Yeah, I’ve wondered about that. I use Ivory soap and I change shampoos as often as one runs out. I’ve developed a theory based on wasps like me / mosquitos hate me: My sweat smells different than other people.
It’s not a huge problem, just annoying. And I like the relatively few mosquito attacks part of this.
The snake was a chance happening, I’m sure. I’m not the pie-eyed piper of Derbyville (or whatever he was). Just out tramping in the under brush.
I think I’ll try a diff soap and a new shampoo for a while, just to see.
“Everywhere you look there’s another kind of bug
But if you live in the Delta you’ve got 'em.
Here’s a sure-fire way to pass the time of day
Fold you up a newspaper and swat 'em.”
Another chance to crowbar in an Eddie Izzard reference…
[EI]
So… bees only get the one sting. Wasps on the other hand, can sting anyone they want. [sing-song voice] “I think I’ll sting this guy… and this guy over here… I’ll sting this brick for no reason… and this guy once again.”
They sting anyone they want, then they go back to their hive and make… NOTHING! They just sit around all day long and smoke dope.
Hornet’s nests scare the hell out of me. Even thinking of one right now, it’s making my skin crawl. Anytime I see one, I spray it with flying insect killer or whatever. Then I spray it again. And again. And again and again and again and again. I use about half a bottle on one nest.
After all the little miscreants have tried coming out, only to fall to the ground writhing in agony, I stomp on them. Then I jump up and down. Then I make wasp jelly by grinding them into the ground.
After that, I go get a broom and knock the nest down. Then get a dustpan and carry out to the yard and repeat the stomping that I did to the hornets themselves.
Bees leave me alone. I like them, all buzzy and summery. Wasps and others of their kind I hate.
I was driving with the window down the other day and a yellow jacket flew up my arm. Yaaaaah! I finally got it out after a complimentary sting. Last summer I was walking on the lawn in sandals and picked up a huge black wasp somehow. It stung me right between my toes a few times and my foot swelled up for a week. My dad drank a Coke with a wasp inside and got stung in the throat. It’s like they look around for people to sting because they don’t have anything else to do.
There is no greater joy in summer than taking a big, black can of Raid–the Wasp Killin’ Kind–and blasting a nest full of the little bastards. Ha ha ha! Watch em die!
I arm myself with the big ol’ can of Raid. I don’t randomly kill the little creeps. But while I’m a-puttering, it’s peace of mind: You never know when you’re about to stumble on, say, a wasp wedding reception or some such gathering of evil.
Off to Google wasp/hornet repellants. It’d be interestin’ if any exist. Will get back.
Me again. When Googling, try spelling “repellent” correctly. Duh. … Turns out you can buy lotions and towelettes and such. Some sites sell electronic geegaws, too. Hmmm.
So I have a nest of what look like flying poodle turds in a timber holding up the deck above mine out back. What are they and how do I get rid of them?
Gee, thanks for the reminder of the damn hornets or wasps that for the longest period of time would not stop trying to build nests around the outside of my condo, especially around the patio.
I must have gone through at least two cans of hornet & wasp killing spray blasting the nests as I discovered them before they finally gave up and moved along.
