Recently we moved into a new house (while we remain in the same wonderful city, we moved to a nicer location, in a house that will better facilitate our 6 month old daughter as she grows up) and everything has been quite fantastic apart from one nuisance buzzing at my consciousness, stinging at my very being...literally. While it wasn't something we'd noticed viewing the house (and had never even considered a factor when looking), and could just be a seasonal thing that wasn't underway in early May, there is a beautiful tree in front of our house, one that towers over our cars, that releases a huge quantity of sap that is absolutely loved by honeybees, large flies, and very large bees-on-steroids insects (see picture below). While seemingly harmless, I got my first taste of the dilemma this tree presents on moving day when I brushed an itch on my neck to be stung by a bee certain I was attacking and presenting a mortal threat to his bee-ly existence. To make matters worse, because both cars are smooth surfaces that are protected from rain, each morning we go out to probably a dozen+ bees on each, amongst a dozen or so giant flies, making getting into the cars unscathed a gymnastic exercise -- An exercise which includes the avoidance of any of them getting in the vehicle, necessitating perfect timing. To add to the hilarity, this stuff is so desirable to bees that when we stop at stoplights quite frequently a bee will appear circling the vehicle.
This wouldn't be so bad (neither my wife or I is allergic to bee stings), however it becomes a concern because we have a young daughter who might accidentally threaten a bee (as I did), and obviously we don't want her getting stung.
So my question is the following:
If you know the answers to any of these questions, please email me at dforbes@yafla.com, or respond to my corresponding Usenet post. Thanks!
I don't imagine it'll come to cutting the tree down, and we may just have to live with it, but I would like to know information if there is anything we could do to alleviate this situation.
Thanks!
The tree has been identified as a Tilia Cordata, otherwise known as a "Greenspire" or "Littleleaf Linden". It turns out that the likely problem is that the tree has a massive aphid problem, and the aphids are the reason there's a continual blanket of sap beneath the tree. Given this information, I now know that the problem is only going to continue for a short while longer (the nights are getting cooler so the aphids won't be around for long), and next spring I'll rely on either underspraying the tree to dislodge them frequently, or perhaps a systemic insecticide injected into the root of the tree to make it less suceptible to aphids. I'm not keen on chemical poisons, so maybe I'll release hoardes of ladybugs for a natural solution (is this a viable solution? I've seen "bags of ladybugs" for sale in gardening centers, but of course if they all just fly away then it's of little use).
As a sidenote I now realize that the above "bee" is a yellow jacket. Amazing little creatures. *CORRECTION*: A visitor with a great eye for detail has noted that the large, nasty looking visitor (who I'd swear I saw land atop a bee and rip it in half) is a variation of a yellow-jacked called a "bald-faced hornet" (even though apparently it's not really a hornet. Honestly, I've personally always lumped bees, yellow-jackets wasps and hornets into one big nasty pile). As fall comes I will be on the lookout for the nest.