I have been home a few days from a mainland vacation. The nice feeling are still with me .. In spite of ants and huge black bumble bees making life trying.

Daisy, once bitten, steers clear.

Bee stings can kill little dogs.

I have been stung and so has Steve, through a cushy towel.
It has been a battle royalle  trying to move them on.

Yesterday morning one held me hostage at my back door, even though I had the can of Raid.
(They must not be able to read)

While I was gone, we had some high winds and everything on the lanai was covered in volcanic ash.
The lanai is the ‘room’ we live in.

Yesterday, (yes, on a Sunday) I started cleaning out there, a little here and there and wound up spending the day on that side of the house and away from the bees.
It needed a deep cleaning. We even replaced the fairy lights ( net lights) behind the bakers rack..
It looks so pretty at night.

This morning Steve was trapped, eye to eye by a pair of Carpenter Bees as he was trying to read his paper.
 
I waited until they gave up and left before I ventured forth with my coffee to sit at the table and read.

It’s what we do most mornings.

……Then I noticed it
Debris on my clean Bakers Rack.  What !  It may not have been noticable by any one but me.
Debris! shavings? Plant pollen?  or ??? from where.
I could not figure it out

It wasn’t from me or Daisy.. probably not the cats
I called Steve to come and ‘look’. I felt certain he would know … and boy was he going to get it~   
He could not figure it out…”Sure looks like saw shavings”.

 
We had a nice lunch, and tried to figure out again what that was when we saw that it was back.
I truly thought Steve is playing a joke
I’m clearing the table and he calls me to return.

“I’ve figured it out” .

“I am not biting on what ever it is.”

“Seriously. look up there at your birdhouse”

I see the panduit ties to keep things from crashing down.
 …And ?
I see nothing. He points again. Then I see….

 
 OMG!

There was one of the Carpenter Bees, doing a fair job at chewing a hole in the bottom of the birdhouse.

Better the birdhouse than me. (The center one under the wreath)

We had just spent an hour at the table inches away.

 We left, but returned with a squirt bottle. A well placed aim from the hand sneaking out from behind a door
seemed to discourage this one, for now.

I had never seen these before coming to Hawaii.
They are a common nuisance here in Hawaii.

It appears they are from Brazil and were pretty rare.
If they want these they best get over here before they drown!