Currently, in the mornings, the BWCA slowly starts buzzing growing with intensity as the sun rises and warms the air.

I found 4 different bee hives while on a recent trip to Shell lake. I found one of them the hard way while cutting firewood. It was a ground hive and I got stuck in the hand. The surprise caused me to drop my Irwin saw right over their entrance. The poor saw was attacked with furious vengeance.

When I showed my boys where I got stung so they could avoid such pain, they asked "oh was it from that hive up there?" I looked up and saw a paper wasp nest on a dead birch 15' above where I had been sawing. I was lucky I was only stung once!

There is a hive in the middle of the portage from Lower Pauness into Shell where the water is too deep to walk through and you have to pack up your canoe and unpack it 4 rods later. The 3 others I found on Con Island, 2 were in old dead stumps.

So just a friendly reminder to pay attention to your surroundings!

Pointed advice.

quote Soledad: "Currently, in the mornings, the BWCA slowly starts buzzing growing with intensity as the sun rises and warms the air.

I found 4 different bee hives while on a recent trip to Shell lake. I found one of them the hard way while cutting firewood. It was a ground hive and I got stuck in the hand. The surprise caused me to drop my Irwin saw right over their entrance. The poor saw was attacked with furious vengeance.

When I showed my boys where I got stung so they could avoid such pain, they asked "oh was it from that hive up there?" I looked up and saw a paper wasp nest on a dead birch 15' above where I had been sawing. I was lucky I was only stung once!

There is a hive in the middle of the portage from Lower Pauness into Shell where the water is too deep to walk through and you have to pack up your canoe and unpack it 4 rods later. The 3 others I found on Con Island, 2 were in old dead stumps.

So just a friendly reminder to pay attention to
"

Always let the Bees be

When I was there two years ago on the south campsite on Conn Island almost every tree was full of bees.

yup, that's the site

We're going up in two weeks, thank you so much for posting this.

Please BEE more careful. Good thing you're not allergic!!

Now that some fog has cleared, I remember we moved our tent, more to the middle of the site, in part because of the bees. They are loud, but not overly bothersome. They are there though.

I stayed at that south site a week and a half ago. The 7th-13th. The trees were loaded with them. And we also noticed a large, solitary, black wasp. I watched him catch and eat several mosquitoes right out of the air. They were fat like a bumble bee, but not. All black. Not sure what kind of wasp it was, but the mosquitoes were horrible at dusk. That wasp was welcome in my campsite any time. When were you there, Soledad?

I work at a day camp during the summer running nature programs for elementary school aged kids. A number of years ago, a group I was with accidentally disturbed a hive in the ground next to a tree stump that seemed a good bench to rest on. A massive attack was spawned . . . it was terrifying, frankly. Everyone was fine in the end (I've said a lot of prayers over that one), though we did have a scare because one child insisted he was "allergic to bees". He was. They just weren't bees. :)

This spurred me into doing some research. Here is some of what I learned:

The ground hives mentioned (and I have seen these in the BWQ, also) might very well be built by some kind of paper-wasp. They are typically either Yellow Jackets or Bald-Faced Hornets (though "Baldies" generally build their paper hives in trees or on cliff-overhangs). Each colony has one queen who lays eggs all summer long. Towards the end of the summer, she produces eggs that will grow into queens themselves. In the fall, each of these queens will have found some cozy spot to wait out the cold weather until the spring. All the other members of the colony die. Come spring, each queen will find a new location to build a hive and start again. Usually not the same spot.

I've been stung up north, too. Walk through the woods enough - even without touching anything or picking anything up - and you will eventually come close enough to a hive. When I watch my kids playing, I do think about that event at camp . . . . I suppose I try to teach them to be aware of their surroundings, respect nature, and hope for the best . . .

I mowed over a yellow jacket nest once while wearing shorts. Got stung twice on the upper, inner thigh. My legs were in the garage before my head knew what was happening.

Several years ago my brother was working in a field of Christmas trees ( no, not in the BW) when he disrupted a ground nest. He was stung several times, but had never reacted before so he wanted to keep working. His coworkers insisted that he head back to the truck. By the time he got there he was starting to swell up. So they drove to the hospital 20 to 30 minutes away. By then his blood pressure had dropped dangerously low and he had bumps all over even the bottom of his feet. He did recover but it was pretty scary.
I keep Benadryl in my first aid kit. Not enough to work on a big reaction, but should help with a mild reaction.