Mega bee!

When I was about five, I remember once seeing  giant bee. My dad was taking out the car from the driveway and there it was on the steps going down. It was about 3 inches long, and although it had at least two bands, yellow and black, I couldn't see any of its wings. Of course, I was startled by such large animal and couldn't take a close look at it. My brother and I asked our dad about it and he told us that that would be a queen bee. We climbed into the car and probably one of the tires went over it.

Now, a bee cannot get that big, queen or not, so I do not know what I saw then. I'm sure I saw something nonetheless. It would have been a great prize for a natural history museum and it wouldn't have been that difficult to capture it too: a large bucket and on to the phones. I've asked both my father and brother about it since then, but they don't seem to remember anything of the sort.

However some present day analysis is warranted. According to http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_big_do_bumble_bees_get?#slide=2  not a bee, but a bumble bee can effectively grow to be such large. I've never seen anything like that since on the field or on the media, or heard talk of humongous bees, but I must label this childhood mystery of mine as solved.