Bees

As if a mice in the garage wasn't annoying enough, all summer we've had problems with bees. They built a nest in a small space under my concrete front steps. When you are out, sitting on the front chairs or just coming into the house, you will encounter half a dozen buzzing around. Now, I love bumble bees. I know how beneficial they are and that they aren't aggressive unless provoked but their location was not only a nuisance but frightening to the children.

After previously having dumped a few cans of Raid I saw that the bee issue was still a problem. Last night, I started looking up ways to deal with nests. I figured there were 30 or 40 under the step. My friend and I thought, let us wait until dark, move the step and use more Raid directly on the nest. Well, I popped out to the store and came back to a cluster of neighbours who, with my husband, had moved the concrete steps and were getting ready to torch the hive. Let me say how stunned I was by the size! About the size of a football. Hundreds of bees! And at about 4 feet away, the buzz coming out of the hive was truly scary.

The kids were parked several houses down, having brought out lawn chairs to watch the adults and all the commotion. With a hose on stand-by, the nest was burned and eventually the step moved back. It was a little disconcerting to see flames so close to my front door though.

So, the hive is gone. The kids can play on the patio again. I await the next infestation. Locusts, perhaps?