Could be any number of things here in Surprise, Arizona...geckos, doves, hummingbirds, or even bees.
Yes...bees. Our wasps turned out to be bees....much smaller and thinner than the ones we're used to back home...I think we can be forgiven for thinking they were wasps.
The exterminator came and really impressed the kid when he donned full protective gear...goggles, breathing apparatus, helmet, jacket and gloves. They watched from the safety of the window, in outside of which was the nest....a very large nest, according to our new friend Scott. Scott told us he got 90% of the large population of bees. The rest were still out pollinating and would be very confused and angry when they returned and found their nest sealed over and their Queen and most of her subjects missing.He was right. There was a lot of angry buzzing and flying about in the hours after Scott left. I went out at one point to check the water temperature in the pool and when I turned to face the house, I saw a swarm of them clinging to another part of the eaves, as if they were trying to regroup. But we were tired of being held hostage in our house and banned from the pool so Lloyd went to WalMart and bought a spray can of something guaranteed to kill bees.
He dressed in long sleeves and pants and a hat, and fastened a bath towel round his neck and bravely climbed the step ladder until he could spray directly at the swarm...very scary stuff. He was prepared to jump in the pool if the bees attacked him! Luckily that didn't happen. It took three applications of the spray before the bee population was reduced to half a dozen who didn't seem to want to bother with us anymore. On another topic, I've been waiting to see a sagauro cactus in bloom. They're just starting and next week should be nicely in bloom - but I won't be here next week. So I found some that are trying their best to accommodate my timetable.
Those new little knobbies will soon be beautiful delicate white/yellow flowers. I hope to see some fully in bloom before we leave on the weekend.
There's one open flower on this one but the cactus was so tall that even with 10x zoom I couldn't get a very good picture of it.
