Swarms

Recent conversation with my landlady:

J: There seems to be a problem with wasps "w-ă-spsss" getting into the apartment
M: With what?
J: Wasps
M: I'm sorry, what?
J: Wasps! Oh wait, maybe you have a different name for them here in Australia. They're a kind of insect, kinda like bees. In Canada, we call them wasps.
M: Oh, you mean wasps "w-awwww-sps" (in a thick British accent)
J: (thinking: isn't that what I've been saying?!) Uh yeah... that's what I meant!

Later that afternoon:

View from my apartment window (Perth, Australia)

This was the lovely scene out my apartment window on Thursday afternoon. It's a bit hard to tell from the picture, but all those black dots are bees (which I thought were wasps at first) . There were literally a thousand of them out there. I was just sitting at my computer when I heard what sounded like somebody throwing rocks at my window, along with this strange humming. When I went to investigate that's what I found.

Earlier in the day, I'd had an epic battle with several bees that had managed to make their way into my apartment. Hunting bees definitely isn't as easy as flies or mosquitos. Besides their obvious offensive (stinging) advantage, bees are also smarter and tend to land lot less frequently. These bees in particular sought to exploit the terrain of my apartment to their advantage.

Battle #1: My first battle was against this one particular bee that refused to leave the flourescent overhead light, even after I turned it off. This was really smart because there's no cover on the light, so I couldn't swat it there, or risk knocking the lightbulbs down. I found this ancient can of fly spray under my sink so I tried spraying the bee with that. It didn't kill it, but it was enough to disorient it, and forced it to land, and so I was able to get it.

Battle #2: This is the type of battle that legends are made of. This bee was a worthy adversary. Upon being detected by me, it found an ingenious hiding place. I knew it was around the window by my bed. I searched the window high and low. I could hear it, but I just couldn't see it. Realizing I need lay low, and take stock, I sat down and waited and listened. The buzzing.. it was coming from down beneath. I look, the bee was hiding in the window track. Realizing this was my chance, I hit it with the fly spray. No effect! Darn! Using my weapon of choice, a pen, I move in for some hand-to-hand combat. I was quickly outwitted, however, as the bee managed to hide just beyond the reach of my pen. Finally, I decide to go midevil on it and hit it from above with somekind of scalding liquid. Seaching my apartment, I settled on hydrogen peroxide. I moved in, and launched a volley (dropper full) of hydrogen peroxide on it. I then sat back, and waitied to see if this attack was successful. My adversary proved resiliant and held on for several minutes before sucombing to the hydrogen peroxide. I can say in all honesty, by the end, this bee had earned my respect. I actually felt a bit sad that it had to end that way. I was worthy opponent.

Update: The next day pest control came. Apparently bees were making a home in the vents in several apartments, including my own. They fumugated my vents, but they'll have to come back next week to finish some of the other apartments.

For the record: Just so you don't think I'm totally cruel, I don't support violence against animals. Bees on the other hand... *wink wink* =)