Bzzzz ... Thunk
To distract myself from the hell on earth in the Gulf region, I'm focusing on a completely unimportant series of domestic events.
You might recall that every year my house becomes Motel 6 for carpenter bees (their motto: Your House---It's Not Just for Breakfast Any More). This year we decided to get tough. An exterminator told us that the bees were tunneling through the fascia board along the roofline but not the wood that holds up the house. He suggested that we replace all the fascia board with a plastic-vinyl material that bees cannot penetrate. This sounded like our best bet, since the bees have been impervious to any other attempt to eradicate them.
Last week, the fascia board came down. We were aghast at how extensive the bee infestation was. Just one 3-foot section of board contained about 15 bored holes, each hole the entrance to a tunnel the bees created for nesting purposes. From just one of those holes, about 25 bees emerged. (They are no longer active at this time of year, but like sleeping giants awakened, they were TESTY at being disturbed.) Here's a picture of one of the boards.
I must confess to being a little impressed at the near-perfect circles.
A few stray bees have been circling about, looking aimlessly for a wood surface in which to find purchase. We're concerned that they might next attack our deck, but for now we have seen no signs of that.
I'm hoping this is the end of the story, but as in any good horror movie, we may not have heard the last of the bees. Last night a carpenter bee mysteriously appeared in our family room. We think it might have come in through the chimney and fireplace. I told Jeff that the saga should now be called "Revenge of the Carpenter Bee: This Time It's Personal."
To distract myself from the hell on earth in the Gulf region, I'm focusing on a completely unimportant series of domestic events.
You might recall that every year my house becomes Motel 6 for carpenter bees (their motto: Your House---It's Not Just for Breakfast Any More). This year we decided to get tough. An exterminator told us that the bees were tunneling through the fascia board along the roofline but not the wood that holds up the house. He suggested that we replace all the fascia board with a plastic-vinyl material that bees cannot penetrate. This sounded like our best bet, since the bees have been impervious to any other attempt to eradicate them.
Last week, the fascia board came down. We were aghast at how extensive the bee infestation was. Just one 3-foot section of board contained about 15 bored holes, each hole the entrance to a tunnel the bees created for nesting purposes. From just one of those holes, about 25 bees emerged. (They are no longer active at this time of year, but like sleeping giants awakened, they were TESTY at being disturbed.) Here's a picture of one of the boards.
I must confess to being a little impressed at the near-perfect circles.A few stray bees have been circling about, looking aimlessly for a wood surface in which to find purchase. We're concerned that they might next attack our deck, but for now we have seen no signs of that.
I'm hoping this is the end of the story, but as in any good horror movie, we may not have heard the last of the bees. Last night a carpenter bee mysteriously appeared in our family room. We think it might have come in through the chimney and fireplace. I told Jeff that the saga should now be called "Revenge of the Carpenter Bee: This Time It's Personal."
#
posted by Suzanne @ 9:05 AM
|
