Fairly full this week, four gites booked out. Adrian was doing some work at the weekend outside the little gite when he noticed some bees and flying ants at the window (on the inside). He went in to investigate and the place was swarming with flying ants and several bees as well, although many of them had also died and were littering the floor. He killed off the flying ants and cleared the place out of all insect life (and death) and we thought that would be that. But no! More bees kept appearing at the window, dead and alive. There were some gaps in part of the kitchen ceiling (wood paneling) so he blocked them up, but still they kept appearing (yes, he had checked that the windows were shut). Eventually he conducted a thorough search of the place and found them to be living in the bathroom. There is a panel behind the toilet and whenever he knocked it (gently) they would all go mad inside which apparently sounded horrific. He blocked up a few more holes inside the bathroom, but they were still inside this panel, he checked it out on the internet as bees are protected and you're not supposed to kill them, it said don't block off the entrance hole (which we think is above the front door!) as they'll then try even harder to find other ways out (ie into the gite itself).
This morning the bees are still buzzing away like mad so I went off to the local mayor's office (the fountain of all local knowledge, except when it's shut, which is why I wasn't there until today) to ask their advice, as we had guests due in this afternoon. They informed me that the pompiers (firemen) no longer deal with this kind of thing, have to 'go private' (ie pay). They gave me a number of a guy, who couldn't help, he dealt with wasps, he gave me the number of another guy; old, deaf and on his mobile, couldn't understand a word I was saying, anyway, he couldn't help, said he would get someone else to call me. Another guy rings, agrees to come over, and he duly does so, arriving just before lunch - I am impressed, I thought I'd be battling to get anyone out before the end of the week. He checks out the gite - no bees to be heard anywhere! Adrian eventually gets them to make a bit of noise by some serious banging on the panelling, but it looks like they've either died or buggered off elsewhere. The bee guy refused to remove the panelling - didn't have a protective suit for some reason, he said they naturally die off at this time of year (they're not honey bees) or may be they have actually decided that our gites are not suitable and they'd prefer something a little less rural and more up-market. (Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely little gite, also known as 'the love-shack' on account of the fact that most of the couples who stay there seem not to leave the place for several days during their stay and seem to be prone to long lie-ins). Mind you, it was our gite for two and not several hundred, so maybe they were feeling a bit crowded in there.
Needless to say, we did not put our guests in there, luckily we had another gite free this week and we've given them that one instead (bit of an up-grade) and we'll monitor the bees this week. Seriously hope they do not come back or we will have a bit of a problem on our hands. Although according to the bee guy, the pompiers will come out and deal with them when there is no other alternative - ie they cannot be removed and therefore have to be destroyed because they are in living accomodation - at a cost of around €100,00...
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