Big Ass Bees and Big Ass Flowers

I have a slight problem with carpenter bees. Carpenter bees are the big bumbly bees that appear this time of year to hover menacingly around your garden. They don’t sting, and they also burrow into unpainted wood, and if this wood is on your house, it becomes quite a hassle to get rid of them. I have such a burrow on the back side of one of the eaves next to my front door.

I thought I had destroyed the burrow at the beginning of fall last year, but those bastards came back. Right now I deal with these bees with a tennis racket. They hover right at eye level and a good forehand smash can send one to the end of my driveway- stunned and spinning around like Curly of the three stooges until I get there to squish him. I must have killed a dozen of these critters this week that way.

But what do big ass bees like, anyways? How about big ass flowers? Our peonies have bloomed. These flowers are huge and weigh almost a pound each and the big bees are fighting over the nectar rights.

Our cat also enjoys helping me to exterminate these giant bloated buzzers.

Mr. Squirrel is neither happy about the bees, nor the fact that the cat is prowling the front yard.