So we’re renovating the house before we move in and just over a week ago, I finally pulled down the heavy drapes in the living room so that I could prep and paint the walls in there. We had left those drapes for last because they’re on the front of the house and we wanted the house to have some privacy when we weren’t there to keep an eye on it.
Well, so down they come, and up goes the paper to protect the window glass (and to screen from prying eyes) and this is when I noticed the little erratic shadows of bees flying around outside one of the windows. This is a window that’s largely forgotten and ignored since it’s on the side of the room that’s about four feet from the neighbor’s house, shady, has a long-disused air conditioning unit in it, and was covered by the aforementioned heavy drapes.
I see the bees coming and going and I know that something’s got to be done, but I don’t worry overmuch about it since small bee colonies are pretty standard in the area and they’ve been easy to take care of on our own. Up til now.
A few days later I go into the house to do some work and it’s a very quiet morning out on the street, and I’m standing near the fireplace which is near the window where the bees were seen.
And I can totally hear the bees. The slightest sound from the street obliterates the sound of the bees, but I can hear them. I start pressing my ears to the walls, the fireplace, tapping. And freaking out.
Eventually I overcome my fear of Sudden Surprise Black Widow Spider attack enough to go amble down the small walkway between our house and the neighbor’s which is densely lined with camelia bushes. I took a broom. I ducked, I swiped. I muttered threats. I kept my eyes peeled.
As I get close to the window and the chimney from the outside, I can see where the bees are coming and going from, and to my chagrin, there’s no sign of a hive on the outside of the building. That would be too easy. They were going in and out of a space under the eaves, and all I could see was that it was the 4-6 inch space between the chimney and the projecting roof beam.
While I was relieved that they weren’t coming and going from the top of the chimney, I started worrying that there was maybe a crack in the masonry that they were nevertheless getting into the chimney. Or maybe they were down in the walls. The pile of dead bee bodies a few feet from their entryway wasn’t heartening either, because I knew the drones would carry out the dead and drop them just like that - a small space away from the entrance.
So great. All signs toward a healthy colony in an inconvenient place. I know that I am totally not going to handle this myself. I dial.
Today, the bee guy came, had my husband tape up the fireplace so that bees and poison wouldn’t come in, and nuked the bees. The good news is that while they might try to escape to the fireplace, they weren’t IN it already. Nor were they in the walls. They were set up in the attic.
Bad news - they must have been working for a few months and there’s 20-30 pounds of hive that has to be removed immediately before it melts, gets infested by other interested parties, and goes on to actually ruin the walls and ceiling.
To do this, they have to cut a two foot hole in the ceiling of the livingroom. The livingroom I just patched and repaired and primed.
Also, I regrettably had to kill a mud-dauber wasp that insisted on trying to build a nest for her eggs in our apartment bedroom. She wasn’t a huge bother, and I tried shooing her out several times, but she kept coming back day after day for a week. I scraped her mud nest away. I captured her and released her outside. I should have driven her to the park. But bitch didn’t know when to move on. So I bought this eco-friendly flying bug spray. (I also bought the spray-on thermo nuclear version in case eco-friendly didn’t work) Found her hanging out in the bedroom, left the lights off, hit her with a dose of the eco spray and when she fell, I followed up with several whacks from the fly swatter.
Sorry girlie. I tried to warn you.
So when do my insect-infested nightmares stop?
