@hanaoshimapiano - Thanks for your comment. The ergonomic foldable bench/kneeler we use in the field can be found in various forms from various brands in various stores. Amazon has several brands. Just search for Foldable Garden Kneeler & Seat and you should see many options to choose from. Get the best quality one you can afford and they will last for many years. Ours has become on of the most important field tools we utilize daily. Protecting your body on the job is a priority safety concern for everyone!
@mudslinger7238 - Thanks for your comment. We use Humble Bee brand bee suits. They've done great by us so far. We use both the solid canvas suits and three layer mesh aerated suits. The key to not getting stung is to wear thick clothing under any brand of bee suit (do not wear shorts and t-shirts underneath the bee suit). We often wear hoodies and jeans as well as the suit. It gets very hot but it's worth it to avoid stings (must hydrate well and take heat breaks as needed). Also wear work gloves over the bee gloves when dealing with highly aggressive species. Finally, it is vital to keep the mesh veil in the hood away from your face. If your face touches the veil you'll get stung through the veil. We usually wear two baseball/tennis type visors under the veil to keep the veil away from skin (one on the head and one around the neck).
How many times is the bee extracted? Is it like milking a snake ? Or one and done. Are the bees let loose or exterminated ? How many bees does it take to make up one shot?
@KiKi70236 - Thanks for your comment. Great questions to discuss here for all to learn from. First, wasps are different from bees like Honeybees, and venom collection is done differently for wasps than for bees. For wasp Venom Immunotherapy (VIT) , it takes 520 staff-hours in the lab, and about 130,000 wasp venom sacs, to create one batch of injectable venom product! Each female wasp has only one venom sac about the size of a pinhead, so lab techs can only remove this once per wasp (after the wasps have already been collected in the field, humanely flash frozen in CO2/dry ice, and shipped to the labs). To produce the wasp venom products for VIT, the labs remove the venom sac from each wasp by hand with tweezers and put the venom sacs into a sterile test tube, and this begins the very long production process. Ultimately, the venom is freeze dried then eventually changed into injectable form. It is very labor intensive and expensive to produce VIT products, which is why only a few labs in the world offer this type of medical product. Fortunately, most insurance companies will cover the cost of VIT for patients due to VIT being a life saving treatment. Patients undergoing VIT get weekly shots, then monthly shots, then every few months, then just boosters. It takes 3 - 5 years to complete treatment, depending on how fast they want to dose up during treatment, but many patients start showing immunity after the first few weeks/months. Once VIT treatment is completed, they are immune to severe reactions to wasp venom for life (success rate is around 98%)! You can learn all about the VIT production process and see some video clips of the process here: www.beeawareallergy.com/resources/venom-immunotherapy-patients/venom-collection/
@@greenwaspremoval thank you so much do they ask for a specific pieces to collect or is it what every you bring in they will take. I sure wish we had more of these going especially in the yellow jacket heavy states like the Mississippi River east. There should be a. company in each state. Great work I’m very impressed that a college has gotten involved.
@KiKi70236 - Thanks for your comment. Most of the labs that seek wasp stock for VIT production will take all the most commonly found species that typically cause the most stings statistically. So they make VIT products for different species of yellowjackets, hornets and paper wasps, as well as bees and stinging ants, etc. The wasp collectors around the country could already probably provide as much wasp stock as the labs need, but the more problematic issue is the lack of Big Pharma companies willing to produce VIT products due to low profit margin (cost to profit ratio isn't as high as producing other more profitable drugs/products). So there are too few pharmaceutical companies willing to create VIT products worldwide these days, which causes a risk that VIT products may eventually become "Orphan Drugs" that are highly needed and highly effective, but nobody is willing to make them so we have a constant shortage or eventually run out completely (until government legislation requires they be made). Let's hope these few companies that still provide VIT products will stay in the game and/or legislation will catch up and force companies to keep these life saving products in production!
Maybe you’ve referenced this in previous comments You talk about venom immuno therapy. What is that? I’ve heard of snake anti venom, but not wasps or bees.
@mikings2 - Thank for your comment. Venom Immunotherapy (VIT) is a medical treatment for people with severe/lethal venom allergies to stinging insects which typically cures their venom allergy for life. The treatment involves receiving a series of injections, made of a wasp/bee venom product created by medical labs, over a period of 3 - 5 years. The treatments are up to 98% effective for wasp venom meaning that for the vast majority of people they are cured for life (they develop immunity to venom) so no longer have to live in fear of being stung by wasps. There are some great informative videos about VIT on TH-cam, and excellent info available at this link: www.beeawareallergy.com/bee-stings/treatment/venom-immunotherapy/
I had asked the same in an older video. I thought it was used like anti-venin like they do for people bit by snakes. It’s not used to treat a patient after they are stung, it’s used differently. What they do is the patient will go to an allergist/immunology doctor and get injections of the venom in tiny amounts to desensitize the person to it so if they do get stung it will hopefully prevent a severe anaphylactic reaction in order to give them a chance to even make it to the ER for further help.
@imagin916 - Well said. Venom Immunotherapy is life saving treatment with a success rate in the high 90's percentile for making people safely immune to wasp venom for life.
The ergonomic stool looks so handy! Where can you find one like yours?
@hanaoshimapiano - Thanks for your comment. The ergonomic foldable bench/kneeler we use in the field can be found in various forms from various brands in various stores. Amazon has several brands. Just search for Foldable Garden Kneeler & Seat and you should see many options to choose from. Get the best quality one you can afford and they will last for many years. Ours has become on of the most important field tools we utilize daily. Protecting your body on the job is a priority safety concern for everyone!
@@greenwaspremoval Thank you so much for your advice. You are absolutely right!
@hanaoshimapiano - Welcome anytime.
What type of bee suit are you using that will withstand yellow jacket stings?
@mudslinger7238 - Thanks for your comment. We use Humble Bee brand bee suits. They've done great by us so far. We use both the solid canvas suits and three layer mesh aerated suits. The key to not getting stung is to wear thick clothing under any brand of bee suit (do not wear shorts and t-shirts underneath the bee suit). We often wear hoodies and jeans as well as the suit. It gets very hot but it's worth it to avoid stings (must hydrate well and take heat breaks as needed). Also wear work gloves over the bee gloves when dealing with highly aggressive species. Finally, it is vital to keep the mesh veil in the hood away from your face. If your face touches the veil you'll get stung through the veil. We usually wear two baseball/tennis type visors under the veil to keep the veil away from skin (one on the head and one around the neck).
How many times is the bee extracted? Is it like milking a snake ? Or one and done. Are the bees let loose or exterminated ? How many bees does it take to make up one shot?
@KiKi70236 - Thanks for your comment. Great questions to discuss here for all to learn from. First, wasps are different from bees like Honeybees, and venom collection is done differently for wasps than for bees. For wasp Venom Immunotherapy (VIT) , it takes 520 staff-hours in the lab, and about 130,000 wasp venom sacs, to create one batch of injectable venom product! Each female wasp has only one venom sac about the size of a pinhead, so lab techs can only remove this once per wasp (after the wasps have already been collected in the field, humanely flash frozen in CO2/dry ice, and shipped to the labs). To produce the wasp venom products for VIT, the labs remove the venom sac from each wasp by hand with tweezers and put the venom sacs into a sterile test tube, and this begins the very long production process. Ultimately, the venom is freeze dried then eventually changed into injectable form. It is very labor intensive and expensive to produce VIT products, which is why only a few labs in the world offer this type of medical product. Fortunately, most insurance companies will cover the cost of VIT for patients due to VIT being a life saving treatment. Patients undergoing VIT get weekly shots, then monthly shots, then every few months, then just boosters. It takes 3 - 5 years to complete treatment, depending on how fast they want to dose up during treatment, but many patients start showing immunity after the first few weeks/months. Once VIT treatment is completed, they are immune to severe reactions to wasp venom for life (success rate is around 98%)! You can learn all about the VIT production process and see some video clips of the process here: www.beeawareallergy.com/resources/venom-immunotherapy-patients/venom-collection/
@@greenwaspremoval thank you so much do they ask for a specific pieces to collect or is it what every you bring in they will take. I sure wish we had more of these going especially in the yellow jacket heavy states like the Mississippi River east. There should be a. company in each state. Great work I’m very impressed that a college has gotten involved.
@KiKi70236 - Thanks for your comment. Most of the labs that seek wasp stock for VIT production will take all the most commonly found species that typically cause the most stings statistically. So they make VIT products for different species of yellowjackets, hornets and paper wasps, as well as bees and stinging ants, etc. The wasp collectors around the country could already probably provide as much wasp stock as the labs need, but the more problematic issue is the lack of Big Pharma companies willing to produce VIT products due to low profit margin (cost to profit ratio isn't as high as producing other more profitable drugs/products). So there are too few pharmaceutical companies willing to create VIT products worldwide these days, which causes a risk that VIT products may eventually become "Orphan Drugs" that are highly needed and highly effective, but nobody is willing to make them so we have a constant shortage or eventually run out completely (until government legislation requires they be made). Let's hope these few companies that still provide VIT products will stay in the game and/or legislation will catch up and force companies to keep these life saving products in production!
Maybe you’ve referenced this in previous comments You talk about venom immuno therapy. What is that? I’ve heard of snake anti venom, but not wasps or bees.
@mikings2 - Thank for your comment. Venom Immunotherapy (VIT) is a medical treatment for people with severe/lethal venom allergies to stinging insects which typically cures their venom allergy for life. The treatment involves receiving a series of injections, made of a wasp/bee venom product created by medical labs, over a period of 3 - 5 years. The treatments are up to 98% effective for wasp venom meaning that for the vast majority of people they are cured for life (they develop immunity to venom) so no longer have to live in fear of being stung by wasps. There are some great informative videos about VIT on TH-cam, and excellent info available at this link: www.beeawareallergy.com/bee-stings/treatment/venom-immunotherapy/
I had asked the same in an older video. I thought it was used like anti-venin like they do for people bit by snakes. It’s not used to treat a patient after they are stung, it’s used differently. What they do is the patient will go to an allergist/immunology doctor and get injections of the venom in tiny amounts to desensitize the person to it so if they do get stung it will hopefully prevent a severe anaphylactic reaction in order to give them a chance to even make it to the ER for further help.
@imagin916 - Well said. Venom Immunotherapy is life saving treatment with a success rate in the high 90's percentile for making people safely immune to wasp venom for life.