She was sitting on my bobbin box, which is on my sewing table, which is right under a trap door in the ceiling that’s not totally sealed. The biggest bee I’ve ever seen. Just sitting there, moving as though she were grooming herself. I needed someting firmer than a fly swatter to smash this one. In my mind’s eye, she seemed as big as a hummingbird. But this was not a hummingbird. This was a giant black and yellow bee. And not a bumble bee, which is kind of furry and plump. This was something I’d never seen before.
I’ve since come to figure out that it was probablya Carpenter Bee, of which there are lots around this cedar-sided structure, but none as big as the one I smashed with my quickly removed sneaker.
I gingerly picked up her stiff body with several wads of toilet paper and flushed. Eeuuuww! She had weight and substance, and I swear I felt her exoskeleton crumble. Not like wiping up a smashed spider.
I sure hope she was the queen. That might minimize some the war we have to wage against those persistent Carpenter Bees.

Bugs are a fact of life. On this planet, there are 200 million bugs for every human, and we go to great lengths to keep them under control

The one bug that really disturbs me that I have yet to encounter is the bed bug. But if I ever do, I have found a great resource on how to deal with them. Check it out in case you are ever confronted with the problem. Not as easy as killing the queen, but what choice do you have?