Saturday, December 6, 2008

What's the buzz?


Yes, I am a fan of "Jesus Christ Superstar". And the song What's the buzz? from that movie has a certain catchiness to it that qualifies it as an earworm*.
Though this buzz was not that buzz. This was the buzz of honeybees. Yesterday there was a bee buzzing around inside the house at about 8am. Grandchildren were expected so I thought it would be a good idea to remove the bee before anyone got hurt, including the bee.
Note: I do not kill bees or anything else if I can help it. Not even spiders, in spite of arachnophobia.

A couple of hours later we had another bee. Then another. Then another. I know four bees do not make a hive, but this was a little too much of a coincidence. Besides that, about a year ago we did have a swarm of bees take up residence in an exterior wall of our house for a few days. I didn't fancy the thought of honey dripping down the back of the plaster board where I couldn't reach it, but cockroaches, ants, mice and rats could. The thought of all those vermin having a party and growing fat and multiplying where I couldn't reach them was a little disturbing.

Yesterday ended with no enlightenment about the bee issue, but this morning, about 7 am, when I was in the loo and all was quiet, I could hear a loud buzzing and I saw the occasional bee flitting past the window. Once outside I found them, dozens of them, buzzing in and out of the air vent in the brickwork, swarming in the wall again. That mind-picture of honey dripping down the inside of the wall and hoards of vermin with glinting red eyes scuttling around behind the plasterboard came back to me - the bees being just the little innocents who start the whole juggernaut in progress.

I went back to my bedroom to think about what to do, to complete my sudoku and because the air conditioner was still on and it was already about 30 degrees centigrade (86 Fahrenheit) outside. Soon I came to the logical choice of what to do. Yes! I would blog it. I would take my camera outside and take close-ups of the little darlings as they went about their work. Later in the day Mr. Sunshine would get his friend who is an apiarist to come around and collect the swarm, I would photograph that too. It would be quite a story and the grandchildren would be intrigued.

So, at about 8 am I went back out into the sauna-like heat armed with my camera and guess what? No bees. No buzz. The wall faces north (where the sun is all day long in the southern hemisphere). They must have decided that even with our air conditioner cooling things down a bit, it was just too hot for them. If they come back I will take photos. Meanwhile you can check out the photos of what it might have been like here, but. . . I would never have considered poison for bees.

*[Earworms are those tunes that you hear once and then cannot get out of your head for the rest of the day. You find yourself absently humming or whistling them every time your concentration lapses.]

3 comments:

  1. Hi!!
    I have given you an award!!
    Check it out!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy to return the camera at short notice for those photos!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad they decided not to take up residence at your place - what unwelcome visitors! Down here we get so many spiders - killing them is just a way of life - the crunch they make is sadly satisfying!! LOL

    ReplyDelete

Granny's tunes

Mr. Sunshine & Grannysaurus

Mr. Sunshine & Grannysaurus

Followers

About Me

My photo
Townsville, Queensland, Australia
I have worked as a Biology lab assistant, Pathology lab assistant, geochem lab assistant, land tenure researcher, hospital and prison chaplain, parish care coordinator and part owner of a small business. I have studied some science (no degrees) and have a theology and a chaplaincy certificate. I still love science of all types and enjoy studying theology. Science and theology belong together. At present I am a work-at-home Grannysaurus.

FEEDJIT Live Traffic Feed

FEEDJIT Live Traffic Map