… not in this getup, anyhow.
T minus 49 minutes to wasp nuking. No, I’m not sitting around roasting inside all that gear. That was just a trial run for the selfie.
… not in this getup, anyhow.
T minus 49 minutes to wasp nuking. No, I’m not sitting around roasting inside all that gear. That was just a trial run for the selfie.
Two observations… Don’t go outside in the daylight looking like that. It will scare the children and may get you arrested. Second, make sure you have all the gaps covered. The excitement generated by one of those evil little demons when it gets inside your clothing is not be believed.
Particularly if it’s inside clothing you can’t easily get out of.
Bees can only sting once. Wasps–well, they run out of venom eventually.
You’ll be fine.
I kill wasp nests with carburetor cleaner. Never had them attack me. The space suit is probably a good idea, however, since any spray landing on your skin becomes a major problem, especially if it’s in your face. Good luck!
This may be the only photo Claire I ever see. Hopefully one of us will get to the other coast while we’re still both alive.
Behold! The Original Wasp Burka!
Sorry to disappoint those looking for a new YouTube wasp-fail video, but it was totally anti-climactic.
The poor little waspies barely noticed me in my yeti suit as I nuked their civilization into oblivion.
Because of the growing dark and the fact that those goggles fogged up in about two seconds flat, I couldn’t tell if I got them all; there were still a few buzzing around, but they were more interested in their nest than in me.
I’ll go out later this morning to look and will give them another hit if needed, but I believe that emptying a full can of wasp spray at them last night at least informed them that the welcome mat had been removed.
That’s the way to do it!
er…well, maybe. It’s exactly what I would have done, so…probably not the way to do it.
Way to go, anyway! The world waits feverishly for an after-action report.
Well, drat. Last night in the dark I actually thought I’d torn holes in the nest and managed to directly blast hundreds of critters inside. Nope. This morning I see the nest is still intact — though it’s unhealthy looking and I saw only one wasp go in and one come out. Jeez, tough little pests, aren’t they?
Appears I did damage, but perhaps not enough damage. Good thing I bought four cans of wasp spray.
Four cans? I’m impressed.
Two for this nest, two to store and/or loan to neighbors.
Also general hoarding. 🙂
What Joel is saying is that if you were a MAN….
😉
Ah crap. I misread his post, and now mine takes on a bit of a different meaning. Oh well.
[voice=Wash]A woman goes out in a suit like that, people know she’s not afraid of anything.[/voice]
Claire,
That looks like a paper wasp nest. There are sheets and sheets of paper nest in there that the wasps travel through. Its hard to blast anything through all the layers, so some will always survive.
Spray it as best you can with whatever you have, then knock it down and break it apart. Once you knock the nest down and apart, all the wasps will leave or die.
For good advice and maybe some help, call a local beekeeper or beekeeping club.
And make sure you tape up those holes by your wrists!
One full can should be enough to drive them away. I would wait a few days before knocking it down to let the poison continue to do its job of driving any stragglers away, (the ones who didn’t notice the “don’t tread on me” welcome mat). Not even sure how you would go about removing that nest with the way it is in there??? Good luck and thank you for ridding the world of a few more of those nasties. Bonus: we all know what you look like now too… lol. I was spot on.
“Bonus: we all know what you look like now too… lol. I was spot on.”
You thought I looked like a weirdo freak? I’m so …
Oh, never mind. Judging by that photo, you’re right.
I am very pleased that the only casualties in this firefight were on the other side. That said, I had a statement ready for release should catastrophe strike:
“Oh my God! They killed Claire! You bastards!”
Hey Claire,
Very nice photo, PPE wise I’m sure nothing could get at you. I must admit when I looked at the photo all I could think of was this…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z02kJf559DM
It’s good that you protected yourself so well. If a swarm of wasps had gotten you, you might be toe-tagged now.
I was picturing my wife’s grandmother actually. Maybe because she lived alone. Maybe that she lived out in the deserts of eastern oregon. Maybe because you’re animal stories are a regularly reminder of her endless grief in paying thousands on vet bills for her 8 cats. Still, the coat pretty much sealed it. But if your tennis shoes occasionally get duct tape applied, (because she could never order up a more comfortable pair, [from a catalog, of course], and nothing was ever available at any of her local stories, [or she just didn’t want to be recognized by anyone]), you might just be the spitting image. Boy, do I ever miss her. And she loved the Oregon coast too, but fretted over tsunamis too much to even visit, I tried…