Late to the party here, I think I only get email notices for the one thread.
Nice pile of seng 44.
Regarding bees, I have a neighbor with honey bees and they were all over my corn this summer, so were the bumble bees which I watched flying from my garden to a particular area in the woods.
We had several yellow jacket nests in our hollow though I didn't find any on my property. My closest neighbor and next neighbor down had a couple of nests which their yard guy found.
I was annoyed by them well into Oct as they apparently are drawn to beer, we couldn't stand in my driveway enjoying a beer without them harassing us.
I ran a race in Sep in GA and there was a jacket nest on the trail. Many runners got hit and some had to stop due to swelling, etc. I was hit 10-15 times, did a lot of cursing but continued on. My calves burned the entire race (nest at mile 17) and itched for a week or so.