Thursday, October 2, 2008

To bee, or not to bee

Drawing 254

Drawing 255

Drawing 256
Drawing 257

This morning both my cats were conspicuous by their absence. Anyone familiar with cats will know that a conspicuous absence generally bodes ill. After a short search, I discovered both felines in the bedroom, staring fixedly at the north wall. More specifically, staring at the air vent on the north wall.

Hmmm, thinks I, I hear...buzzing. Droning. LOUD. And the ping of little winged bodies against the plaster. Uh-oh. This is probably not good.

An investigation outside revealed a horde of busy little bees industriously invading the air vents on the exterior wall. The Bloke had, earlier in the morning, reported half a dozen bees investigating the compost bin, which, though unusual, hadn't more than raised my eyebrow. Now all was revealed: the little buggers were staging an invasion and setting up house in the wall cavity.

A quick phonecall to my landlord set the pest exterminators onto the job. Since there was no way of accessing the forming hive to remove it (short of knocking down the wall to my house), to my regret the only thing to do was puff in pyrethrum (sp?) dust to exterminate them. The buzzing has now ceased.

Poor little bees, just when they thought they'd found a nice new home :(

The exterminator guy told me he is severely allergic to bees and wasps. Helluva occupational hazard!

Oh, and their job of alerting me to the invasion accomplished, the cats promptly gave up staring at the wall and went back to their real job of snoozing in the sun.

1 comment:

Caroline M said...

I think they deserve a treat for such a good job.

Many years ago my husband was getting all worked up about wasps in the wall, he could hear a faint scraping noise and was impossible to live with. It turned out to be the neighbours scraping wallpaper off the party wall. I've never let him forget that one.