Never a dull moment here...
Wednesday morning as we were getting Andrew to school, the Bee Be Gone (isn't that cute?) folks called to tell us they were in the neighborhood with a "Bee Emergency" and could come by earlier than their scheduled 2-4 pm appointment. I had called them over the holiday weekend as I was watching the bees go into the front bush and never come out. I briefly looked for a nest but after reading several web sites suggesting you not attempt to remove a nest yourself and to contact a local beekeeper, I relented.
Glad I did. Mr. Bee Be Gone arrived at 9:15 am and quickly determined the YELLOW JACKET nest was in the ground. He said they usually get 7-8 of these calls a week and this time of the year the nests can be as big as a canteloupe and contain anywhere from 5K to 25K bees. Now this is getting exciting! He told us he was going to "suit up" and I started having flashbacks to Ghostbusters, although his vehicle wasn't nearly as cool. (After hearing the story at work, my co-workers asked if there was a large plastic bee on the top of the truck, Great idea!). I had to go to work at this point, so the rest of the story is from Mark.
"Suiting up" consisted of a long sleeve T-shirt, long work gloves, and a full bee keepers hood with mesh in the front. He sprayed the area to kill off any yellow jackets around the nest (apparently this makes them really mad and they swarm), then he dug up the nest with his hands. How disappointing, ours was only the size of a softball. Mark said he threw the nest in the back of his truck with about 30 other trophies, I mean nests. Then he sprinkled a white powder on the ground where the nest was. The point of this is to catch the yellow jackets at sunset as they come back to find their home destroyed. The powder gets on the bees and they die and it continues killing for 6 months. He said we should be careful as the yellow jackets may die in the yard or on the sidewalk and their stingers still work for 5-7 days post-mortem. Great, we have two young children! No problem he says:
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