h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Did some more gardening yesterday. only weeding and stuff. Also intended to use compost as mulch but had fright of life when thrust garden fork into compost and there was almighty buzzing sound. Dropped fork and ran screaming into house as huge wild bees swarmed angrily around garden.

Of course, couldn't leave it like that as fork was still in middle of bees nest and lid was off compost bin so had to go back out to sort it out. To avoid being stung I grabbed the nearest available clothing - Fleece, pink scarf wrapped around head, yellow marigolds and safety goggles. Husband says he will never be able to show his face to the neighbours again!

I know this is probably really late news, but bees are attracted to dark colours and not to light/white colours.

I learned this doing a story for a newspaper about a home infested with bees. When they flew out of the attic, the little buggers saw my black hair and started buzzing around, stinging me on the top of the head.

That's why beekeeper suits are white.

I guess this could be useful if it ever happens again.
Or you could do what my wife does and send out the husband to deal with the problem.

Thanks for the tip Jimi. In the end we got a Bee Man out at the cost of £50!!!!!!!!! - He relocated them to a happier home. I think in future we will leave the bin empty over Winter - that way they don't have anything to sleep in! How are you doing anyway?

Wow! That seems like a lot of money. The bee-lady I know relocates them for free. She keeps the bees and they make honey for her which she then sells.

I'll never forget the sound of an entire hive of bees being relocated down a bumpy country road in the back of a pickup truck. I was *so* ready to dive into my car at the first sign of trouble.

Things are looking up here at last. We've been in horrible drought conditions for the whole summer - our lawn had the look and feel of dried straw and some of our trees are dropping their leaves already. But it rained at the weekend and we had a nice soaking rain again today and things are turning green again.

Nature is amazing - everything looked so dead and a little rain and it's looking green and healthy again.