Jumping over a bees' nest to get in and out of my apartment

Ever since I visited the rhododendrons at Black Moshannon, I've been having heart symptoms similar to what happened the last time I contaminated my house with herbs. I walked near those bushes, so I assume that the soil beneath the bushes had enough of the rhododendron poison on it to contaminate my shoes. I thought rhododendrons weren't very poisonous. I mentally categorized them as 'mildly' poisonous, especially because I've been around them in the past and didn't notice any problems, and because people plant them as decorative bushes. However, there are different varieties; and I'm more chemical sensitive than I used to be. Plus, people (stupidly) plant other extremely dangerous plants, like foxglove, as 'decorative flowers,' so rhododendrons could be the same way.

So... I decided today that I would try to use my 'Little Green' vacuum shampooer, intended for cleaning furniture, and shampoo out the foot well area of my car, where the gas pedal is. I figured that got contaminated when I stepped back into the car after the rhododendrons.

I dragged my long, orange extension cord out the door, and went down the steps to my car. I had to jiggle the extension cord around to undo some tangles, so it was banging and hitting the edge of the step below the door. There is a little metal rim which is hollow underneath. A minute after I started banging the cord around, bees started flying out from under the metal thing.

I shouted 'BWAH!' and ran down to the car, flailing my arms around. ('BWAH!' was the random noise that came out of my mouth. It wasn't really a word.) Then I shouted the s-word, the f-word, and the g.d.-word, then the f-word and the s-word a few more times, but the bees still didn't go away. I kept watching up there and saw them flying around. Soon they would fly down the steps and find me, standing next to my car, so I opened the car door and got inside and shut the door.

After waiting a few minutes, I didn't notice any bees flying around near my car. So I got out and did my rug shampooing project. Nothing bothered me, but I was really paranoid, and every time I saw a flying insect, or the slightest motion in my peripheral vision, I jumped and looked in all directions to see if a swarm of bees was around me.

They were yellowjackets. I got in a yellowjackets nest when I was a teenager, when my friend Christina and I were playing in the woods, getting ready to climb up a big tree, while barefoot. A nest was at the base of the tree, and we were standing in it. Christina said, 'I'm getting stung!' and I was confused. I thought maybe she was getting bitten by a spider, so I looked at her legs expecting to see a spider. But I saw these little things flying around, and then they were flying around me too.

So we ran home barefoot through the woods, through the sticker bushes, screaming. We felt no pain in our bare feet even on the stickers. We slapped each other anytime one of us saw a bee that the other one couldn't reach, and ran into the house smacking each other and ourselves, and screaming. I don't really remember what Mom said, but she helped us upstairs to get in the bathroom, take our clothes off, and look at all the stings, and check for any bees that might still be in the clothing.

Luckily neither of us were allergic to yellowjackets, so we only had itchy painful bumps all over, but we were mostly okay.

So I wasn't allergic to yellowjackets a long time ago, and I hope I'm still not allergic to them.

Well, so back to the present. I finished shampooing the carpet. I was using the furniture shampooer in a way it wasn't meant to be used. It was a dainty little machine meant for use on things that were relatively clean, like chairs and couches. I was using it on a car floor with chunks of soil, rock, and dry grass. (They usually say things like 'first remove gross filth and heavy soil,' which I did not do.) It kept clogging and I had to clean it out several times. I couldn't go upstairs to my apartment to use the water, so I used the creek, since I was only using plain water without any soap.

Then I had to go to the bathroom, and also, I was starting to get some skin contact with some of the various herbal drugs that had contaminated my car floor. It wasn't just rhododendron, it was also the old drugs, the more benign ones like St. John's Wort, which is a nuisance but not as life-threatening. So I was noticing symptoms, but nothing really severe. I decided to go out to Sheetz and use their bathroom and also buy a snack.

I thought I might go buy bee spray, but I didn't. I am reluctant to do that. There are a few reasons why I would rather not use a spray. First, even though I talk about how I am continuing to eat an omnivorous diet, which means that I'm willing to kill animals, I still don't enjoy the sight of something writhing in pain and agony for hours, even something like bees. The bees would get sick and they would be crawling around, being tortured, and I would have to go look for them and try to step on them to put them out of their misery. So that would be horrible and unpleasant. The other thing is that if I spray the doorstep, the spray will inevitably make me as sick as it makes the bees. I will then smell bug spray forever while I'm in my house. I have to do a lot of work this month, moving my stuff out, so I need a lot of physical energy, and getting sick with poisonous pesticides will be counterproductive. I also have to open that door to use the fan, although I could try putting it in a window - and I probably won't be keeping the door open much anymore now that the bees are upset and distrusting.

I'm going to find out whether they sell an ultrasonic bee deterrent.

So eventually, I had to get back into the house. I went to Sheetz, went to the bathroom, bought a snack and came home. I was now feeling my heart pounding (not because of the bees, but because of what was on the floor), and knew I needed to wash off the herbal contaminants, so I wanted to get inside and change clothes and take a shower. I went up the steps, saw a bee, and ran back down the steps and into my car again. If my heart was pounding before, it was pounding a lot now. I didn't want to have a heart attack because of being terrified by bees while I was on drugs.

I went back up the stairs, and shouted, 'ONE TWO THREE GO!!!' and opened the door, jumped inside, and SLAMMED the door shut behind me - over the extension cord, which was still plugged in.

After the door shut, I looked around to see if any bees had gone inside the open door, as it had been left open for about an hour now, since I couldn't go up there to shut it. There weren't any bees in the house.

So I unplugged the extension cord, and left it hanging where it was - I'll get it later. I took a shower, washed off the herbal drugs, and changed clothes, and felt much better, and my heart was no longer pounding. But now I'm sort of trapped in here, and I have nothing to do but blog, and look up 'ultrasonic bee deterrent' to find out whether maybe it's something they sell at Lowe's, or someplace else where I might buy it in town instead of ordering it online.

I was going through that door all this time, for weeks and weeks, and yes, several times recently I had seen a couple bees flying in and out of that little metal thing, but I had put it on my low priority list, because I didn't think I would do anything bad enough to disturb them.

I could light a candle next to it, but it would be uncomfortably close to the house, and I don't want to be lighting candles next to flammable objects and surfaces until AFTER I've moved all my stuff out - just kidding, I wouldn't do it even then. And yeah, I probably shouldn't even try to joke about that. And there is still one other person here in this house during the summer, besides me, maybe two people, although some of the other rooms are empty. It feels like everybody's gone, but there are still a few people living here. There's at least one car in the parking lot and I saw a girl earlier today (while I was sitting in my car looking up at the bees flying around my porch).

I could also maybe pour water over the metal thing, except that would require me to crouch above it for a few seconds, which I don't want to do. And the water would just splash through it and around it, without bothering the bees much.

So I haven't decided what to do yet. If I don't do something, then either the landlord, or the next tenants moving in, will have to do something, and surely, they will choose the most brutal and disgusting method available, the poison spray. I'm not going to tell the landlord about it unless I feel there is no other choice. I'd like to try to take care of it myself first.