Battle of the Bees

Our war on nature continues...

Some honey bees have built their hive in what I believe is a sewage ventilation pipe. Its high up on the roof out back where our clothes line is and quite frankly they weren't hurting anyone - yet.

 

A couple of weeks ago Gabriel was doing some work out back and he got stung. There was a moment of concern as Gabriel remembered the last time he was stung as a child he got sick and the doctor told him he was allergic. Fortunately nothing seemed to happen and all was well and the bees, for the time, were forgotten.

Once or twice a rouge bee would find its way into our house. Mainly into our bathroom, which is right next to the pipe the hive is in.

Then two days ago (Monday) I was in the kitchen making dinner and Noah was fiddling around, getting in my way, when he started to cry. Exasperated I looked at him and asked "What's wrong?!" (Patience isn't my strong suit) He whimpered and looked down at his hand. There was a tiny thorn sticking out of his pinky finger. I tried to pull it out and he started to squirm and squeal. After fussing at him to hold still so it can be over quicker I finally pulled it out. But when I looked at it didn't quite look like a thorn. And that is when I heard the buzzing on the floor. Noah had tried to pick up a dying bee and had gotten stung.

After applying a paste made from bicarb, Noah's temperament quickly improved. We were relieved that the sting didn't seem to be too bad and he showed no signs if being allergic.

The next morning (Tuesday) I stood on a dead bee. Rotten dead devil still managed to sting me.

Since all three of us had now been stung Gabriel decided it was time to do something about these bees. He made a few calls and got a hold of a lady who said her fiance dealt with hive removals, but he was away and she would call us back later that day. She never did.

The following morning (Today - Wednesday) Gabriel made some more calls. They all seemed to be dead ends. We didn't want to destroy the hive (we're not supposed to anyway, they are on the endangered list) and no-one seemed to know anyone who wanted one.

So Gabriel thought in the meantime he would cover the pipe with a board and a couple of bricks to keep the bees inside for now. Hmmm... Not such a great idea. The distress call was made and all the hundreds of bees that were out harvesting pollen or whatever else they do flew back to their blocked up home. And being locked out of their house was not making them very happy.

Still on the phone trying to find a solution Gabriel called a friend of a friend in hopes he would be able to help. When Gabe told him what we had done the guy said that was probably a mistake because we now would have angered the bees.

With a combination of concern for our family's well-being in light of now having hundred of angry bees just outside our house mixed with feelings of guilt at having them trapped and possibly killing them in the long run Gabriel asked me if I thought he should go back up on the roof and remove the board. I told him I wasn't comfortable making that call. He decided he would.

I told him to wear long pants and a long sleeve shirt before he went up there. On his way out the back door I jokingly (but seriously) asked if he had a balaclava he could wear. I knew he didn't. 

I watched as he climbed the ladder and pulled himself up onto the roof, slowly approaching the blocked hive. The released bees had seemed to have calmed down and were massed along the pipe. As Gabriel slowly slid the board off a dark swarm shot out of the pipe and started attacking Gabriel mercilessly.

Swatting them furiously, Gabriel ran along the roof to where the ladder was and jumped. He barely touched the ladder so much as using it as a springboard before falling to the ground. I watched helplessly thinking he must have broken his legs, but in that instant he was up again running toward the house screaming "Shut the door! Shut the door!" The bees were still after him!

In the house Gabriel continued trying to beat off the few bees that had managed to follow him resuming their assault. I grabbed the new can of DOOM that I had just bout after my incident with the spider-that-would-not-die. Gabriel was on the floor trying to fight off the bees that were in his hair and I started spraying over his head. One bee received the order to take out the chemical warfare being used against them and came after me! I screamed as it went for my hand holding the DOOM, dropping the can I retreated. 

Gabriel was up again yelling at me to grab Noah and get into the car. I pulled Noah out of the highchair where I had left him and bolted into the garage that is just off the dinning room. Gabriel slammed the door shut behind us.

As the adrenaline pumped through our veins we stood there breathing heavily staring at the closed door. I turned to my husband and asked if I needed to take him to the emergency room. He said yes. I must admit in that moment I was probably the most scared.

Gabriel had been stung multiple times on his ears and hands, and his ankles were in excruciating pain from the fall.

After going back inside, to get dressed and grab my purse, Gabriel told me his ears were throbbing. I looked at them at and there was still a stinger in one of his ears, which I removed with tweezers.

I drove us to the doctor's office praying that Gabriel wouldn't go into anaphylactic shock on the way. Once at the doctor's office and after the doctor berated Gabriel for messing with the bees he said that Gabriel showed no signs of being allergic and gave him a cortisone injection and pain medicine for his bruised tendons. He said his his feet still weren't right in a couple of days he would need to go for x-rays.

On our way home we got a call from the lady who Gabriel had spoken to the day before and said her fiance could come and try to remove the bees this evening. Great.