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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
babybythesea · 03/07/2011 21:58

AllieZ: Let the ecosystem and honey be taken care of by people who keep bees.

(me):don't think you need this ecosystem or have any responsibility for it,
Aliez: ??? I do need this ecosystem because as I was brought into existence, I need to eat. So I won't stop eating and I don't remember saying I don't need this ecosystem. As for responsibility, I am sure there are a million types of taxes that I pay that include the maintenance of bees, too.

This could get confusing! (you said then I said then you said...)
So, you started by saying let other people take care of the ecosystem. My response was (admittedly a bit rushed, sorry - dinner was ready!) really trying to point out that if you aren't prepared to look after something maybe you shouldn't be using it. A backwards piece of logic - maybe what I meant would be clearer if I rephrase it as 'If you need something, then surely you have a responsibility towards it.' I don't mean by that that you need to go and sit in trees eating grass or become a non-consumer or anything like that, just that there are so many small actions that we can all take that show consideration towards the system that keeps us alive. Helping to protect one of our major pollinators is just one, especially when it is under threat already. Taxes can't do it all. (We don't really fully understand why bees are declining, for example, and the mite that we know is a part of the problem has no cure yet). If you need the ecosystem, as you do, then surely it is your own interest to show a little bit of respect for it?

catinthehat2 · 03/07/2011 21:58

I like wasps as well.
Not as delightfully flower & fabric obsessed as bees
but you can't beat sitting out on a warm summers day, wondering what that faint scrunching sound is, and seeing a single wasp chewing away at a wooden fence to get nest material

CQrrrneee · 03/07/2011 22:01

wasps are bastards

CQrrrneee · 03/07/2011 22:02

they are just vandalising your fence catinthehat - they have no morals

BulletWithAName · 03/07/2011 22:02

Yes they are CQrrrneee

They're just a fucking nuisance!

BadPoet · 03/07/2011 22:03

Thanks MissBeehiving (I see what you did there Grin) and BornSicky, I was trying to remember what he told us. Now googling cast swarms! I remember finding it quite interesting at the time and being about 14 loved the drama of it all. Nobody was stung and no bees harmed! My parents would have done the phoning around, but they certainly contacted the council first and someone came out the same day. That was over 20 years ago, it's so much easier now to find out how to deal with a swarm or hive. Sad and Angry at your colleague OP.

BulletWithAName · 03/07/2011 22:03

Any wasp that dares fly into my house gets exterminated. I show them no mercy! Grin

CQrrrneee · 03/07/2011 22:03

I give wasps the option of an open window, but they are on a countdown before Mr Muscle gets called in.

GreenEyesandHam · 03/07/2011 22:04

Those tiny white flowers...They're called daisies, love...
Uhum. How many foreign languages do you speak fluently, in which you know what they are called? Just 'cause English is not my mother tongue. I happened to know what they are called in German and Spanish (neither of which are my mother tongue either), but not in English, sorry. I apologise. But I am sure you speak more foreign languages than I do and you know the word "daisy" in all of them, love...

Good post. Shame no one has had the good grace to acknowledge it.
I don't agree with your POV re bees, but nonetheless, it was a good reminder that I shouldn't always take things at face value, or rush in to get a laugh, without considering.

MissBeehiving · 03/07/2011 22:04

I don't like wasps because they rob my hives but they are fascinating. Grin

GreenEyesandHam · 03/07/2011 22:05

Now if only I could have a reminder to remove pesky spaces before trying to bold.

Not my fault, I was swatting a wasp...[embarrassed]

babybythesea · 03/07/2011 22:07

Bees don't pollinate 100% of our plants, no. I made a really rushed comment earlier before scooting off to grab my dinner and realised when coming back to the thread that i'd given the impression that bees are responsible for everything we eat - sorry!

I found this extract in CBC news, quoting a couple of different sources.

"About 35 per cent of the world's crop production is dependent on pollinators such as bees, birds and bats, scientists estimated in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences in 2006.

Another study the same year found many wild plants around the world weren't getting pollinated enough, especially those in areas with a lot of species, such as tropical jungles. The authors of the study published in Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences said some could be at risk of extinction as a result.

It's not just a problem in the tropics either ? the diversity of bees and the flowers they pollinate have both declined significantly in Britain and the Netherlands over 25 years, reported a 2006 study"

Thing is, many bird and bat species, and quite a lot of other insects, are also in decline so the overall picture for pollinators isn't good. Plus, there are many cases where one plant is adapted for one pollinator and if that animals goes, then so will the plant. The main trouble is that ecosystems are really complicated places. You can mess with them to a certain extent but then you do one last thing and the whole thing collapses, and it's difficult to know where the cut-off line is. We know bees are in trouble, we know that in the British ecosytem they play an important role, so it's a good idea to start looking out for them as if we lose them, we may not know the full implications of this until it is far too late.

catinthehat2 · 03/07/2011 22:09

but they have a terrific work ethic - their nests are like building an office block out of papier mache. I mean, imagine personally chewing up thousands of free newspapers and sticking the bits together to make a building

and they have a good sense of humour - they always give chase to the people who are most scared of them and leave the rest of us alone (because we don't flap our arms, run off & squeal like gurls)

MissBeehiving · 03/07/2011 22:10

I love swarms, they're one of the best bits of being a beekeeper. As long as you can get the Queen in a box then the swarm just walk in meekly to find her. Some of them will stand on the outside of the box wafting her pheromones to the late arrivals.

catinthehat2 · 03/07/2011 22:12

er GreenEyes, before you get stuck on your High Horse of Cultural & Linguistic Righteousness, and your Saddle of Being Holier Than Thou, it's worth repeating that poor old Allie had her thicko credentials validated by this early post:

"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"

so let's not defend the indefensible eh?

Spagbolagain · 03/07/2011 22:13

Another reason I was sorry to get rid of the wasps....they were munching away on our discoloured garden furniture, and were revealing a nice shade of the original teak underneath. Unfortunateyl, just in stripes though

squeakytoy · 03/07/2011 22:15

the little white flowers were probably more likely to be clover than daisies.....

:)

catinthehat2 · 03/07/2011 22:17

and in all fairness to wasps, I have only been stung while actually standing on one & I think that is very reasonable beehaviour

CQrrrneee · 03/07/2011 22:18

I was stung in my sleep. That's just nasty.

GreenEyesandHam · 03/07/2011 22:21

Err I said I didn't agree with her POV on bees, did you miss that? No defending here. I said it was a good reminder to me not to be a smartarse.

Smartarse.

catinthehat2 · 03/07/2011 22:21

cripes, yes Shock

GreenEyesandHam · 03/07/2011 22:22

Glad you agree Grin

catinthehat2 · 03/07/2011 22:22

oh dear
shorts a little too tight today I see

MissBeehiving · 03/07/2011 22:25

I got stung twice by a wasp last week when it took a dive into my welly. Little fecker.

Dsis got stung on the arse when she sat down on a wall with no pants on. *

*Disclaimer she was two
** I saw the wasp before she sat down and failed to bring it to her attention as she lowered herself down.Grin

catinthehat2 · 03/07/2011 22:26

brave try at humour GreenEyes

you'll need to work at it quite a lot though Sad

maybe something to do with the po-face