Thursday, August 7, 2008

The Wasps are Dead!

I've been very nervous about anyone going down into the basement to prime the water pump. That wasps' next above the door was an unknown quantity. Sure, they've been very good about letting me pass and were downright catatonic when we (first my father-in-law and me and then a friend) tried to prime the pump last night but I didn't know what we might accidentally do that would trigger them.

Today I picked up a huge can of death meant just for wasp and hornet nests while grocery shopping. I read the directions. I was supposed to stand 3 to 4 metres downwind with a clear escape path while spraying them. Ha! They're over the door in my basement! Either I stand a foot away and stand ready to bolt out the door or I stand 3 metres away on the other side of the basement with no escape.

What to do?

Turns out neither plan was any good. Because of the angle I'd have to use to hit them I had to stand about 4 feet away with the door wide open.

The up side?

The nest was jammed between the soffit and a floor joist. Their only route of escape was through my poisonous spray.

It was a massacre. None that were in the nest escaped. A few that had been outside flew back confused but were so concerned with the nest that they didn't care as I turned off the lights, closed the door and walked to the house. I could definitely kill again.

4 comments:

molytail said...

aww, poor little wasps... :-P

*teasing*

You're braver than I - I'd have prolly just closed off the basement forever....yep.

Anonymous said...

LOL, that's what I thought too 'awww, poor wasps... just out there trying to live their little wasp lives and along comes the Dawnimator'.

Dawn said...

I have to admit, there is some guilt. the little guys let me go in and out yesterday and the day before even when they were quite active. But still, Harry came down to see what we were doing when we were trying to prime the pump Wednesday and I noticed a hornet on his shirt. I whipped it off him pretty quick and he didn't even know why but if he'd seen it and panicked...Yikes.

Sure they were calm but it's like having a bomb under the house and you don't know what will trgger it. :D

Oh... And Shannon says he thinks they were actually hornets notthat it makes much of a difference.

Anonymous said...

sounds like you had a lucky escape glad to hear you got through it without getting stung