The Birds and the Bees

If anyone is trying to get pregnant, they need to come to my house.  For some reason this house is fertile!  We weren't trying to get pregnant with Alysse and I was actually told that it would be hard for me to get pregnant if I tried.  Well, the one time in five years that we weren't careful we got pregnant.  Then a month later, a friend of mine was at my house all day and night for our crawfish boil.  She got pregnant that night, even though dr's told her she couldn't get pregnant b/c of her PCOS. 

Every spring we have birds (sparrow's) who come into our entry way and build a nest.  No matter what we do to get rid of them, they somehow make their way to the top corner and lay eggs.  Every spring we have black widows that lay their eggs somewhere in our back yard (not ideal for me who is already arachnophobic).  Well this Spring the birds are back, even after knocking off one of the nests and the birds in it.  The poop all over our window and the doorstop! 

We also have wasps come into our chimney every winter to hibernate.  I don't think they are actually mating but they come every year and we kill about 100-200 each time.  We should just pay the $500 to put screens over the chimney entrance but we don't. 

We also had another univited guest last week that cost us a fortune to get rid of.

Last Wednesday we came home from swim practice and I noticed honey bees flying around the front door.  There were maybe 20 at the time.  Not even an hour later I was in the office and noticed a swam of what seemed like thousands of bees flying around the front window.  When I looked out the front door, I noticed they were all making their way into the gaps in the hardy plank.  There were so many, they covered part of the wall.  I finally grabbed my phone and got some shots of the bees, but by that time, many of them were already in the wall.  I started worrying b/c of the girls... I wasn't sure if we could leave the house b/c they were so close to my car.  I also wasn't sure if they could get into the house through the attic. 

Mark came home and sprayed what was left, but by that time there were only about 50 that he killed.  He tried to tell me that he got them all, but I just nodded, knowing that he didn't see what I saw and there were MANY MANY more inside the walls.  Sunday morning they were back out flying around again since it was warm.  He called a bee keeper and $400 later, we had 40-50 THOUSAND bees removed from inside the wall.  He had to tear off pieces of the hardy plank to get to it. 

He removed three good sized honey combs and told us the hive hadn't been completed yet.  Which was a good thing b/c once it's formed, the queen lays her eggs (2.5- 3 thousand a day) and the worker bees get more agressive protecting the hive.  The girls got to see a bee keeper live in action which was pretty cool. He said he would turn around and sell the bees and combs to another bee keeper so they can start making their own honey.  I think he should pay US to take the bees, instead of us paying him!

So not only did we have to pay the bee keeper, we also have to pay an AC repairman to fix the attic, a plumber to flush our pipes, a shower man to fix the shower ($2,000) and a carpet man to replace the carpet where the broken pipe ruined it ($800).  They always say when it rains it pours!