go marching across the dash, and the floor was littered with 'em! I stopped over a friend's house and he laughed at my plight...then handed me a giant outdoor Raid fogger as a joke! I grabbed the can put it between the front seats, set it off then closed the door! After about 45 minutes I went back to the car, held my breath, and opened the door to roll down the windows and fetch the empty canister. We let it air out for maybe three more hours while we worked on my buddy's Fairlane. Never saw another ant in that car...and there was a circle of dead critters under it that had dropped out...spiders, earwigs, crickets, a few weird looking green beetle thingys, and a ton of ants! I took the Mustang to a car wash and vacuumed up the corpses inside! Don't pay any attention to that "Not for indoor use" thing on the can...Raid foggers KICK ASS at ridding your old ride of unwanted stow-aways!!
[ QUOTE ] Were you wearing a yellow Von Dutch trucker hat while doing the body work? [/ QUOTE ] No, but the input about colors is really interesting. My shop cap is a faded red "Pierce" cap (has yellow trim, but the yellow isn't that dominant. The bondo is that reddish beige you get when using blueish/greenish Evercoat with a red hardner. Did more work today, no response from the bees. Cool, too, is that the neighbor's German Shephard, "Daisy", on the other end of the fence, hasn't barked at me much. They introduced me to her and everything, really playful big ol' pup, but very sensitive, kinda high strung about who's in front of that fence. Now, sometimes she comes over to see who it is, barking, even with my airtight mask on I yell back, "Hi Daisy!" and so forth. The dog just watches, now, eventually walks away. The bushes are the neighbors', I just as soon leave 'em alone. Friggin' bees, though.
When I first started sign writting, the shop I worked for didn't have a spray both, just a lean to off the back of the workshop (big enough to fit about 5 cars in). Thats where I would do any spray painting. Mostly spray enamel and some acrylics. Summer time was a bitch because any flying insect would have to come and have a look at my work and usually spend some time walking around in the fresh paint. My boss told me the bugs were attracted to the sweet smell of paint, to this day I still don't think enamel smells sweet. From memory it was always the brighter colours that they liked the most.
Before I had my shop, I'd have to work on my bike outside my apartment, which would attract a swarm of little snot nosed ghetto kids - no matter what color I was wearing. Unfortunately Raid never worked on them... haha
Ha Ha, I can relate, Truth! When I did my first dabblings in body repair, the kid next door took an immediate interest in the project and came over every day! He was little, like maybe nine or ten, but he didn't bug me TOO much so I never kicked him out. His dad was a loud-mouthed, abusive prick, so I figured he was better off sitting on a milk crate in my yard than hanging around his own house! After a day or two, I could see that the kid was really itching to "help", so I gave him the task of sanding and applying bondo to the rusty fenders on the car. He did a lousy job, but he really seemed to be having fun at it...and I had fiberglass fenders in the garage for the car anyway, so I let him ask questions and copy what I was doing on the quarter panels. He was happy as a pig in slop sanding away in eight different directions and glopping bondo all over the fenders! It was hard not to smile watching him work away at it! I chose a weekend when he was away at his mother's place, and swapped on the fiberglass fenders after giving them a coat of grey primer. When he saw them on Monday, he was so proud...cause 'his' fenders looked so good under that fresh primer! All in all, it was really kinda cool having him around...and he bragged about helping fix that car the rest of the Summer! He moved that Fall and I have no idea where he is now, but hopefully he's working on an old rusty car with some little kid at his side bugging him the way he did me!
I use CRC brake cleaner to hit flying insects. Shoots a straight stream for at least seven feet, and if I get anywhere near the bug, it falls out of the sky. Just gotta make sure that nothing else I care for is in the way, and that I've got decent ventilation.
Driving home from work yesterday afternoon and a chameleon (sp?) hops on my windshield from under the hood, scared the hell out of me and almost reended a Honda minivan. He rode the wiper till i got home, wasnt there this morning, probably frozen.
I have a bright yellow new beetle for my daily driver and that thing attracts more bugs than any other vehicle I've ever owned. Another weird thing I've noticed is when I'm laying by the pool in the summer and have my toes painted hot pink or red, bugs (especially dragonflies) land on my toes! There is definitely some truth to the bugs being attracted to bright colors thing. Stacey
Yeah, it's a flower thing....bees and many other bugs flock to flowers, which are normally bright in color. Predatory bugs are attracted to the colors too...since their dinner awaits close by!!
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