Ohio’s so-called “Bee Man” showed more courage than many while removing a massive European hornets’ nest from a car on Sunday.
Travis Watson, owner of an Ohio-based bee-removal service, moved the massive nest from the driver’s seat of a rusty Chevrolet El Camino in Alliance, a video of the event shows.
Watson told Fox News on Tuesday he estimated 800 to 1,000 European hornets were living inside the nest — marking the first time he’d ever seen one of that size.
"It got my adrenaline going,” Watson, a 13-year veteran of the removal service and lawyer by trade, said. The 28-year-old said he works in the removal industry for roughly three-quarters of the year.
“You don't come across a group of European hornets when you’re drafting a will,” he joked.
In the video, Watson can be seen pumping pesticide into the nest. He then breaks off chunks of the hornets’ former home while plucking the disoriented creatures off of his arms and hands.
Despite wearing protective clothing, "if you give them enough time, they will find a way to sting you," he said, noting these hornets can deliver multiple stings. According to the University of Kentucky Department of Entomology, European hornets, which can reach one and a half inches in length, “will only sting when threatened” and will “work together to defend their nest against anyone who comes too close.”
Watson said the nest weighed roughly four pounds, and he used pesticide because European hornets are an invasive species that can kill off honey bees.
These insects were first located in the U.S. in 1840, when they were found in New York. Since then, they have made a home in states as far as Florida to the Dakotas, according to Penn State’s Department of Entomology. Most European hornets die in the winter, but the “overwintering” females that survive re-emerge in the spring to create a new colony.
As for Watson, "it was one of the coolest jobs [he'd] ever done," he said of removing the hornets.
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. Luke 11:21
"Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." -- George W. Bush
Recall the angry motorist who caused/nearly caused an accident on purpose, but claimed there was a bee in his car, making him drive erratically? His story would have been A LOT more plausible...
Thinking the same thing. Gas and a match...let's go get a beer. Why didn't he set off some kind of bug bomb before doing all this? Let that stuff permeate for like 4 hours. Oh... and let me just stuff this infestation into my Walmart bag. WTH??? Guess he didn't get stung...
"If you’re a leader, you lead the way. Not just on the easy ones; you take the tough ones too…” – MAJ Richard D. Winters (1918-2011), E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil... Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel." - Isaiah 5:20,24
Son-of-bitch. If that had been on the passenger you could have used it to drive in the HOV lane.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye". The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, pilot and author, lost on mission, July 1944, Med Theatre.
Posts: 5967 | Location: Central Texas | Registered: September 14, 2003
Originally posted by HRK: Its just an 80's Elco, should have doused it with fuel and burned it to the ground, or hit the interior with a flame thrower...
Now if it had been a 59 or 60, or any of the pre 78 models ya maybe risk yer life...
Now a 69 SS Elky with a 396, AC, 4 speed I'da pulled it out with my bare hands!
I dunno' I'm seeing bucket seats and a floor console, could have possibilities as a project car...
Now the bigger questions is what would you have done for the 69 El Camino SS that I saw at Barrett-Jackson this year with an LS-6 454, 4 speed, buckets and console?
My daughter can deflate your daughter's soccer ball.
Posts: 11780 | Location: Eagle River, AK | Registered: September 12, 2006
Guess he didn't get stung...
Perfect!
