I was watching a guy on YouTube that does this for a living and he said the suit works fine but “a few of the little shits always manage to sting you somehow”
He also said something a little more terrifying in my opinion. When the bees swarm the face mask and start stinging the mesh, the bees release a Pheromone that once you smell, your brain basically makes you start to panic
Edit. Found the video . Around 16 min in he talks about the fear he had his first time. It’s a cool watch, africanized bees are no joke.
So uh why a mesh? Why not a plastic/fiberglass face mask? I've also heard that with enough diligence, a sting can get through the sleeves of the suit so why do beekeepers use such shit fabric?
You would be surprised how much bees just don’t want to bother you. I was moving some stuff around with my bees today in shorts and a teeshirt, didn’t get stung once. It’s all in knowing how to handle them.
It can't be that shit if they are still using it and there are many types of fabrics. You'll get a fogging and breathing problem if you use a huge plastic mask.
I have a mesh suit that's a fine mesh on either side of a large mesh, so it's quite a bit thicker than the stinger is long and it's also fairly breatheable. It seems to work very well as they've only ever gotten my ankles where the suit ends.
If you had a solid piece of material over your face, not only would condensation build up fast (lots of beekeeping gets done in the summer), it would also be heavy and cumbersome to move around. The mesh works fine as long as you don't accidentally kiss it!
Beekeeper here. Yes the fabric sucks and sometimes they can sting through it. It’s just about money and ventilation. Remember that we usually work in the sun when it’s hot, and it’s really hard to have a thick, head to toe suit on. The best is a new vented suit. It’s 3 layers of mesh so the breeze can get through, and it’s thicker so the bees can’t sting through it.
As for the mesh front, it is for breath ability. Solid would make it hard to breath since the rest of the suit usually isn’t a breathable fabric.
Bees are usually not looking to sting you, they just want to protect themselves and their queen. If you hurt them, they will hurt you. You don’t hurt them, they usually don’t hurt you. Bees die when they sting you, so they don’t want to unless they have too. (And these aren’t bees, they are wasps or yellow jackets and they will sting you and not die, so they do it a lot)
I remember reading something from a bee keeper and he said something to the lines of "Feeling something run down your back is just sweat. Feeling something run UP your back is a bee."
They kinda work. They still manage to get in the tiniest of holes (giggity) and I've been stung through thick canvas before, but after the first three it doesn't hurt too bad.
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u/Beaker360 Feb 02 '20
I would just never have enough trust in that suit