Sting Protection - Beekeeping Supplies Protective Clothing Beekeeping Equipment

In addition to wearing the BeeCARE protective clothing, what you wear otherwise is also important. If you are using a Bee Jacket, you should wear light colored, thin, baggy, loose-fitting pants. Tight jeans will not generally protect you well and are less comfortable and hotter to wear when working. If you are using the Full Body Suit, consider also wearing loose-fitting, light-fabric pants, or if the work conditions are too hot, you may even wear shorts. The ideal garment to wear on the torso is a very light, loose-fitting cotton shirt. Long sleeves are preferable, although your work conditions may be too warm for long sleeves. The additional clothing recommendations are in keeping with two of the ways our own protective clothing increases your safety -- loose fitting clothing helps keep stingers away from your skin, and light fabric with a light color ventilates your body heat better and reflects more sunlight, keeping you cooler while you work. As a rule of thumb, wear clothing made from very light, cotton fabric with our protective clothing. Absolutely avoid using material made from nylon, as its ventilation properties are poor and you may overheat while wearing it.

Use standard, heavy leather work boots with a top that comes up to your ankle. The boots should preferably be a lighter color, if possible. Shoes and socks are much less effective and not recommended, as stinging insects often attack the ankle and feet, and they may sting through your shoes and socks. If you are using the Bee Jacket only, use a rubber band or strap to seal your pants legs around the top of your boots. This is not needed with the Full Body Suit, as its integrated pant legs have elastic at the bottom that seal around the boot tops.

You should wear heavy leather gloves if possible. While some jobs require intricate manipulation of objects with your hands, most do not. Use either our Leather Beekeeping Gloves, which are ventilated and extend up to the bicep, or use heavy leather work gloves with an extended cuff at the wrist. You may put the wrist elastic over the standard work-glove cuffs to prevent insects from getting inside your arm sleeves.

Fragrances and unnatural odors

Stinging insects are highly attracted to unnatural odors, such as the fragrances in personal-hygiene products. Before using the protecting clothing, bathe using non-fragrant soap, shampoo, etc. Do not apply cologne, perfume, hair gel, hair spray, or any other additional hair application with an unnatural odor. Avoid the use of deodorants with a fragrance. Body odor exuded while working is inevitable, but you may take steps to avoid any other unnecessary odors to which stinging insects will be attracted.

Time of Day and Weather

The ideal time of the day to deal with stinging insects is in the early morning, at least an hour after sunrise. Many of the insects will have left their colony by that time to forage, so there will be far fewer to deal with inside the nest. Also, this time of day is cooler, especially during the summer months, so you will be more comfortable while working. Night time or late evening is normally the worst time of day to interfere with a wasp, hornet, bee, or yellowjacket colony, because they tend to be more aggressive at night and because the number inside the colony is at its maximum.

If at all possible, deal with stinging insect colonies in sunny or partly-cloudy weather. If a storm front is coming in or if the weather is overcast, the colony will be more aggressive, as they are designed to quickly become mobile in case severe weather threatens their nest. This is especially true of hornets and honeybees.

The Effectiveness of BeeCARE Protective Clothing

It is all-important that your protective clothing is properly sized and worn. It should be baggy and loose-fitting, as one of the fundamental ways it adds to your protection is to minimize the possibility of stingers coming into contact with your skin. All zippers should be zipped up completely, and you should press down on the Velcro at the junction of the two zippers at the base of the hood after they are zipped up. If you are wearing only the Bee Jacket, always make sure the elastic at the waist is below your belt area, and avoid the use of belt tools which may provide an opening through which the insects can get inside your clothes.

Regarding the effectiveness of our suits and jackets, we have supplied many customers with our protective clothing, and we have received very positive reports from them on their experience, many of whom subsequently reorder from us. Of the numerous bee suits and jackets we have sold since introducing them in 2003, we have gotten excellent feedback from many customers, some even saying they believed wearing the clothing saved their life. We have received only a handful of reports of stings from customers wearing our protective clothing. But please be aware that there is no guarantee that you cannot be stung, either wearing the BeeCARE clothing or wearing any other protective clothing available in this price range. No vendor selling suits in this category would be able to responsibly and truthfully guarantee absolute sting prevention. What we can assure you of is that you should experience a significantly increased level of safety while wearing our clothing, as long as it is sized and worn properly, making the possibility of stings much more unlikely.

There is more detailed information on this website about how the clothing protects you; you may review it by visiting the link How a Bee Suit and Gloves Work. After reviewing this information, please let us know if you have any further questions about sting protection. This information will also be supplied in written form in your shipment package.