Why do people throw rocks at bee hive's?

[PaulZ]

Go find a Bald Faced hornets nest and try the rock thing. I'll bet you only do it once.

Oh yeh! they are organized. We had a nest right outside the bedroom window one year. When I saw them carrying those 1/4 slugs I became their friend. As long as the nest was not disturbed they would not bother a person. I was taking pictures of the duty air condition hornet and the fliers were bouncing off the back of my head continuing into the nest.
I wish they would come back, nobody would survive creeping around outside if he did not know where the hornets were!

 

[Navman]

Years ago when I was in my 20's I helped build the Pacific trail in Ore.

One of my co-workers and I were scouting ahead to size up the grade markers the forest service had laid out for us.

When all of a sudden a cloud of bees were coming our way, we took cover and watched them form on a tree right where the trail was to be built.

It was an amazing thing to see, a freakin' bazillion bees somehow converging on a 2 inch tree until they were a colony 18" inches wide by 8 feet tall.

Once they settled down we felt safe to admire this act of nature.

He tell's me he's alergic to bee stings so of course I did the right thing and heaved a rock hitting the colony dead center.

Never seen a man move so fast hehe.

After he cursed me out we still had to build a trail past the darn things.

We had lots of explosives at hand so I said "you stay here wimp and I'll go set a massive charge and waste em"

Violent explosion with a half of ton of rock aimed right at the tree and we wait...

Little by little half of them return...

I blasted out tons of rock until no tree was standing just to get the trail past those little buggers!

Not sure what kept bringing them back, ain't no Queen/woman worth that kinda abuse

Good topic OP, brought back some fond memories of a friend running the 100 yard dash thru the forest in 6 seconds lol

 

[coastal steelheader]

They hunt you and take serious revenge. Some people don't survive it, truly the apex winged insect predator of north America. Gives a whole new meaning to gotcha.

I give them a wide berth too from past experience of being chased through blackberry bushes by them. Yellowjackets and I on the other hand have a lifetime mutual annihilation agreement. I find their nest and its gone, and I don't care what chemical agent I use. They in turn seek me out when I least expect if for kamikaze runs, usually when I'm on ladders or playing with fire and or sharp objects, and when I leave the window down while driving.

 

[salmonriverjohn]

I agree coastal steelheader, all yellow jackets are killed at every opportunity. Get the big fat ones in the spring if you can, their the future queens of the area and for every one you kill early, that's several hundred you wont have to deal with later. Baldies hunt and kill yellow jackets, they come in from behind them when they are distracted, hammer them clean through with their stinger and the yellow jacket is flown off to feed the kids, cool with me.