Trod in a bees’ nest!

Posted on by inkbiotic

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This is not as melodramatic as it may sound.

I was dead heading roses (does any gardener actually like roses? They’re shitty, fussy, spiky plants) and I stepped back and felt my foot slip into a slight hole. I walked back and looked down to see twenty or so bees come tumbling out of the hole. I was ready to run, ready for the stings, but nothing.

None of them stung me. Not a one!

They were a bit smaller than usual honey bees. At first I thought they might be hover flies, which mimic wasps, but have no sting, but they were too fluffy. My boss reckoned they might be leaf-cutter bees, which are awesome fellas.

In fact I have a theory that now many of the usual bee species are becoming extinct, leaf cutter bees (and other less common ones) are increasing in numbers to fill the space. Look out for small , neat semi-circular holes missing in leaves – that’s the leaf cutter bee.

OR alternatively, I am now Queen of the bees and none shall sting me. It is true I once stood in a swarm of killer bees (I think) and didn’t get stung. Unfortunately everything else is still attacking me and a colleague asked if I’d been bitten by a wolf because of the huge red and purple bruise that came up on my leg after getting stung by something that wasn’t a bee.

And these are the kind of rambling thoughts that gardeners have.

In other news: no sign of evil pea seedlings yet.

Have you been stung much this year?

15 thoughts on “Trod in a bees’ nest!”

  1. My garden is full of bees from next-door’s hives. We have water – they love water. On a hot day if I sit in the garden they often crawl all over me. Never been stung yet. (My wife has, but she sat on one!) Also have a bumble bee nest under a rain butt. The noise is incredible. I’m not sure they sting though. Unlike those mean little buggers the wasp. It makes me incandescent with rage when they go near my grandkids. I don’t kill anything much, but wasps…
    You are, indeed, Queen Bee. Am I the first to point out that the thought of being in the middle of a swarm of killer bees brings me out in hives? No? Oh well…
    I can offer only one piece of advice on being stung by insects unknown. Try not to…

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    1. Erm, pretty sure if you’ve got bees crawling all over you, then YOU are queen bee! 😉
      Drunk wasps are the real trouble, mean and looking for a fight.

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      1. Not ALL over me. That would be weird – and I can never be accused of that. Just a few, now and then. They don’t bother me. They get a bit annoyed if you flap around – so don’t. My grandma had an orchard which had pear trees and damson trees. Wasps seem to view those fruits as the local hostelry, with just the same kind of fallout on a Saturday night. I am told by those in the know that gardeners should embrace the wasp – I’d like to see them try!

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    1. I’m glad you’ve been safe from the stings 🙂
      I’ve been checking the peas or whatever almost hourly today, no sign though.

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      2. Right, I shall feign disinterest. Whenever I walk past I won’t even turn my head to check. Is it ok if I hold up a small mirror when I pass them though? Maybe I should try that with a pan of water first. I need to experiment with the limits of the magic.

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  5. I’ve been viewing one of my friends’ wasp sagas from the safety of social media, and I’m just happy I’m not on the receiving end. We were supposed to get murder hornets in my state, but apparently the writers of 2020 decided that was TOO dramatic so they scrapped that story line before it came to fruition.

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