Dying Bees by Liora Leah Blog entry

Blog: Mother Earth Heals
by Liora Leah

Dying Bees

The bees are still here, but dying, and I'm slowly going mad.

Date: 4/13/2007 11:43:08 PM ( 17 y ) ... viewed 2118 times

This morning, bees were still trapped behind the vent mesh, pushing the dead bodies out through the vent holes as best they could. There was a baseball sized cluster of them outside the mesh trying to get in, and bees were flying all over the backyard. At least my daughter, who is very afraid of bees, went over her father's house for the week, so she wouldn't freak out at the sight of bees clustered right outside her bedroom window.

I called the bee control folks and the boss said the clustering of the bees is normal, that it's the "last effort" of the bees to get back to the hive and build. He said if the bees were still clustered on Monday, he would personally come out to assess the situation. I told him how awful it was to see the bees slowly dying, and how I'd sprayed them myself with soap to kill them, then opened up the mesh to let the dead bees out; he admonished me, saying that if I'd let them use insecticides the first time, all of the bees would be dead by now. I reiterated that I couldn't use pesticides as it would be against everything I believed in. He responded that I should continue to spray the bees with the soap solution nightly--when they were least active and less likely to sting me--in order to hasten their dying.

I've been really going nuts with the "Tell-Tale Heart" syndrome--last night I couldn't sleep, as I kept hearing bees buzzing in my dreams. Every time the refrigerator started humming it sounded like bees; I had the heater on last night and the sound of the air going through the vents sounded like bees. I couldn't use the air filter near my bed as the whooshing air sounded like bees! A fly buzzed my head this morning and I startled, thinking it was a bee that had somehow gotten into the house. I finally left the house, desparate to get away from the imagined humming noises, but even my car engine idling at a red light sounded like bees!

I went to look at the bees tonight, after sunset. Shining a flashlight up under the eaves, I saw a horrific sight--dozens of dead bees lay in the vent holes covered over by the mesh, squashed on top of each other. The only movement and sound of bees came from the baseball sized cluster that clung to the outside of the mesh, still there from this morning, and still trying to get inside. They vibrated their wings, trying to keep warm in the increasingly cool night. I climbed the ladder to get a better look at them; I thought it would be more merciful to spray them down with soap and kill them than to let them suffer like this, but the thought of this made me sick to my stomach.

I climbed down and went into the house, and willed myself to put on my improvised bee suit. Then I heard a buzzing in the hallway, and thought I was imagining it until I saw a bee flying confusedly around; I must have brought her in on my clothing. Grabbing the soap solution, I sprayed her down. She went instantly quiet and still; I scooped her up and took her outside and let her out in the bushes, so she could die outside with her sisters. Climbing the ladder resolutely, gritting my teeth, I shined the flashlight on the cluster of buzzing bees and sprayed them with the soap. Two bees dived at me but I ignored them and kept spraying until the soap dripped off of the cluster. Then I climbed down and shined the flashlight on them again. One by one, the bees began to drop off, falling into the bushes below.

Sickened by what I'd done, I went back into the house, crying, mumbling to myself, "I'm so sorry, Mother, for killing your children. so so sorry, sorry."

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Bee Problem!
http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=309&i=387

Honey Bees nested in the rafters under my roof! I didn't want to have them killed or use pesticides, and called around until I found an environmentally friendly pest control company.

Bees are BACK!
http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=309&i=390

I wrote in my blog that I had a bee problem, the bees were removed ecologically, and I was waiting for the bee control people to come back out to my house to put a fine mesh over the vent holes under my eaves to prevent future nesting. Well, nary two days went by and the bees are back!

http://www.pesticide.org/BeesWasps.pdf

NORTHWEST COALITION FOR ALTERNATIVES TO PESTICIDES/NCAP

Honey Bees are Endangered: "The recent sharp decline in honey bee populations could have dire consequences for many food crops, according to an article in the current issue of The Sciences magazine:

http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9607a/beedecline.html

Eco-Friendly Pest Control: for more information about environmentally safe ways to control bees, wasps, and other insects:

http://www.pesticide.org/factsheets.html#alternatives