Yellowjacket Protective Suit?

August 10, 2009 1:34 PM

Does anyone have experience with bee-wasp suits?

I need, this week, to get my hand on a bee suit which will be good for being around yellowjackets (wasps).

It's one of my jobs to deal with yellowjacket nests around schools, and, while I have a standard bee suit (pith helmet, netting, etc.), I have been getting stung, either from the insects getting into the suit, or through the fabric.

My googling has been iffy on this, so I wonder if anyone has experience with this, and can point me to a suit that I can get my hands on this week.

Thanks.

posted by Danf to home & garden (9 comments total)

I've never gotten stung through my bee suit, though occasionally a bee will try. I wear jeans and a longsleeve tee under the suit, and the stinger gets caught between the layers, never reaching my skin. You're not nude under there, are you? And how do they get inside the suit?

I've never tried it with yellowjackets, though. There's a nest at the edge of my property, but I, uh, have a lot of things on my to-do list up above trying that out.
posted by ewagoner at 1:38 PM on August 10

Not a direct answer, but there are several off-the-shelf brands of pesticides that shoot a pesticide foam out several feet. It's intended to be shot directly at the openings to hives, so it kills the insects and also prevents them from exiting the hive to attack you. Then you foam it all up real good. The yellowjackets are dead before they can burrow through the foam and take flight.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:42 PM on August 10

Maybe a suit made of PVC such as this would work?
posted by contessa at 2:44 PM on August 10

this used to be the limosine of bee suits, I don't know if they are available in the US, but I'm sure there must be something similar.
posted by fistynuts at 2:51 PM on August 10

Like ewagoner, DH has a bee suit and he's not had any issues with getting stung through it. The one time he's been stung, one of the bees stung his finger when he was not wearing his gloves. He finds his bee suit to be very hot and has added a Coghlan's Bug Jacket to his wardrobe. He bought it because it is a much cooler material. However, the interesting thing is that his bees will land and walk around on his bee suit but they'll land and immediately leave the bug jacket. They don't stay on it for any real length of time. I'm sure they could sting through it if they wanted to and I'm not sure how it would stand up against yellow jackets. We've not had need to test it in that scenario.

As for your current bee suit, does it have holes that they're getting in? Are the openings properly secured? If necessary, you could use some duct tape to tape it at wrists and ankles.
posted by onhazier at 2:58 PM on August 10

Pesticides . . .any type of "bee bopper" will shoot about 20 feet. Which is good for a clear shot at the nest opening. This is not always possible, in that nests can be in walls, under play structures, in ivy, etc etc. I have 2 active situations in which I do not have a clear shot at the opening.

The bee suit I have is too small, and has the pith helmut-type hood with the drawstring. It's easy for a wasp to get up into the hood. As for duct-taping the wrists and ankles, what is SOP, but at times, esp moving around, digging, etc. skin gets exposed, or openings open up, regardless of how careful I am. Hence, the desire for a better suit that fits.

Since this is around schools, the nests really need to be killed. Kids getting stung by yellowjackets is a bad deal, esp. when a percentage will have a systemic reaction.
posted by Danf at 3:17 PM on August 10

Here's the suit I have, along with the suggested helmet and a pair of arm length gloves with leather fingers. The veil zips onto the suit, so there is no way for anything to get inside.

The combo will run you about $100.
posted by ewagoner at 4:31 PM on August 10 [1 favorite]

Also possibly useful in some situations: a Shop-Vac.

We used one on a construction site once. With the extension nozzle you don't need a bee suit. After about 25 minutes of patient vacuuming the most aggressive yellow jackets were dealt with. The few remaining seemed kinda demoralized.
posted by ovvl at 3:36 AM on August 11

I ended up getting this suit (cllick on "Ventilated BeeKeeping Suit) and it worked very very well. Getting to a nest, I was attacked by a whole swarm of yellowjackets, and other than feeling my skin crawl and wanting to panic and run, it was fine. . .they did not get in and I did not get stung, as much as they tried to make that happen.
posted by Danf at 2:44 PM on August 14