The Bees Knees

We got some bees.

Seriously. We have bees. I know there has been a recent scientific mystery as to why many of the bee colonies in America have diminished. They have relocated to Central New Jersey, taking up residence in my yard. If all the scientists in all the lands want some of those missing bees, come and get ‘em.

There are bees living in the decomposing hay in my very neglected vegetable garden, which hasn’t seen a vegetable plant in 4 years. These hives were discovered when we decided to hack down the Joe Pye weed that is threatening to become a forest all its own and disrupted two separate colonies containing two different types of bee. One colony is full of fat, fuzzy black and yellow bees that just buzz around when disturbed but do not immediately spring into attack mode. The other is some sort of aggressive yellow jacket that erupt out of the hive cocked and ready to kill on sight. These suckers are fast and mean.

There are bees living in the semi-exposed locust tree root in the back yard. Ace stumbled upon this hive when he ran the lawn mower over it and they came buzzing out in response to the noise and vibration of the mower. These bees are also the fat black and yellow ones that meander among the flowers but don't seem to be in constant battle state.

There are bees living under and in the decomposing logs bordering our driveway, which was the big discovery of the day.

How exactly we discovered this last location? My brother in law ran over one of the logs with his truck as he backed into our driveway. This disruption of their home base seemed to have really pissed off the yellow jacket occupants. They came swarming out to attack anyone that had the temerity to be in close proximity to their hive as they winged about like maddened missiles. Ace happened to be the not so lucky target sighted. He stepped on the log just after it been disturbed and he got the worst of the attack. He was stung 10 times, all on his legs and chest. SuperHubby got hit once or twice when trying to assist Ace out of the inferno of very angry bees dive bombing them in search of flesh to pierce.

Ace escaped the assault with the obvious welts and itchy spots. Nothing some cortisone cream and benadryl didn’t resolve within a few hours. My brother in law managed to avoid getting stung completely. Maybe the bees knew he was there to fix my car and didn’t want to scare him away. Or maybe not and he was just out of the line of fire.

SuperHubby picked up some bee and wasp killer stuff today. We’ll leave the garden bees and the backyard bees alone as they are out of the way and don’t really bother anyone. But the driveway bees have to move along or be eradicated; it’s there choice. We are out there way too often and I don’t want to be worried about whether we or some unsuspecting person will accidentally disrupt that log and send the bees into attack mode again. They seem to be a little cranky and truly there is only room for one dedicated cantankerous individual around my house and that is I. I get that role. Maybe the bees will loan me a few stingers. I can think of quite a few people to zap.