pbray

Or more like several thousand, via WMD.

Friends may recall my LJ entry from back in June when I reported that I thought I had a nest of wasps in my house. Despite myself and a corroborating eyewitness having seen at least two bees, a thorough professional inspection yielded no evidence of bee activity and the sighting was dismissed as a fluke. I kept my eyes open everytime I went in the basement, but saw no evidence that the bees had returned.

Then this past weekend, I noticed yellow & black striped bees congregating near the front corner of my house. They seemed quite busy, and I wondered if ground bees had moved into the former chipmunk hole.

Tuesday night I found a dead yellowjacket on top of the bright white enamel of the washing machine, the one place I would be certain to find him.

Today the exterminator arrived, and destroyed a nest in my basement that was at least a foot long. It was up over the drop ceiling in the finished section of the basement, exactly where I'd spotted the previous intruders. The bees were using a gap in the siding to get in to the house.

The nest was quite large, as they get at this time of year, and I'm in the basement every day to empty the dehumidifier which is located in the same corner of the room as the nest. Yet I never heard or saw anything, even though I was down there at a time of day when they should have been active.

So on the one hand I'm kind of freaked out, and on the other hand I'm feeling really really lucky. Did I mention that I'm allergic to bee stings?

Anyway, bugslayer came by, killed the bees and removed the nest. There are still apparently dozens (or perhaps hundreds) of bee corpses down there, as bees not immediately in the nest were able to wander off to die. Other bees will be killed by the chemicals as they try to return to the former site of the nest. I'm going to wait the recommended three days and then take a shop vac to the mess.