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      Just another surreal day at the Facility in the Middle of Nowhere

I was getting a bit worried about The Bee Situation [1]. When last left off
[2], the exterminator said he'd be back on Monday and when I called his
office in the afternoon there was no indication that he would be by. I ended
up calling twice before I got a call back from the technician (as the office
called him).

He was on his way, along with his supervisor (!) and would be here at the
Facility in the Middle of Nowhere any minute.

About half an hour later I hear a knock on the door. Standing there were the
exterminator and his supervisor, both wearing bee suits and carrying
equipment. I led them upstairs into the Master Bedroom and left them to do
their work.

Over the next half hour or so I could hear various loud noises coming from
upstairs, then followed by a few minutes of silence. Then the exterminator
comes downstairs, asking if I had my camera ready. I had mentioned the other
day that I wanted to get pictures of the resulting hive and now I had my
chance.

[Apis mellifera Warriors] [3] [4] [The Honey Factory in the Wall] [5] [6]
[The Hive in the Wall] [7] [8] [The Hive Situation in Hand] [9] [10]

Quite impressive, given that the bees had only been there for maybe a month
or so. I asked if bees really could build hives that fast and the supervisor
said yes—he then said that he recently removed a 200 pound (!) hive that took
about two to three months for the bees to construct. As hives go, this
appears to have been a rather small one—there appeared to be only two large
combs plus some smaller ones.

Before sealing the holes with the old drywall and duct tape (they're
exterminators, not carpenters) the supervisor set off a bug bumb in the large
cavity, to ensure no bee survives. Now all that's left is getting The Office
(the rental office that is) to send a crew out to repair the walls.

It could have been worse.

I was talking to Hoade, telling him of the Bee Situation, when he related a
tale that happened to one of his ex-girlfriends. Seems when his ex was still
living at home, a hive had set up shop in their walls. A rather large hive.
We're talking tens of thousands of bees. The exterminator they called
apparently thought that just plugging up the hole they used would effectively
handle the situation.

That is, if you don't mind having tens of thousands of bees slowly dying in
the walls.

Anyway, the bees didn't think much of slowly dying in the walls, so they
found another way “outside” which involved going through the “inside” of the
“house.” And once found, the tens of thousands of bees did much rejoice,
since they swarmed out of their newly found exit “outside” and the mother
managed to get a way with only a few hundred stings.

So yeah, I'm glad the Bee Situation wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Very glad.

[1] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2004/01/12.1
[2] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2004/02/13.2
[3] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2004/02/16/thumb.apis.warriors.jpg
[4] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2004/02/16/apis.warriors.jpg
[5] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2004/02/16/thumb.hive.1.jpg
[6] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2004/02/16/hive.1.jpg
[7] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2004/02/16/thumb.hive.2.jpg
[8] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2004/02/16/hive.2.jpg
[9] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2004/02/16/thumb.hive.3.jpg
[10] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2004/02/16/hive.3.jpg

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