One of those days...

[ostarella]

Today was supposed to be a productive day working outside.

That's about as far as it got.

Started out with a few things to get taken care of online first. Which would have been okay if I hadn't overslept.  Once I got that stuff done, I went out to start the chores by filling the bird feeders - only to discover I was totally out of sunflower seeds. So that meant a trip to town, and picking up a few other things that I needed - after taking time to make sure I had a list of all those "few things" that I needed. Got back, filled the feeders, then remembered I had to make a couple phone calls regarding our tiller - and then wait for people to call me back.

In the meantime, it was getting hotter than hell. Relative to the season and recent weather, anyway. So by the time I went out to start raking and cleaning out the gardens, my still thick winter blood just didn't want to deal with the heat. Plus still being a bit out of shape from the months of little or not activity. So came back in, decided to clean up the house until it cooled off a little outside.

Merrily bustling around the kitchen when this loud - as in, VERY LOUD - buzz raced past my ear. Looked around - HUGE bumble bee bopping around the kitchen. Huge as in good inch and a half.  And not happy. Now, bumble bees are not known for their benevolent attitude anyway - being trapped in a room does nothing to improve that. And he definitely considered me the cause of all his problems.

I have a pathological fear of spiders - my fear of bees is more practical. I've been stung twice in my life and the resulting swelling, pain, stiffness and overall "I'm going to puke my guts out" feeling is not one I wish to relive. So I let him chase me into the bathroom, where I locked him in long enough to get the bug spray. (Yes, chemical-free life nothwithstanding, there's a matter of pure survival instinct - so I do have bug spray. Potent bug spray.) And I spent the next 15 minutes alternating between chasing and being chased.

But I won. :D

So, now my heart is doing it's wonderful little I'm-stressed-out-you-idiot! thumping  and I'm sitting here thinking, I don't give a damn if the gardens ever get cleaned out.

But since we're due for thunderstorms for the next few days, I guess I'll have to get off my ass and work this evening.

But all in all - I'd rather deal with heat and bumblebees than snow and cold. Any day.

Comments

[beckyblack]

I can still remember an encounter with a huge-ass bumblebee nearly 20 years ago! That thing was huge. More like a bloody hummingbird than a bee.

It was a life and death struggle, but I defeated the beast.

[ostarella.livejournal.com]

They do get huge, don't they? Gawd.

But victory is soooo sweet! LOL

[mossy62.livejournal.com]

Aw, the poor thing! Going by the size it was a queen, looking for a place for her nest. You killed a whole population of bumble bees in their beginning! And bumble bees don't sting unless they absolutely have to, they aren't agressive like wasps. But okay, let's put it down to a bad day. LOL. Just out of curiosity: is it really necessary to still feed the birds? We stop feeding as soon as the snow is gone and it gets a tiny bit warmer.

Anyway, hope your days will improve and won't have so many unexpected things to deal with. It's good to hear that spring has finally arrived at your place, too.

[ostarella.livejournal.com]

The bumble bees I've encountered are definitely aggressive! Whether in the garden or the house. Bumble bees, hornets, wasps, yellow jackets - you don't want to get anywhere near them. Honeybees are a different matter. Maybe because stinging kills them ;-)

Normally we only feed the birds in the winter, but my brother read where it's recommended you feed them year long, so that's what we're doing this year. Although we have to find a different place to hang the feeders - I'd kinda like to use my clothesline over the summer :D

[billy-shriner.livejournal.com]

I feed my birds all year round... just have to make sure the nuts are in a cage, so that the birds don't get whole nuts to feed to their young.

[mossy62.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, must be the american variety that is so agressive. LOL. No, seriously, I've got quite a bit respect for wasps and hornets and don't trust them, but I have so often watched bumble bees in our garden and they never did anything besides minding their own business. Will keep that in mind for my next USA holiday though ;-)

Oh, I'm sure the birds don't mind being fed all year, makes it easier for them. What we do throughout the year is sharing our walnuts with them. Those the squirrels didn't get over winter, that is. But yeah, you might want to offer them another place to feed. Birds don't have much respect for freshly laundred clothes that appear on the line out of nowhere, when it was their place before. LOL.

[beckyblack]

Don't you have those "killer bees" in the US?

We're have a problem with bees disappearing here. Their numbers are severely down due to a couple of bad summers and some disease that's been getting 'em.

[ostarella.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I believe the killer bees are migrating up from South America - last I looked they were in the extreme southern regions.

It's strange about the disappearances - I've heard concerns over here as well, but I didn't delve into it enough to find out the why's and wherefor's ;-)

[beckyblack]

Put it down to natural selection. Bees that stay out of houses get to pass on their genes. :D

[billy-shriner.livejournal.com]

:-O You killed a bee!!!! Can you not get a glass, and a bit of paper and put him outside?

Bee's are okay - I've never come across an angry one... though he did sound pretty big :-O

[beckyblack]

Was almost certainly a she. Most bees are female.

[billy-shriner.livejournal.com]

I thought the worker bees are he... and she stays tucked in her next until a new queen is born and flies off to make a new nest. Or something like that...

Although this bugger, sounded like it could be a she.

[beckyblack]

Nope, worker bees all female. Most types of bees only have a small number of males around for the purpose of producing some fertilised eggs when they need them, by mating with the queen.

Bees are kind of weird and fascinating. And then ants, similar kind of thing and even more weird!

[ostarella.livejournal.com]

NO! This is not your cute little honeybee - this is an honest to God horse of a bee. Picture a bee the size of your thumb with BA's disposition - that's a bumbler. And they can sting you over and over and over.

Glass - I'm thinking tank.

[billy-shriner.livejournal.com]

lol! Well, I suppose if you react the way you do to being stung, then it has to be you or the bee...

I thought all bees stung only once and then died... even the bumble bee. I've seen some bigguns... but not the size of BA's thumb :-O

I swatted a hornet once, and good job... It was on the window, and could see all the "eggs". Didn't want one of those nesting near the house :-O

But Bees I try to save... and butterflies... The stupid things come into my bloody conservatory in the summer when I have the door open.

I even saved a grasshopper once. It was big and black, and because I didn't have my glasses on initially I thought it was a spider... But because it wasn't a spider, I couldn't kill it lol!

[beckyblack]

The bees dying if they sting thing, it depends on the species. it their sting is barbed like a fish hook, it will stay in you and when they pull away it stays behind, along with it's sac of poison, which the bitee usually then manages to help along by squashing it! The bee then dies. But if the sting is smooth it's more like being bitten by a snake, inserts the sting, injects the poison and then pulls the sting out and goes about its day.

[tracyb144.livejournal.com]

As one who has a huge fear of bees, I'd be hauling out the super duper bug spray myself and showing no mercy :P
And I don't care what kind. Wasps, hornets, cute little bumblebees. A bees' a bee. They sting. They hurt. And they're only cute in cartoons and Disney Pixar movies :D

[ostarella.livejournal.com]

You know, after all the comments about how "mild-mannered" bumblers were supposed to be, I was starting to wonder if my whole life experience had been on Planet X LOL So, being the research-addicted person I am, I looked it up! European bumblers are very nice, thank you, and *most* American continent bumblers are - but there are several varieties that are "extremely aggressive". So yeah - the bug spray stays! LOL

[theteej2.livejournal.com]

Hah! Weighing in at last!

The biggest difference between bees and hornets/wasps is the stinging... duh!

Pollen gatherers like bees and bumblers can only sting one and die afterwards, like JFM said.

Hornets and Wasps however seek protien, and they are the repeat stingers, they only stop when you kill them.

Having had my encounters with both, give me bees and bumblers. Just hand me that flame-thrower when the Yellowjackets start hanging around. (I accidently ripped open a nest of Yellowjackets when landscaping. ASk me about repeat stingers and the two that got inside my shirt...)

Bumblers are great fun to just watch. Little Beeeee 52's.

*ok you can all stop groaning!*

[ostarella.livejournal.com]

Ah, the bumblers can sting you over and over, too! Nasty little buggers - but apparently that's the type we have here.

My general feeling about bugs in general - if they're outside, that's their house. If they're inside - they're dead! (Well, unless I can get them out without injury to me - and that's excepting spiders. Spiders are dead meat, period. :p)

[theteej2.livejournal.com]

Ookiest sound I have ever heard was an Aussie sitting in a bank Tullamarine waiting for something who casually stepped on a baby Huntsman tarantula.

The thing was as big as my hand.

The man was wearing flip flops.

'It' CRUNCHED.

I had to leave the bank.

My skin crawls to this day!

[ostarella.livejournal.com]

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

[theteej2.livejournal.com]

Yeah, ewwww! That was twenty years ago!