Sunday, July 11, 2010

Wasp War

After having the house and garage painted, Mr. Bryant focused on working with ADR to complete the treehouse, at long last. It turns out that in the four weeks that passed, the wasps were very very busy at our house.

First, we noticed a nest in the back of the house above the patio. Mr. Bryant and ADR made plans to attack it with spray at night and to knock it down the next morning. Asa planned secret wasp attacks. Everyone was talking about the wasp eradication plans.


I didn't want to talk about it. Once I knew there were wasps, I stayed safely inside, remembering the time when I was really little, and we were playing tag at Uncle Doc's summer cabin. It was a family picnic and we had gone swimming in the pool and had a big lunch of all my very favorite picnic foods. After lunch we took it easy for a little bit and then started a game of tag. Lots of cousins, lots of fun! And then, one of my cousins ran into a tree and knocked a wasps nest down, and we all got stung all over. I don't remember much after that except laying on a bed in the cabin, crying, while mom and dad put ice on my stings that were EVERYWHERE.

All these years later, and I still don't do wasps.

That night, ADR and Mr. Bryant pulled on gloves and said things like, "Whatever you do, don't lock this door!" as they picked up spray and bravely went outside.

I went into the bedroom to read. I couldn't stand it.


In the morning when ADR arrived he said that it looked like it had rained wasps on the patio. Rather than go out back to look, I made coffee. I heard them put up the big ladder to knock down the nest, and then things got quiet. But no one ran in the house yelling and slamming doors, so I figured all would soon be well.

They were outside quite some time, and when I finally peeked out the window Mr. Bryant was sweeping the patio and ADR had gone off to trim the hedges. Next thing you know, I heard him yelp - he had found another nest - even bigger than the one on the house - right there, right where he was trimming. He and Mr. Bryant sprayed that nest like crazy (live wasps are now boiling around everywhere outside, nice!) and hightailed it around the front of the house.


Next thing you know, they find a tiny nest started out front. I asked them to take the camera and get some pictures - and on their way around the side of the house, they found THIS.


Before they were done they had found five new wasp nests and one yellow jacket nest.

I tell you, I am in the house for a few days. We are at War.

2 comments:

Tabor said...

Scary. One young man that we had asked to mow the lawn got stung by ground wasps. The hole was hard to find, but I sprayed it that night and we have had no problems recently.

Linda said...

Gracious, you have an invasion. Forget about Iraq and Afghanistan, you're at war on your home front.

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