Thursday, January 14, 2010

OW! OUCH!

Our back yard is always full of bees. I don’t like them, they don’t like me. We live together ONLY because they love flowers and so do I. If we have flowers, we have bees. I am stuck with them. Jake hates them worse than I do. He has been stung several times

Honey Bee

Bees do not like cold weather, when the temps drop, they fly slowly and as if they were drugged. They fall in the pool; they seek heat and have actually landed on my husbands back/front while he tosses the ball to Jake. Most of all they love the wall of the back of our home which faces south and during the winter months is the warmest place in the yard.

Bee
Florida has had 13 days of record breaking cold (I secretly hoped it would kill all the bees) and added to my misery 3 days ago was bronchitis and sinusitis which required antibiotics.
Ok, now you are wondering WHY I am telling you all this nonsense


dragonfly
Yesterday, the sun was shining and my husband said come out and sit against the wall, the sun will be good for you. In my flannel gown (yes we have privacy fence) I sat for 10 minutes and absorbed the rays. It felt so good.


Northern citrus Beetle
A few minutes after I came in from the sunbath, I was sitting on sofa and felt something crawl on my neck, I brushed the back of my neck with my hand, found nothing, I felt something crawl and brushed again.


Shrieking OW! OW! , I jumped straight up in the air and slung my hand
hard, and whatever it was flew off on the carpet, I am screaming Oww it stung me, Ow! It stung me.
Bob jumps up, “what stung you?” “WHERE IS IT?”
Jake jumps off sofa rushes to put his nose on whatever it is. I am screaming No JAKE, No Jake, bob is screaming What is it? Where is it?
Shield bug

Have you guessed yet what it WAS? A BEE…… clue word here is WAS. Is no more.
We assume when I sat against the warm wall, the cold drugged bee climbing on my warm flannel gown and rode to the sofa.

Yes, I do know the other photos are not BEES. I found them in the bug folder and decided to post them to.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful.... takes me away .... to a warmer place in time.

Carole

Anonymous said...

Fabulous pictures. I quite like bees but dislike wasps and hornets. Do you get the legendary "killer bees" where you live? They always sound like something best avoided.

Anonymous said...

As a child I felt something crawling on my neck and picked it off to look at it. It was a wasp/hornet!! I quickly let go of it and did not get stung on my neck or my fingers; go figure!!
Phil Hartzler

Ginny Hartzler said...

Good grief! I'm with you,very scared of bees! Check out my post from early July of last year "What next? Bees driving cars?" See what happened when bees got in our engine. I didn't know about bees not flying well in the cold, but it doesn't surprise me. When it's cold, flys can'y fly. So when our house is cold in the morning, it's easy to catch them. Where is this bee in the first picture? I'm assuming it's cold, so you risked getting up close. The bug folder-is that pictures you took? Did you actually take the dragonfly picture?? It looks like cellophane! It looks like a posed, professional photo, almost too perfect. What is the pretty green bug? Which reminds me, I've heard that Florida has bugs the size of Volkswagons. Which is why I could never live there; I have arachnophobia. Perhaps some time you could do some posts on the various bug life there. I've heard there's tiny land crabs that come out of the sidewalk!! I've also heard stories about the tennis courts at night there. The lights draw bugs so big that they throw the balls back!! Did you actually get stung? Had you been stung before? I'll bet you never lean against that wall again! I've never been stung and am afraid of severe allergy, I already have to carry an epipen around! How's the sting doing?

MadSnapper said...

The bee is not the one that stung me, but is the same kind, all the photos were taken in our back yard. Our bugs are not quite that big but real close.

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Hi Sandra, Keep on getting that glorious Vitamin D outside.. That will cure what ails you I'm sure. BUT--shake off really good before going back into the house...

We have bees --but definitely not this time of year. Our temps are moderating though and we are supposed to go into the 50's today and tomorrow. Yeah!!!!

Hugs,
Betsy

SquirrelQueen said...

Hi Sandra,

Honey bees are one of the most gentle creatures you can encounter, they rarely sting unless provoked. One of my summer quests was to get a perfect bee photo. I use the macro lens and got right in their faces, close enough to look them in the eye. They have landed on me but out of curiosity. In all my photo taking last summer I never got stung.

We are also very dependent on honey bees, here is an article I did last summer. http://squirrelqueen2.blogspot.com/2009/06/so-much-more-than-honey.html

Now if we are talking yellow jackets or wasp, I have a different view of them. Years ago a yellow jacket sting sent me to the emergency room.

Judy

Dawning Inspiration said...

oooooh - makes me cringe. I do NOT like bee's either. Mean little things - I know - doing their job and all....

I have gotten braver about being around them when I have my camera to protect me! lol

Dawning Inspiration said...

PS: Hope you are okay and not allergic??