New house for one and all

Friday night, Sito and I were at the supermarket when I needed to ask N about the size of the remaining diapers. Then I saw a few scary messages from her. The picture was all dark but I thought it looked like a moth - recall the caterpillars! I had to re-read the text and found "wasp" *.* She said Kai was sleeping on Yu's bed and Yu was very angry hoho! No wonder I saw a bigger mass on Yu's bed through the camera - I thought it was Yu plus pillow/bolster!

Got a scare ourselves when we saw the swarm for ourselves. It was the size of a tissue prata!

I don't recall seeing this - quite hard to miss ya! - when we got home at 6.30 pm when there was still light. Apparently, Kai saw it just before bedtime, hanging off the balcony ledge outside his window. He got scared and went to sleep with his brothers.

A security guard was in the lift with Sito when he went to return the NTUC trolley so he asked him whether other residents complained of bees. So the guard came to have a look and took a picture. That night, Sito also called a pest control company and arranged for them to come by on Saturday morning.

That night, I went over to Kai's room to look at it a few times. Also looked at it from Yang's room whenever Yu woke. Yang had pulled one curtain shut so he wouldn't see the "danger thing". At 4 plus, Kai somehow bought his pillow to his room and then came dashing into my room, hysterical about a black thing outside his window. Consoled him but I don't think he slept after that...

Got a better look when the sun came up - the bees on the brighter part were moving!

Brought the kids to see it in daylight. They were very curious but not as scared.

Later, the swarm started to shift...

All round now...

And at 9.10 am, the swarm disintegrated!

I took an amazing video of it happening. It took less than two minutes so we were quite lucky. And they were flying so fast I saw lines where they went! Can't see lines in video or photo of course. By 10 am, however, a couple of hundreds, I think, formed a little swarm again. This time, there was a small bit on the outer wall facing Yang's room too.

Reforming in process

In the meantime, I got a couple of calls from the management office which had heard from the security guard and was arranging for pest control too, as they had complaints from others about the time when the swarm disintegrated. But it sounded like I would have to pay $200 or so for survey so I told them we had our own.

They came about 10.45 am and took a bit to look at the swarm. It could only be accessed from Kai's window. One guy went to alert the neighhours while we learnt more from the other. Apparently this is common. The bees are trying to find a new nest. They usually get rid of bees in the evening when they are less active. We decided to pay $100 to just do it. They reached out with a can on a stick and gave the area a good spray. We are to monitor for a couple more days in case they come back.

Kai was fearful these two nights at bedtime. I went to check a few times last night. Nope, no bees :)