Hellish morning

[Brian Ellis]

At about 10.00, I was working in my office and glanced out the window and saw a swirling mass of black spots. I went outside and saw this bloody great swarm of bees and, as I watched, they settled on the top of the chimney of my house.

Of course, this is a holiday here, to allow the Orthodox Christians here to recover from their excesses of Easter weekend, which is much more observed than in the western churches. I started phoning around for help and could get no answers. I finally phoned the police. In the meanwhile, a few thousand of the beasties flew down the chimney into the house, so I lit a fire, which only caused even more to come down.

The police arrived with an expert who took one look at the situation and fled. The cops then called the fire brigade, who said that they would try to wash them off the chimney with a high pressure hose. Like bloody hell!

The police then received a message from HQ that they had located an expert who arrived a little later. This guy, suitably clad, climbed the fire brigades ladder to spray the lot with a powerful insecticide.

We now have c. 1 zillion cadavers cluttering the place. Yuk.

[GuchiGuh]

Oh my!
reminds me of a wasp nest i had near my window in germany~

gogogogo, get that vaccum cleaner running!

[ZokesPro]

Holy!
And I thought that having a small hive in my wall was bad!!

[Paddy]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!

The police arrived with an expert who took one look at the situation and fled

ROFL

<font size=4>3K -3</font>

[Brian Ellis]

Just to give a scale to the picture, the chimney is about 80 cm wide. There's another one here:

[Paddy]

They must like your cooking

[jonnylane]

that is some picture!

were these the nice little fluffy bees:



or the nasty looking honey bees, that just look like wasps:




and check this out. The exterminator obviously didnt read this:


What to do if you find a Nest

Try not to disturb it. If its in an awkward place try to put up with it for a few weeks. Remember it will die out with the first frosts and can then be safely removed .

If you want to help the bees let the lawn grow a little longer and cut it a little higher so the clover remains to feed the bees with nectar.

Finally in 1995 we relocated 10 nests to our quarter acre garden and no one was ever stung there. Watching them was a great pleasure.




i think they like bees...

[SpiralDragon]

[Paddy]

Get many frosts in Cyprus Brian???

[Jon P. Inghram]

Wimps! Just reach in there and pull the queen out and the rest will give up their siege and fly off.

[jonnylane]

Originally posted by Jon P. Inghram
Wimps! Just reach in there and pull the queen out and the rest will give up their siege and fly off.

such is the difference between bravery and madness

[ZokesPro]

Well said jonnylane!

[Brian Ellis]

Certainly, I don't expect ant frosts in the coming months. Some years we may get a slight one in late jan, early feb, say -0.5 deg C. To give you an idea, my hibiscus and bougainvillea is unprotected in winter and now 5 years old. Neither plant takes kindly to frosts. We get severe frosts higher up in the mountains - but we're at only 300 m asl.

[jonnylane]

that blows my idea then. How about mimicking the sound of the queen so they leave the nesty thing, and then trapping them and killing them?

i recommend a vibrator in front of a megaphone...

[Brian Ellis]

Oh, and they were honey bees. Bumble bees don't swarm, as they're less social critters.

Brian