It's no fun trying to pull weeds when threatened by a swarm of bees.
Last weekend, two community gardeners who tend to plots on Valentine Road, were startled to find a wasp's nest in the ground. The Northborough Community Gardens are a collection of ten community maintained plots located on Valentine Road.
Kathleen Garety-Clark and Melissa Fullen Dunn shot an email out to the group, and posted on Facebook about the issue. Garety-Clark had been stung a few times.
Someone flagged the "buzzing" area with a stick, and Allison Lane, the Recreation Department director, immediately sent out a grounds crew on Monday morning to eliminate the nest.
Bees can be a nuisance, even a downright threat (especially to those with allergies) to anyone who enjoys working on the yard.
Shelby Miller, a Northborough Community Garden member, shares this method of getting rid of a nest in the ground.
"Wait until late dusk or night (they come back to the nest for overnight, don't fly at night), cover the hole with an inverted container that's big enough (Cool Whip or deli or Chinese food or Glad, and the like), and put a good weight on the container. Make sure the container edges are tight to the ground around the hole. (You may have to trim or hoe around the hole to prepare it.) Wait a few days, and don't knock it over. The insects will not burrow out; they will starve."
"So, no more angry bees," said Leslee Robinson, the group's Facebook page administrator. "It's another illustration of the 'community' aspect of the garden. The gardeners take care of each other as well as the plots and Allison and the DPW take care of us all."