Yes Charris, the hearing aid was recovered. But what I've yet to hear is a decent explanation for why the bees wanted it in the 1st place. They sure went to a LOT of trouble. Am I the only one curious as to why?! I'd also like to point out the following:
Yes Charris, the hearing aid was recovered. But what I've yet to hear is a decent explanation for why the bees wanted it in the 1st place. They sure went to a LOT of trouble. Am I the only one curious as to why?! I'd also like to point out the following:
don't you mean ta'baccy?
To anyone dealing with bee fear, I offer my experience. My own fear dates back to being alone in a motel room at the age of eight with an angry hornet. I got a sting right in the middle of my back and cowered in the corner of the room with the phone calling my parents in the adjoining room. The rest of that long car trip, I had sit forward because the sting on my back hurt so much. Ever since then, I've had a real horror of bees, wasps, and especially hornets.
In recent years, I've become less panicked about every buzzing flying thing by learning to identify the various species and learn about their behavior. This started with learning several salient facts:
This has been a public service announcement from the Society of People Trying to Deal with Irrational Fears (sm).
- Solitary species are generally docile, while hive species are more aggressive.
- Yellow jackets and hornets are the most aggressive.
- Yellow jackets are mad at the world from late August until the end of the warm weather.
- Mud daubers, which tend to hang around pools looking for shallow puddles are scary-looking wasps but are solitary and very non-aggressive.
- Similarly, carpenter bees (the "blig black blees" I was scared of as a child) are solitary and non-aggressive, though they will buzz you if you come too close to their burrows.
- Cicada killers are solitary and non-aggressive, though they are among the scariest-looking wasps and look similar to European hornets, which are among the most aggressive of the lot.
M. septendecim, M. cassini, M. septendecula Ae, Cm, Dm Brood I (1) News
M. septendecim, M. cassini, M. septendecula Ae, Ce, De Brood II (2) News
M. septendecim, M. cassini, M. septendecula Aw, Cw, Dw Brood III (3) News
M. septendecim, M. cassini, M. septendecula Aw, Cw, Dw Brood IV (4) News
M. septendecim, M. cassini, M. septendecula Am, Ce, Cm, De, Dm Brood V (5) News
M. septendecim, M. septendecula Ae, Am, De, Dw Brood VI (6) News
M. septendecim Ae Brood VII (7) News
M. septendecim, M. cassini, M. septendecula Am, Cm, Dw Brood VIII (8) News
M. septendecim, M. cassini, M. septendecula Ae, Am, Ce, Cm, De Brood IX (9) News
M. septendecim, M. cassini, M. septendecula Ae, Am, Ce, Cm, Cw, Dm Brood X (10) News
M. septendecim, M. cassini Aw, Cw Brood XIII (13) News
M. septendecim, M. cassini, M. septendecula Ae, Am, Ce, Cm, De, Dm Brood XIV (14) News
M. tredecim, M. neotredecim, M. tredecassini, M. tredecula Aw, B, Cw, De, Dm, Dw Brood XIX (19) News
M. tredecim, M. tredecassini, M. tredecula B, Cw, Dm Brood XXII (22) News
M. tredecim, M. neotredecim, M. tredecassini, M. tredecula Aw, B, Cw, Dm, Dw Brood XXIII (23) News
Oh good lord, I forgot about the cicada killers! There was a nest of them in the adjacent neighbor's backyard at our house in Dunn Loring, and those monsters are TERRIFYING! They are HUGE, with stingers you can see while they at flying at you. I was ready to set the neighbor's backyard on fire, and maybe ours too.
There are multiple brood of cicadas; some of 17 year, some are 13 year, and they are not on the same cycle.
http://www.cicadamania.com/where.html
The Brood Chart features the names of the broods, their life cycle length, when they will emerge next, which states they'll emerge in, links to Maps, the species that will emerge, other other information. Click the maps for larger, detailed maps.
Magicicada Brood Chart
Brood 17 or 13 Year Year of Emergence Stragglers Possible States Species H* Blog Posts/News
I (1) 17 1961, 1978, 1995, 2012, 2029 2025 (-4), 2028 (-1), 2030 (+1) TN, VA, WVA
II (2) 17 1962, 1979, 1996, 2013, 2030 2026 (-4), 2029 (-1), 2031 (+1) CT, GA, MD, NC, NJ, NY, OK, PA, VA
III (3) 17 1963, 1980, 1997, 2014, 2031 2027 (-4), 2030 (-1), 2032 (+1) IA, IL, MO
IV (4) 17 1964, 1981, 1998, 2015, 2032 2016 (+1), 2028 (-4), 2031 (-1) IA, KS, MO, NE, OK, TX
V (5) 17 1948, 1965, 1982, 1999, 2016 2017 (+1), 2029 (-4), 2032 (-1) LI NY, western MD, east OH, south-west PA, north-west VA, northern half of WV
VI (6) 17 1949, 1966, 1983, 2000, 2017 2016 (-1), 2018 (+1), 2030 (-4) GA, NC, SC
VII (7) 17 1950, 1967, 1984, 2001, 2018 2017 (-1), 2019 (+1), 2031 (-4) NY
VIII (8) 17 1951, 1968, 1985, 2002, 2019 2018 (-1), 2020 (+1), 2032 (-4) OH, PA, WVA
IX (9) 17 1952, 1969, 1986, 2003, 2020 2016 (-4), 2019 (-1), 2021 (+1) NC, VA, WVA
X (10) 17 1953, 1970, 1987, 2004, 2021 2017 (-4), 2020 (-1), 2022 (+1) DE, GA, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TN, VA, WVA, Washington DC
XIII (13) 17 1956, 1973, 1990, 2007, 2024 2020 (-4), 2023 (-1), 2025 (+1) IA, IL, IN, MI, WI
XIV (14) 17 1957, 1974, 1991, 2008, 2025 2021 (-4), 2024 (-1), 2026 (+1) GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TN, VA, WVA
XIX (19) 13 1972, 1985, 1998, 2011, 2024 2023 (-1), 2025 (+1), 2027 (+4) AL, AR, GA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MO, MS, NC, OK, SC, TN, VA
XXII (22) 13 1975, 1988, 2001, 2014, 2027 2018 (+4), 2026 (-1), 2028 (+1) KY, LA, MS, OH
XXIII (23) 13 1976, 1989, 2002, 2015, 2028 2019 (+4), 2027 (-1), 2029 (+1) AR, IL, IN, KY, LA, MO, MS, TN
Hate to rain on your parade, Spiky, but Cicadas are also in California. http://essig.berkeley.edu/documents/cis/cis02_3.pdf
I had just finished reading this when hubby had the news on and I heard an upcoming story about bees on the rampage in a California neighborhood! I ran to watch, half expecting to see a gentleman being interviewed about how he lost his hearing aid, but nah, no such luck. Turned out this was in Concord, but what a "stinging" coincidence.
