Thursday, August 04, 2005
They are totally NOT killer bees…
Well, I had the bees inspected. By MYSELF!! I’m not an entymologist by any stretch, but I can recognize a honeybee. And they were totally NOT honeybees. Here’s the story:
My contractor, Tom, was tearing out a basement that had a water leak. He opened the wall and found these bees, see, working away peacefully over their egg casings. This should have been the first clue, because honeybees nest in combs and their egg casings are largely hidden from view, being inside the combs. Anyway, he, not wanting to get stung, had me send out an exterminator (poor bees!) who came and promptly killed all the bees with his magic bee-killing dust. Or whatever it is that he uses. Either way, the bees were offed, and I had asked Tom to find out what the hell kind of bees they were, because I was curious. The way he had described these bees was that the bees were small, but the egg-casings were HUGE!! So I wanted to know exactly what kind of bee I was dealing with, not having been able to find them on the innernet the other day.
So the exterminator, Zoltan from Best Control Pest Control, which is probably the best name for a Pest Control company I have heard of in a long time, especially if you say it the way Zoltan says it with his fantastic Hungarian accent, shrugs and says “Those bees, they are Africanized Honeybees”. And Tom duly reports that to me. And I laughed and laughed!! Africanized Honeybees? KILLER bees?? No way. Not in Airdrie, let me tell you. I told Tom to get me a sample of the bees and their egg casings. Which he did.
And they were then brought to the office amongst solemn ceremony. And the office co-workers, they did shriek (fearing bees). Not being there when they were brought in, the bees were placed in my overhead bin, and when I got in last Friday, I looked at them. These bees, they are not honeybees at all. They are carpenter bees. I should have guessed that they would be, what with the nesting in the wall and the egg casings and all. So no need to alert the authorities, no need to call the media. We don’t have killer bees in Alberta after all. I think they are still relegated to Texas in North America, although they may be on the move North. It will probably take them a while to get to Alberta, seeing as we have nice cold winters that will kill sensitive honeybees if not properly housed.
In other recent news, Rob has indeed started his little business, Liger Contracting. It’s an exciting time for us, really. He gets to sleep in, and as I am influenced by his morning sleep-in habits (i.e. not getting up, turning off his alarm clock, ignoring the muted pleas of the dogs wanting to get outside), I often also turn over and fall back asleep. I have been “late” to work all last week and part of this week. And AND, the deal is that some of this stuff Rob will be doing or go to after I finish work, so like a puppy, I follow him along. And if he’s going to be out there, doing work, I will help him because I love him like air. And then I end up working after work. And then I am tired.
Which is how it goes today. I’m tired, and trying to figure out how the weekend will go. Rob is supposedly going to play poker. I have a painter friend who is bacheloring it this weekend, and I can call him to entertain me, so I’m not sitting around waiting for Rob to get home. We are having friends come over for dinner on Saturday, which will be very nice because I have not seen my friend Rose much lately, and I miss talking with her. The house is, again, a disaster and needs cleaning badly.
All in all, a disappointing report. Except for the bees. Although it would have been pretty exciting had they been Africanized Honeybees… I am a little glad they are not because that would have been a bit of a circus, and I need it to slow down a little here at work.
Hopefully I will have more exciting news to report next week. Perhaps we will have a tornado, or some other extreme weather, or someone will get fired, or the TELUS union will try to force Rob to strike (which he will not do), or the evil dogs will learn to walk and talk, or the cats will mount an insurrection and take over the household (ha! Like they don’t control it now), or I’ll win the lottery. Cross your fingers for that last one, eh?
My contractor, Tom, was tearing out a basement that had a water leak. He opened the wall and found these bees, see, working away peacefully over their egg casings. This should have been the first clue, because honeybees nest in combs and their egg casings are largely hidden from view, being inside the combs. Anyway, he, not wanting to get stung, had me send out an exterminator (poor bees!) who came and promptly killed all the bees with his magic bee-killing dust. Or whatever it is that he uses. Either way, the bees were offed, and I had asked Tom to find out what the hell kind of bees they were, because I was curious. The way he had described these bees was that the bees were small, but the egg-casings were HUGE!! So I wanted to know exactly what kind of bee I was dealing with, not having been able to find them on the innernet the other day.
So the exterminator, Zoltan from Best Control Pest Control, which is probably the best name for a Pest Control company I have heard of in a long time, especially if you say it the way Zoltan says it with his fantastic Hungarian accent, shrugs and says “Those bees, they are Africanized Honeybees”. And Tom duly reports that to me. And I laughed and laughed!! Africanized Honeybees? KILLER bees?? No way. Not in Airdrie, let me tell you. I told Tom to get me a sample of the bees and their egg casings. Which he did.
And they were then brought to the office amongst solemn ceremony. And the office co-workers, they did shriek (fearing bees). Not being there when they were brought in, the bees were placed in my overhead bin, and when I got in last Friday, I looked at them. These bees, they are not honeybees at all. They are carpenter bees. I should have guessed that they would be, what with the nesting in the wall and the egg casings and all. So no need to alert the authorities, no need to call the media. We don’t have killer bees in Alberta after all. I think they are still relegated to Texas in North America, although they may be on the move North. It will probably take them a while to get to Alberta, seeing as we have nice cold winters that will kill sensitive honeybees if not properly housed.
In other recent news, Rob has indeed started his little business, Liger Contracting. It’s an exciting time for us, really. He gets to sleep in, and as I am influenced by his morning sleep-in habits (i.e. not getting up, turning off his alarm clock, ignoring the muted pleas of the dogs wanting to get outside), I often also turn over and fall back asleep. I have been “late” to work all last week and part of this week. And AND, the deal is that some of this stuff Rob will be doing or go to after I finish work, so like a puppy, I follow him along. And if he’s going to be out there, doing work, I will help him because I love him like air. And then I end up working after work. And then I am tired.
Which is how it goes today. I’m tired, and trying to figure out how the weekend will go. Rob is supposedly going to play poker. I have a painter friend who is bacheloring it this weekend, and I can call him to entertain me, so I’m not sitting around waiting for Rob to get home. We are having friends come over for dinner on Saturday, which will be very nice because I have not seen my friend Rose much lately, and I miss talking with her. The house is, again, a disaster and needs cleaning badly.
All in all, a disappointing report. Except for the bees. Although it would have been pretty exciting had they been Africanized Honeybees… I am a little glad they are not because that would have been a bit of a circus, and I need it to slow down a little here at work.
Hopefully I will have more exciting news to report next week. Perhaps we will have a tornado, or some other extreme weather, or someone will get fired, or the TELUS union will try to force Rob to strike (which he will not do), or the evil dogs will learn to walk and talk, or the cats will mount an insurrection and take over the household (ha! Like they don’t control it now), or I’ll win the lottery. Cross your fingers for that last one, eh?
