Thursday, August 17, 2006, 19:54
Clouds Of . . .
I've seen lots of clouds in my life. But never clouds like this.
Wednesday evening after I had fed and watered the horses, I took Charlie for a walk around the hayfield. The sun would be setting in an hour, and the sky was starting to become overcast with thin blue-gray clouds that looked like they might bring rain.
When I got down to the west end of the field, I saw them.
Hundreds of dragonflies flying over the field and the neighbor's pines. Clouds of dragonflies flitting and swooping and darting. Dragonflies flying over one third of the hayfield.
I have no idea where so many dragonflies came from. Or what they were looking for. But there sure was plenty of them.
I watched the dragonflies for a while and then noticed, too, that they were flying over our old pasture that is now seeding itself in with box elder and elm trees.
When my mom and dad were alive, the "old pasture" on the sidehill was the horse pasture. It was too steep to farm, so Dad figured it would make a good pasture. The elms and box elder are taking over, along with a few oak trees, an ash tree, and some raspberries and blackberries.
The dragonflies were flitting in among the elms and box elders as well as over the open hayfield and back and forth in the neighbor's pines.
I can't ever remember seeing that many dragonflies in one place at one time. A few days back, Sunday evening, I think it was, dragonflies were flying over the garden. But that was nothing compared to the dragonflies I saw Wednesday evening.
Bee Stings -- Yesterday my bee stings ached. Today they itch. Not much for welts. But do they itch!
I am relatively certain I was not stung by a Bald Faced Hornet because I had a brief glimpse of something yellow-striped flying out from my shirt. But last night, after Randy came home, we started looking around and paying more attention and were astonished to find that there are actually quite a few Bald Faced Hornets around the barn and horse pasture. They have never come after the horses, but just the sound of their buzzing is enough to make both horses nervous and uneasy. Randy says they make him nervous, too!
There must be a nest somewhere nearby of Bald Faced Hornets.The first time I became aware of them was last summer after Isabelle arrived. She would start running up and down the fenceline. When I'd go out to see what was wrong, I would discover one of those black and white things flying around her. I've seen the Bald Faced Hornets fly around the horses, but I've never seen them land on the horses. It must be on instinct alone that the horses are afraid of them.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Wednesday, August 16, 2006, 19:50
What are the Chances. . .?
I'm having another "what are the chances" day.
This morning, I put on an old t-shirt that I cut the sleeves off of earlier this summer when it was in the 90s and 100s. The temperature is in the mid-80s today, and it is humid. Because the sleeves have been cut off, the shirt has generous arm holes.
Unbeknownst to me, as I walked down to the barn this morning with the horse feed, a bee flew under my shirt. I had my hands full with milk for the barn kitties and kitty food and horse buckets. When I got to the barn, before I could set down any of the things I was holding, the bee began to sting my back.
Of course, I quickly set down everything and tried to get him out. Flapping my shirt up and down didn't work. Pulling on the neck hole and the arm holes to make a bigger escape route didn't work. I finally ended up taking off the t-shirt, but not before the bee had stung me 2 or 3 times on the back and once on my upper arm.
More than six hours later, I still feel like someone stabbed in me in the back and the arm with a hot poker.
And I never even saw the bee!
The good news, though, is that before I went outside, I took a diphenhydramine tablet (generic Benadryl) because the ragweed pollen is bad now, and the other antihistamines, nose sprays and eyedrops don't take care of the allergic reaction completely.
Because of the antihistamine, I don't have any welts -- just painful spots.
Only one other time have I had a bee fly down my shirt. It was while I was driving home one summer day from my job at a publishing company as a proofreader. It was a hot day, and I had the windows rolled all the way down. The bee crawled into my sleeve and stung the heck out of my arm.
I have never felt quite the same since then about driving a vehicle with the windows rolled all the way down.
But, as they say, all's well that ends well. Many years ago now, when I was picking blackberries one summer day, "something" (that I never saw) stung the back of my arm. My arm turned black and blue and swelled up from my shoulder down to my wrist.
I'll take a couple of painful spots any day!
Of course, while I was feeding the barn kitties, a black and white bee (hornet? wasp?) was flying around the cat food. The kitties were deathly afraid of it and left their food and wouldn't eat.
I've never seen a cat deathly afraid of a bee. But both Little Sister and Tippy did not want a THING to do with it and wouldn't come back to their kitty food until it was gone.
It's the same kind of "black and white something-or-other" the horses are deathly afraid of, as well, and if one gets after them, they will start running and will run around until it leaves them alone. The horses stomp and kick, and I've seen Kajun try to bite the things, too, when they are pestering him.
My policy on bees/hornets/wasps is that if they leave me alone, I leave them alone. Seeing as I had already gotten stung a couple of times this morning, I wasn't taking any chances with the "black-and-white-something-or-other." I got a can of fly spray and spritzed in that direction. I don't know if I hit it, but it left the barn and didn't bother the kitties or Kajun any more after that.
LeAnn R. Ralph
P.S. I did a little Internet research, and the only kind of black-and-white bee/hornet/wasp I can find anything about is the "bald-faced hornet."
There's a picture of one posted here. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page).