Ah, nature...red in tooth and claw (and stinger)

[sinanju]

So I hired someone through Craig's List to mow our lawn, and edge it, and dump the clippings onto the compost pile in the backyard.  As regular readers know, our yard is completely out of control.  The grass has gotten much too long to be mow-able with the reel push mower we own.  So I hired someone to wrestle it back into a semblance of urban control.  Once that's done, I can resume mowing twice a week with the reel mower to keep it under control.

So the woman showed up this afternoon and mowed and edged and dumped clippings.  The front and side yards are mowed, and most of the clippings collected and dumped.  The backyard is incomplete, but she's going to return tomorrow to finish it.

After the angry swarming bees have dispersed.

She knocked on the front door a little while ago reqesting asylum.  It seemed that our next door neighbors had somehow disturbed a nest and the bees were...unhappy.  I took a look out the bathroom window and sure enough, the front porch and the stairs leading to it on the house next door are engulfed in a large, swirling, buzzing swarm of angry bees.

I can't tell from a distance, but I'm assuming they're jellowjackets.  I can't imagine that honeybees have taken up residence in a suburban yard where someone could disturb their nest.  Which leaves only yellowjackets or hornets.  Hornet nests are very distinctive and generally quite visible (in my experience, anyhow).  Yellowjackets, the little bastards, are much more prone to building nests where you least expect them.

I hate them all.

Edit:  Yellowjackets are not bees, my lovely and talented wife informs me.  Whatever.  They fly, they sting.  That means they're either bees or wasps/hornets.  Either way, I hates them all.

Update:  I went out to the grocery store and saw that Bee Control Northwest was on the scene.  When I got back I talked to the exterminator and the neighbors, who were standing outside by his truck.  Turns out that they were honeybees after all.  But it wasn's a disturbed nest, as we'd thought.  They were simply swarming, having come from elsewhere to establish a new nest, as bees are wont to do now and then.  The neighbors saw them coming and ducked inside, where they called for the exterminator.

snippy and I are just glad that the swarm chose the neighbors' house as their destination, rather than our house.  This way we didn't have to pony up the money to get rid of them....

Comments

[raine-wynd.livejournal.com]

We had ground wasps in our old yard -- you don't see the nest until you're practically on top of it....

[alicetheowl.livejournal.com]

Eeek!

I don't like stinging insects. A single bee alighting on a single flower is kinda pretty and peaceful, but once you get them in the air, that's me, running off thataway.

I've only been stung once, and it was by a yellowjacket, but I have no desire to repeat the experience.

I was going to say...

[seawasp]

... bet it's a swarm, but I see the professionals beat me to it.

I've seen three or four swarms. Very memorable they are, indeed.