More strange wildlife behavior going on in my neighborhood.
There's about 100 dying bees on the 15 metre stretch of road directly outside my house.
Most of them have buggered wings and some are being attacked by ants.
Occasionally, a healthy wasp flies by to check out the bees' plight.
If anyone knows an apiarist, Miss Helena or any other expert in insects who could tell us what's happening outside my house, please leave a comment.
Me and Lucky The Dog are quite disturbed by all this.
5 comments:
I've seen a swarm move location, or move hives. I don't know what its called. It like a big broad cloud of bees, not like people moving a couch, and you wouldn't notice it go by if you're reading a good book. Though I'm sure they're not all the same.
Maybe a 'bus' of bees (my collective noun for moving bees) got hit by a car (or two) when they were moving neighbourhood...
Changed my mind: its a 'romp' of bees.
A "romp", "bus" or "connex" of bees getting hit by a car on their way to a new home is a nice bit of lateral thinking, Alison.
But it doesn't explain the ten wasps out there now, ATTACKING the sick bees.
I've also seen a few bees fall from the sky onto the road in the past ten minutes.
I'm starting to suspect the bees are being poisoned by a gum tree overhead or have been attacked in the air by enemy wasps.
Sounds like a hostile takeover. Fucking WASPS.
Apparently it's a pail of wasps, and a grist of bees. I love collective nouns.
Well, I have some answers. My sister works with a part time apiarist.
The bee milker hasn't heard of such weirdness and is a little creeped out by it all.
She offers these hypotheses:
a) These bees got lost during a recent move to another hive. Once they get lost they have no queen to serve and lose their will to live.
b) Certain nectars taste really good. So good, the bees get 'drunk' and fall to the ground, not able to fly again. As I've seen bees fall from the sky, the bee milker could be on to something.
c) As suspected, the bees are at war with a local gang of wasps. Wasps have been known to attack and kill everybody living in a beehive.
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