My childhood was much influenced by a series of B-rated disaster movies. It seems that there were really only two key plots coming out of Hollywood for most of the 70’s...promising athlete dying of cancer or catastrophic disaster inflicted upon everyday people. I was a fan of the disaster flicks.
Everything from Towering Inferno, a sinking Poseidon, many Airport near tragedies, and of course the many ways an angry Mother Nature can put people back into their humble place. With this I come to our own version of "Attack of the Africanized Killer Bees".
Right away I’ll let you know that no one was actually attacked and bees may not have really been Africanized but it does make a better movie (blog)!
Everything from Towering Inferno, a sinking Poseidon, many Airport near tragedies, and of course the many ways an angry Mother Nature can put people back into their humble place. With this I come to our own version of "Attack of the Africanized Killer Bees".
Right away I’ll let you know that no one was actually attacked and bees may not have really been Africanized but it does make a better movie (blog)!
A few weeks ago a pretty massive swam of bees moved into the tree right beside our patio. You know, the place where we get in and out of the pool barely clad and where I have my morning coffee with my eyes hardly open. Basically where we do most of our living. Our first reaction tends to be....Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! when we come across a newly perceived threat and it wasn’t much different this time.
Of course, educated-rational Mona knows that bees are so important to all of us and we are losing them in crazy numbers. I’ve done the catch and release thing many a time with bees in the house but this sent me back to a more primal state...survival. Not that we were actually threatened but I remember those scenes of innocent small town folk being taken down by the murderous killer bees in the movies. Ignorance breeds all sorts of bad decisions and quite honestly, we are ignorant about a lot of things here. But that’s all part of the adventure...another thing to chalk up to the life experience list.
Of course, educated-rational Mona knows that bees are so important to all of us and we are losing them in crazy numbers. I’ve done the catch and release thing many a time with bees in the house but this sent me back to a more primal state...survival. Not that we were actually threatened but I remember those scenes of innocent small town folk being taken down by the murderous killer bees in the movies. Ignorance breeds all sorts of bad decisions and quite honestly, we are ignorant about a lot of things here. But that’s all part of the adventure...another thing to chalk up to the life experience list.
Thankfully calmer heads prevailed in our non-disaster movie. That and the fact that neither of us had any plans to go anywhere near the hive! A measly can of bug spray seemed pretty foolish up against a gazillion killer bees! Yes, a gazillion!! So, we very quietly and cowardly discussed the matter and figured that we should call our neighbour, Domingo. He is a bee keeper so he is fully armed with the fancy white suit with the big net hat and the little smoker guns. Yah, Domingo would know what to do. Now at this point we were still all for the ‘Kill it!’ strategy but thankfully Domingo is a much wiser man. He looked at the hive as an opportunity and he was more than happy to come over to try to relocated them into a box hive. Then the little darlings could produce honey to their little hearts content...away from my patio and pool!
I wish I could say that the story ends here. Domingo came and took the bees away with a promise to bring us some honey. Turns out the bees weren’t happy with their new living arrangement and they left. Yup, just up and left. And guess where they showed up again? Same tree, one branch over. A little less panicked this time, we called Domingo again. Told him to come get his damn bees out of our yard...just kidding!!!! He is trying a more passive approach this time. Let the bees think it is their idea. We’ll see. The bee box is sitting under the tree and the hive is gone today. They may have moved into the box but I’m sure as heck not going to be the one to check it out! ‘Domingo!!!!!!’.