By AMY SHANKLAND
Sandwiched
Last Saturday, I decided to visit Mom and remove her patio “doo dads” as I call them – her decorations. I figured this would be my last year to decorate her outdoor space, as she can’t go out there anymore due to her physical limitations.
Mom’s patio is on an interior courtyard, so the only way to remove things is to go through her apartment, put the items in the facility’s hallway, and then take them out the nearby exterior door. I had parked my car just outside this door to easily load everything.
I brought in a few things, then got a ceramic, hollow “rock” she had painted years ago that said “Angels Gather Here.” I set this down in the hallway.
The next thing I knew, dozens of yellow jackets started to fly out of it!
I screamed “Bees, bees!” at the cleaning lady just a few doors down, who thank the Lord was there with her cart. I then ran down to the exterior door holding the stone to get it out so even more bees wouldn’t be inside. I threw the stone outside where it promptly smashed in two, seeing additional yellow jackets zooming out of it.
I sprinted back up the hallway where Amy (great name), the wonderful cleaning person, was spraying insecticide and stomping furiously on any bees she could find on the floor. We had to act quickly to prevent residents from getting stung, not to mention ourselves!
As we stomped and our eyes darted furiously all over the hallway in search of the bees, I kept saying “I’m so sorry … I’m so sorry … I had no idea.”
We battled bees that flew up into the lights and the handrails. Amy would spray any we saw in the air, and then we stomped on them as they fell down to the floor. After about 10 minutes, we declared the hallway safe. Miraculously, no one got stung.
My heart was thudding in my chest and I was covered in sweat. I didn’t stop shaking for about 30 minutes afterwards. When Amy showed me the hive that had been hidden in the ceramic stone, my stomach twisted – it was about five inches tall and nine inches wide.
Even though this was a frightening experience, I was grateful. Grateful that Amy was right down the hallway at that precise moment. Grateful that I hadn’t put the stone in my car and driven away to be surprised by dozens of yellow jackets in my vehicle – causing me to potentially have an accident.
Most of all, I was grateful that Mom hadn’t sat on her patio last summer. She surely would have been stung.
While I am a nature lover, and I realize we need to protect bees/pollinators now more than ever, unfortunately there was nothing else Amy and I could have done. We had to protect my mom and the residents – who knows who might have an allergy.
It was definitely not the best way to be “all abuzz!”