That's how I feel this morning...Us vs. Them. By them I am referring to a colony of Yellow Jackets that while we were visiting family in NY, decided the serenity of my back deck would be the perfect place to nest. We retuned home on Monday and my son Bill, who was visiting for a couple of days, said to me" Hey Mom...did you know you have a bees nest in your wall?" WHAT!!! was my calm response. "Yeah...I was up late reading and I kept hearing this crunching sound coming from the wall" Bill said. ...Oh great..not only are they nesting, but they are crunching on popcorn and nacho chips in celebration of their new home. I couldn't get the 'go to bed early' bees...oh no...I get the 'Hey..there's a party at my nest' variety.
Of course the first thing I do when faced with this dilemma is to Google my problem. Why is this the first thing we as inquisitive humans do now (that's a whole other blog post)? I don't think this is the kind of Yellow Jacket nesting in my wall. If it is ...hey, move over worker bees I'm coming in ;-)
Ok..now I'm getting somewhere...this is the little guy giving me a headache. Meet Mr. Vespa Flavopilosa....who knew he was Italian! So maybe that crunching sound is them munching on those skinny breadsticks before dinner.
YIKES!!!!!! This is my worst yellow jacket nightmare! Example of why you should always keep your car windows closed while parked. Looks like a self imposed airbag of sorts. Think his auto insurance covered this?
Back to my problem...this is the eave where they are entering and nesting. Google says to wait until 9:30pm...great, my pests can tell time too. So last night after dark, my man decided to take some action. Hey he's a man...he don't need no stinkin pest control expert! We had purchased some wasp spray and I had thoroughly read all directions...he can't even spell the word 'direction'. The can said to spray from at least 10-15 feet away (no ladder needed), wear some kind of thick outerwear, like a sweatshirt and jeans , to make stinging a little more difficult. Never shine a flashlight directly into the opening, as that might startle the jackets. Of course I, being a woman, would have followed their directions thinking the manufactures of my spray knew what they were talking about. Not my man......oh no...he is out there dressed only in a flimsy thin tee shirt and shorts...standing on the top rung of a 35 year old rickety wood ladder....his face right in the opening...and yes folks...he is shining a flashlight directly into the opening!!! At this point I am on the other side of my kitchen door laughing hysterically at his blatant disregard for authority. Men...if we didn't love them so much we would find ourselves standing over them in the middle of the night with a knife in our hands sometimes ...just kidding honey ;-) For those of you not from Virginia, Google ' Lorena Bobbitt' and you will understand the last knife reference...He..He.
8 comments:
Eeek! How scary! Best of luck with your adventure.
We had the same thing happen here, they got in around the deck light and were eating the drywall, my DH being not as brave as yours called pest control, the drilled a hole inside and puffed white stuff in that hole and again outside...it did the trick. BTW...Barbara that works at the store was the court stenographer for the Bobbitt case...toooo funny.
GOOD LUCK! That is no fun. We had a small wasps nest a couple of years ago and I sprayed it down with the hose. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but most of the wasps were gone at the time and they didn't rebuild.
Good luck wth the yellow jackets...maybe have some ice and Benadryl on hand!
Are you married to MY husband? He doesn't know how to spell "direction" either! Good luck!
Well, this same thing happened to us about 5 and 1/2 weeks ago! Make sure that he uses a light weight flashlight, say, made of plastic or one of those little mag-light minis thingies. When it falls on his chest as he laying on his back on the ground gasping for air it won't hurt as much. Oh, and make sure he applies the cortisone, actually from experience mine prefers Lanacane for sting relief, BEFORE he shines the little light on the sleeping buzz-its. Well the little darlings have long since moved on and my big darling gets his cast off in just a couple more days. Everything is back to normal.
I'm wondering though...how come you didn't have that adorable big brother of yours handle this situation?
*lol* good luck to you (and your husband!) dealing with the yellow jackets. Their sting is PAINFUL. Wonder what it is about men that makes them constitutionally unable to read and follow directions??
Update...Update....we went on attack last night with no injuries to report. I have been checking all day and have not seen any evidence of bee activity. Will treat again tonight and hopefully that will be it...cross your fingers!! Was using my newly purchased stethoscope to listen for bee noises in wall and without thinking popped a crunchy baked pita chip in my mouth and bit down......YIKES!!!!!!! I nearly busted my eardrums! Note to self...don't eat anything crunchy while hooked up to strethoscope.. ;-(
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