Blessings In The South

Killer Bees??!!! I dont have any pictures of the bees that came out clear enough to show, but these two pictures I took right before the action took place. You will have to use your minds eye as I tell this story. While cutting between this row of pecan trees, my husband disturbed a nest of bees that had built their home in the ground. A swarm took after him but luckily he did not get stung. Well we knew they had to go. Danny had not been out to find the exact spot since he hit them that morning so we went off on our bee killing adventure late that evening. My sweet-smart husband bravely carried a can of RAID with us as we crept toward "the spot" on the 4-wheeler. As you can see we parked a good distance away from the site. You can see Danny on his knees in the distance as he kneels down to spray the little buggers. Danny calls for me to bring him the shovel and like an obedient wife I bring it to him. After spraying the top of the ground and all the VISIBLE bees , they lay on top of the dirt and grass kicking their last breath. Then Danny drives the shovel into the ground stirring up the meanest, leanest chasing bees I have ever seen! Danny & I are running back to the 4-wheeler in high gear while Danny leaves a cloud of RAID behind us. My poor dog Gandalf gets the result of our trouble making! Poor fella! "So what are we gonna do now?" I ask! Danny says "We'll burn-em out!" Oh LORD please help us, I pray! So I ask Danny how we are going to do that without getting stung? AND THEN I COME UP WITH A PLAN!! (The woman can think!) "Danny lets get the truck, I'll ride by & you can pour the gas on the nest & we'll keep going and then they want sting us. We can ride back by & you can throw a match on them!" I didn't say I could think smartly! Anywho, we go to the building across the other field. Danny gets a bucket, fills it with diesel fuel, hands it to me to hold. The windows are rolled up, we are crossing the fields ever so slowly (to prevent the diesel from spilling on me). The smell is getting intoxicating! We get to the spot, we can see a few bees flying. Wait, Danny is driving, I dont want to be the one to throw the stuff on them! I hand Danny the bucket, he lets the window down, douses the spot, strikes a match, throws it on the ground, POOF! He floors the gas pedal, I'm holding the steering-wheel as he rolls the window up. We fly down the row stop & look back out the rear window as there is a huge fiery flame burning between the pecan tree rows! Wow! We are both sweating, not sure if it's from the heat or the excitment! "You think we killed-em?" I ask. "Oh Yeah!" My husband answers. We go back after the flames die down a little. Danny shovels up the ground all around making sure the underground "lair" is destroyed. It is weird, there is a bunch of cells. Danny cuts one open with his pocket knife to find unhatched bees. The bees are very different looking. They do not look like fat honey bees. They are not hornets or yellow jackets. We dont know what manner of bee this is. I attempted to call the county extension office about them but I couldn't catch the agent in. But wait, my story is not over yet. We took a piece of paper and scooped up some of the dead bees and a portion of the cell- nest thing. We carried it inside and laid it on the kitchen counter. Our purpose for this was so we could show the critters to the agent. The next day we had someone coming over to do some work on the house. Danny, my smart husband, decided to put the bees and the bit of nest in a zip lock bag. It is a good thing he did. That night after supper he pulled the bag out to find that 2 of the cells had hatched out bees!!!!! They were alive & buzzing!! Creeps me out just thinking about it. We put them in a mason jar & of course they died. The next day I finished cutting that same field. Guess what I found? More cotton pickin BEES!! Danny killed them with out much ado but I fear cutting that field again! It is time to cut it again now. It's a good thing there is a high gear on that tractor & I know how to use it. Killer Bees? I dont know? They are different for sure. Just another day here on the farm! Hope you enjoyed this long story.