May 3, 2007
Go Home Already: Muzzle of Bees
Yes, that's a fire hydrant that's become home to a swarm of bees on 16th and P Sts., NW. The note attached says a beekeeper has been called to take care of the problem. Anyone have some Raid?
>> The DCist Department of Cryptozoology would like to propose formal protection for Bigfoot as an endangered species. One Canadian lawmaker is moving to do just that. Who else is picturing Marion Barry arguing for an extensive Sasquatch safe zone? [Reason's Hit & Run]
>> Big Sky Girl has her own version of DCist's Overheard. Nice to know we're not the only ones whose blood pressure rises when people loudly spout nonsense. [via DCBlogs]
>> D.C.'s wealthy could get tax cuts to stay in the city. [Washington Post]
>> Speaking of dosh, Hill Rag has a very, very detailed breakdown of Mayor Fenty's fiscal year 2008 budget. The biggest winner seems to be public works. Wonder if that includes hydrants, potholes, tunnels and tollbooths?
>> Barack Obama gets secret service protection, the earliest ever assigned to a presidential candidate. [AP]
Photo by Flickr user vincew.
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The Hill Rag article on the FY2008 Budget is by Ed Lazere of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, the "go-to" guy for DC Budget number-crunching.
Hey, Lindsay.
Honeybees are endangered, due largely to imported pathogens and ennvironmental stress. This may sound trivial until one considers that much of what we eat depends on them.
Please leave that can of raid at home, and call someone from the Smithsonian. They've got entymologists on staff who can help.
Barack is the first minority with the most likelihood to receive the Democratic nomination(even more than Jesse Jackson in 1988). White supremacy is a reality in America. No wonder he is the earliest presidential candidate placed under secret service protection.
Two mysteries solved: broken DC hydrants and disappearing honeybees.
The bees are in the hydrants.
Elementary, my dear DCist.
didn't einstein say that when the bees die off, we've got four years before the world ends?
oy vey.
Your characterization that only DC's wealthy will benefit from the proposed tax breaks is misleading. The break applies to all homeowners.
Hillman, that's an incredibly common refrain, since any tax cut is sure to give more back to the wealthy, who pay more to begin with. I despise the twisting of basic math for political purposes.
Anyone else wondering how the hell that guy was able to put the sign on the hydrant without getting stung? Those are some big balls, my friend.
Mark and miss bee are spot on. Honey bees (an important distinction from wasps or yellow jackets) are absolutely vital to our agricultural cycles and way of life. Hopefully a beekeeper safely removed these bees before DCist Lindsay or anyone else did something stupid. [DCist Lindsay - you should be embarrassed by that "Raid" comment.]
to Rachel - it was probably fairly easy to put that sign up. Bees will usually leave you alone as long as they don't feel threatened. Someone knowledgeable enough to call a beekeeper probably didn't go in there swatting at stray bees.
Hopefully this post and the reaction from the commenters (and yesterday morning's piece about bees on WAMU) will help educate people about the respect bees deserve.
Actually, the Snopes conclusion is that it's pretty unlikely that Einstein ever made that comment about bees, since the first time anyone ever saw it quoted was in 1994. And I've heard some rumblings that the "disappearing bees" story is being considerably overstated, so try to keep your self-righteousness in check.
I'm actually sort of impressed that folks can tell they're honeybees at that resolution. They're not the only kind of bees that gather in big hive groups like that, are they?
Why can't these bees be out pollinating honey and plants? Cell phones, apparently.
In addition to what everyone else has said, I'd also hope DCist would hesitate before recommending that people spray pyrethroid insecticides around with abandon. Not only are they totally unnecessary in this situation, they're generally bad for you, and in chronic exposures (like, if you use them at home a lot) have been linked to cancer, endocrine disruption, and other bad things.
ice, ice, nate! simmer down dude. my self righteousness is totally in check; i was just asking because i'd heard the quote before. no need to get so feisty.
Why is it that half the people who read this site take everything they read ABSOLUTELY LITERALLY? Are you people really moronic enough to believe that DCist Lindsay was putting out a hit on the bees? She's an apiological Tony Soprano now?
Lighten the hell up.
"The Hill Rag article on the FY2008 Budget is by Ed Lazere of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, the "go-to" guy for DC Budget number-crunching."
He is also the go-to guy for arguing against any tax cut whatsoever. He does his homework, no doubt, but as with any ideological think tank (their ideology is that there should be more redistribution of wealth, via taxing and spending, from the upper-middle class and rich to the poor), you should take their positions with a grain of salt. That's not to say ignore them; you certainly shouldn't do that. But you should understand that a lot of their analyses have certain built-in assumptions that impact their conclusions.
This is evident in their report claiming to prove DC residents pay the least taxes in the area. The report did demonstrate how the common perception of DC's tax burden is off from reality somewhat; and it showed how VA and MD have a higher tax burden than many realize. But the report still played with the numbers (e.g. the homestead exemption) and ignored other numbers (e.g. sales tax) to reach its predetermined conclusion, namely that DC shouldn't cut its income tax.
Some people have interests, opinions, passions and concerns about things bigger than themselves and outside of their immediate spheres of influence. Just because you don't understand that doesn't mean you have to mock it.
Maybe her comment about Raid wouldn't have been interpreted so literally if the link that she provided wasn't to a site called "How To Get Rid Of Bees" that essentially advocates (just what you are SOOO incredulous about) killing first (with Raid or Borax (??)) and asking questions later.
If those are wasps, hornets or yellow-jackets, kill them all. DON'T HARM if they are honey bees, which look quite different than wasps & hornets. The nasty, elongated stinging ones form smaller hives and prefer trash, sweet foods & drinks over flowers.
Honeybees & to a lesser extent butterflies & hummingbirds are critical to the pollination of plants, trees and flowers. Wasps & hornets have no purpose in the environment that I'm aware of except to cause harm & sometimes death.
I had one of those monster European Hornets in the house last night, yikes those things are scary!
I agree with Reid. I like Ed. He is super smart and actually takes the time to read through the budget proposal (as opposed to 99.99% of all local reporters who, theoretically, should be doing the same thing). But his view is that no tax cut is ever good or justifiable because it means less money for social services and the poor. Of course, if tax rates remain high then people have an incentive to go elsewhere. Which will lead to lower amounts of revenue to be used for social services and the poor. Which means you need to raise taxes to find the needed money. Which means....you get the picture.
I like Ed. But he's out of his f'ing mind if he thinks that most homeowners in DC don't think they are overpaying in property, income and sales taxes.
"But his view is that no tax cut is ever good or justifiable because it means less money for social services and the poor."
I think that's an overstatement of his view. He seems to have at least as good a command of the numbers as anyone in DC gov and serves as a nice counterpoint to people like Evans.
Actually, wasps and hornets do have a good purpose. They keep in check certain insects and arachnids that people don't exactly like. Some types, Trichnogamma wasps for example, are even commercially marketed for that purpose.
Everything has a place, though few have a place in people's homes.
Yeah, Lindsay, SO not cool right now to be talking about killing bees. Like, get with it, yo :)
Actually, Bob, the colony collapse phenomenon scares the shit out of me, and it does worry me a great deal, despite it being bigger than me and outside my immediate sphere of influence. In fact, I wish the news stories about it were getting pushed more to the front. It may turn out to be just a worse manifestation of something we've seen (and managed to deal with) before, or it may be something worse, but either way I think people should be talking about it and really concerned about it.
None of that, however, prevents me from laughing at a funny/sarcastic/hyperbolic/offhand comment made on a blog.
Sorry to offend all the bee lovers out there. I linked to the "getting rid of bees" site simply because I have no idea how you would handle such a bizarre situation.
Every time I see a swarm of bees I have a flashback to the X-Files and am afraid of being infected with an alien virus that eventually prevents me from making out with Agent Mulder. On that note, I also literally would like a law on the books in D.C. protecting Bigfoot.
On the Honeybee thing-
www.enn.com/today.html?id=12703