Saturday, June 27, 2009

Buzz Buzz Buzzzzzz

So, I'm in the kitchen this afternoon, minding my own, when I notice a little girl looking out her window in the house behind mine. Then I see a WHOLE bunch of something flying around in the air in their yard. My first thought was grasshoppers, since I heard about an invasion of them down in Lehi recently. Then I remembered grasshoppers don't fly. I looked around, and they were only flying in that one yard, but there were THOUSANDS of them. I realized they were bees, and then I thought, "KILLER BEES! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE, WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" Check out this picture:

There were so many, I almost started to panic. What was going on? I called Kevin upstairs to see this strange phenomenon. He, of course, was pretty calm about the whole thing, but I was kinda freaking out. Asking him, "Well, what are they doing? Why are they here? What are they going to do next?"
He just said, "I don't know, that's wierd" and went back downstairs to do whatever it is he was doing.


I tried to just get back to baking my cookies, but couldn't stop thinking they were going to break down the door and kill us all. I kept my eye out the window. But pretty soon, the numbers seemed to dwindle. I thought, "Oh good, they're going away to the next yard." But I noticed the remaining bees were just hovering around a certain tree in our back yard.


Then, I noticed a big black spot in the tree:




I finally was brave enough to go outside and take a closer look to whatever the heck they were doing. What in the world?



I called Kevin back upstairs and what does he do? He decides to take the super-zoom lens and get right at the base of the tree for some close ups. Eeewww! I get the heebie-jeebies just looking at this.




So, I called animal services, and they're closed on Saturdays. Their message says, "for an animal emergency, call police dispatch at this number" so I called the number and said I had a bee problem, then they referred me to some bee specialist. The bee man sounded like a sweet old man, and he said he's been dealing with bees for years. He said he'd come later after it cools off, and shake them off into a box. I failed to ask him where he was going to take the bees. But he said they were honey bees, so I'm assuming he won't kill them. We were gone all evening and I told him he was more than welcome to just let himself into the back yard and get them. He said he'd come over. But I just went outside, (it's close to midnight), and the bees are still there! It's so creepy! But kinda cool at the same time. I figured it's too late to call him now. Maybe in the morning they'll fly away, maybe into one of your yards! He said they'd just be there for the night, then fly away the next day. It's just normal honey-bee behavior. I've never seen anything like this before.

9 comments:

Kelly said...

That is crazy weird! And you're just down the street! I'm glad they aren't hornets or wasps. I really hate those guys. Nice pictures!

The Mom said...

Ah, I know about this! The bees are swarming. When there get to be too many bees in a colony, they will create a new queen, and when the queen is mature, she will leave and take some bees with her to create a new colony. My brother and sil have bee hives and they actually saw this happen to their hive. My brother was able to follow the swam and when they got to a tree to rest, he was able to get them out of the tree into a box and brought them back to his house and created a new hive. So they now have two colonies. Call me if they are still there. My brother might be interested in getting another colony!

Liz said...

Oh my gosh, that is crazy! I have never seen anything like that. I am glad your kids weren't outside playing when it happened, that could have been bad, keep us posted on what happens.

Frank, Heidi and Family said...

This totally creeps me out. I hate all little creatures that sting and make that noise. I'm so sorry. I would be afraid to go in my backyard ever again. Keep us posted on the progress.

Angie said...

That creeps me out! Hope they don't stay long.

Jessica said...

Wow. That is crazy! Bees give me the willies!

Kerri said...

That is too weird! But that happened on the farm one time. There was a hole in the--at the time--exposed boards to the right of the door on the old yellow house. They made this huge spiral march into the hole, probably 2-3 feet in diameter at least, marching on in until they'd done what they needed to do. It was weird to see. Of course, there was nothing that could be done about that hive until fall since it was in the wall.

Great pictures! You both are very brave to do that! Of course, from what I understand, they won't hurt you because they are too interested in doing their own business.

Lindsay said...

Yikes! Those are some freaky pictures! I would've been freaking out too!

kimbob said...

I'm with you, creepy!!