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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be appalled by the ignorance of my colleague?

142 replies

Moulesfrites · 03/07/2011 20:10

My work colleague was telling me today that she had found a bees' nest in her garden - instead of calling the council etc, she and her fiance decided to pour water on it with a hosepipe, knock it down and stamp on it to break it up and kill the bees Sad

AIBU to be absolutely horrified by this?? I was trying to explain to her how important bees are but she really didn't understand that she had done anything wrong - she claimed that she was protecting herself and her neighbours from being stung Hmm

is it even worth trying to convince someone so stupid of the errors of her ways??

OP posts:
DoMeDon · 03/07/2011 20:51

YANBU - horrible ignorant bastards.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 03/07/2011 20:54

Bees are not covered by council pest control, same as foxes. Rats, mice, wasps, yes. But not bees. @flipthefrog... if you'd like your bees to go away, the Beekeepers Association can put you in touch with a Swarm Collector

Spagbolagain · 03/07/2011 20:55

Was it a bumblebee nest or something else?
If bumble bees, they don't swarm or cause any problems. We had one last year, phoned local beekeeping society who said they would pick up other bees but not bumbles, and that the nest would be fine. They were absolutely right, bees minded their own business.

So given that your colleague didn't bother to get advice from anybody or see if she could solve the problem another way, she is a complete arse. I hope everything in her garden fails to pollinate.

CQrrrneee · 03/07/2011 20:56

Is it true that bumblebees don't sting?

WillieWaggledagger · 03/07/2011 20:57

but the bees weren't swarming were they? and destroying the nest in that way would make them more likely to attack wouldn't it? so I would say yanbu

BellaBearisWideAwake · 03/07/2011 20:57

I was sort of quoting from today's observer magazine, page 53

"wipe out bee pollination and we lose about 35% of our calories for starters"

I don't know what I'm talking about really, just quoting Blush

DoingTheBestICan · 03/07/2011 20:58

What a very stupid foolish woman,we have had a bees nest in our garden for 3 yrs running & they have never bothered us,they just fly from flower to flower & we love watching how busy they are.

Then last Summer i luckily saw the queen bee leaving the nest,i am not joking you it was about the size of 6 bees stuck together,since then they have flown the nest.They still come to our flowers luckily.

Seriously everyone should encourage bees into their garden,they wont hurt you.

mitfordsisters · 03/07/2011 20:59

Daft cow; why did she not get on the phone to an expert? Yanbu

LostMyIdentityAlongTheWay · 03/07/2011 20:59

LOLOLBella it was probably a typo, knowing the Observer, comes from the same stable as The Grauniad.

I'm a beekeeper. I can't tell you how upset I am by this. Thank you for making me laugh a bit. THROUGH THE TEARS CAUSED BY OP's HORRIFIC WORK COLLEAGUE.

Did I mention I think she's a cunt?

CogitoErgoSometimes · 03/07/2011 21:00

When you're faced, as I was, with a heaving, wriggly mass of 'something' buzzing away in your garden... it's very tough to tell if they're bees, wasps, hornets or whatever.

loiner45 · 03/07/2011 21:00

sorry cogito not correct, bees very rarely sting when they swarm - I have stood in the middle of swarms and seen beekeepers collect swarms - no protective gear is usually needed at all - I wouldn't bother with protective gear if I were to collect a swarm!

I've been hoping for a swarm to arrive near me all summer to put in my new empty hive!

carabos · 03/07/2011 21:00

AllieZ - bees are not a "menace".
Cogito - bees are not covered by pest control because they are not a pest, they are, in fact, VITAL for our short-term survival - forget "global warming" the threat to bees is a much more immediate problem for all of us.
OP - YANBU.

catinthehat2 · 03/07/2011 21:02

blimey, there's a swarm of thickos out on this thread

tell you what ladies, lets take boiling water & sticks to the pointless idiots & get shot now

BellaBearisWideAwake · 03/07/2011 21:02

Typo which way?

The advice was that city dwellers are better off not getting their own hives but having a bee friendly garden and supporting research and experienced beekeeping

LostMyIdentityAlongTheWay · 03/07/2011 21:03

cogiti trust me you'd know. Bees are TOTALLY unlikely to sting whilst swarming, they're too busy. And hornets - ooooh, you'd know if they were hornets. NOTHING is that big or yellow!!
I sort my bees with protective headgear, nowt else. I've been stung about five times in as many years. And I@m asking for it - if you're just doing your thang in a garden, a bee is SO unlikely to sting you it's unreal. I reckon they know they'll die, honestly - they're unbelievably placid, most of the time.

(looking desparately for a way to shoehorn in the comment about the cunty workcolleague)

AllieZ · 03/07/2011 21:04

they have never bothered us,they just fly from flower to flower & we love watching how busy they are.
Yeah. That's only until your toddler or your pet does not step on one of them in the grass while they are flying from one of those tiny white flowers to the other, and end up at A&E/emergency vet's with a foot the size of a football.

babybythesea · 03/07/2011 21:04

AllieZ: YABU. Bees are a menace in your garden and as for honey, well, if it was a swarm that just appeared in her garden, was she morally obliged to harvest the honey, too?! Let the ecosystem and honey be taken care of by people who keep bees.

Hmm, a bit ignorant there. You are fully entitled not to like bees but the comment about letting other people take care of the ecosystem is a bit daft. If you really don't think you need this ecosystem or have any responsibility for it, can I suggest you stop eating (bees pollinate most of our crops, both those we eat and those we feed our animals) and see whether or not you depend on it then? You can eat salt (it's the one food we don't get from a plant). You don't have to embrace swarms with open arms, just think about better ways to deal with them so you can carry on eating.
Sorry if that sounds a bit glib, it's just that it really bugs me when people take what they need from the ecosystem (water, air, food) but can't see that they have any responsibility to look after it. You wouldn't live in your house and do nothing to maintain it, and still expect it to support you. Why is the ecosystem any different?

LostMyIdentityAlongTheWay · 03/07/2011 21:04

Bella, the Guardian is famous for making typos ALL the time... and as the Observer is the Sunday version thereof...
I really don't get the calories bit - what do they want us to do - eat the stripey little sausages? Hmm LOL!!!

CogitoErgoSometimes · 03/07/2011 21:05

When you've got thousands of the things buzzing around and you don't know what the hell they are, you don't stick around to find out if they are nice friendly bees or not. Beekeepers know what they're doing. The rest of us are more likely to close all the windows, get the kids inside quick and do something about it. The fruitloop who 'my' bees belonged to had decided to set up hives in a suburban garden without a thought for the neighbours. Her nearest neighbours have given up sitting outside in their garden at certain times of the year because they're fed up being stung.

I don't mind bees at all... I'm a gardener. But in vast quantities, if you're not in the beekeeping game and you don't know what the hell's going on, they are not nice at all.

LostMyIdentityAlongTheWay · 03/07/2011 21:05

Um... AllieZ. Those tiny white flowers...

They're called daisies, love...

BellaBearisWideAwake · 03/07/2011 21:05

Should it have been 100%?

Spagbolagain · 03/07/2011 21:06

It's really not difficult to tell the difference, they look and behave completely differently. And if you really cant work it out, that's when asking for help should cross your mind, before wanton destruction.

We had a wasps nest right by the house. It was very obviously wasps. I still didn't want to kill it, if it had been down the garden I would've ignored, but it was actually at toddler height. And also wasps can be useful as they eat some garden nasties. But I had to kill it from a safety perspective. Felt really terrible, and if there was a way of moving it I would have. But bees, without a thought, meh she is a knob.

DoingTheBestICan · 03/07/2011 21:09

Ha Ha love the daisies bit...

Anyhoo, the bees in my garden dont really bother with the odd daisy in the lawn,they prefer the butterfly lavender i have planted for them.

Honestly just take a closer look next time you see one,they are amazing little creatures.

GreenEyesandHam · 03/07/2011 21:14

Are bees the new cat poo?

I love bees, try to encourage them into the garden and love it when they come. Wasps, not so much.

Some people don't seem to know the difference though, the colleague obviously one of them.

Take her some info into work to educate her about it.

GoggleEyed · 03/07/2011 21:16

Catinthehat - was that directed at me? I asked, so that I could learn. If you dont ask, you dont learn. In the process, others who dont know may also gain benefit from me asking, as they might read the answer. Share the knowledge and all that. Rather than a thread full of people shouting out about how dumb people are, people should, if they want to change the reactions (in this case) of others, share the knowledge and teach/inform people. Slagging people off but doing nothing to help better the person you are slagging of is of no use. (not you, per se, but in general life, not just this thread)

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