Tuesday, July 8

a bit morbid

I tend to be a nature loving, friend to the animals (except the ones I eat) kind of girl, and that includes insects. My philosophy is if a bug is outside I will not harm him or his habitat because that's where they belong, but if it comes in my home I'm allowed to kill it.

However, there are occasions when I make exceptions. Remember the bees, or wasps rather, from last summer? Well, they came back and this time I decided to be proactive about it since we do live right next to the pool. I didn't want them to ruin some one's family party by stinging everyone. Well, these wasps, after being politely asked to leave the front yard, traveled all of 15 feet to our backyard. I noticed them but they seemed to be nesting up pretty high (when actually they were in the barbecue) and I'm lazy, so I didn't do anything about it. Then one stung Alexis--and I got mad. So I (actually my dad) set a wasp trap and left it out for a few days. Nothing happened. I gave the wasps some credit and assumed they knew what that trap meant and left my yard to go bother someone else, so I let the kids out in the backyard again. This time they stung Tyler. On his face. And I got really, really MAD. They stung both of my kids in a matter of days, which meant I was no longer a friend to wasp-kind. I went to the store, bought some spray and I (actually my dad) fumigated their brains out. Later Jeremy and I went out and picked up all the dead ones so we wouldn't step on their stingers. But when I went out to fire up the BBQ tonight I saw two more out there that I had to spray.
This time I left their little wasp bodies out there as a warning to all the other wasps in the neighborhood. I hope they get the message before it's too late.



**As an aside, here's a picture that my sister in law took from our 4th of July weekend. I didn't realize we had it or I would have posted it sooner. Alexis loves fireworks, all except for sparklers. This is how she looked after a little spark from a sparkler touched her leg. It was tragic, to say the least. What was even worse was the reaction she got. I laughed, her aunt took a picture, her brother laughed, and her dad who was laying on the grass right next to her didn't even sit up to see if she was okay. Good thing she has a grandma who cared, or at least pretended to.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I hope you got rid of the wasps! I hate any kind of bee/wasp/anything with a stinger.
That picture of Alexis is great! She'll laugh about it someday, right??

Happy Thought, Indeed! said...

It's not like you know me, but I'll give advice anyway...you may check and see if you have a wasp nest somewhere lurking around your yard. A wasp stung Jeffy's nose last summer, and I came to find out they were living inside pipes under the picnic table! Just this summer, Emmy found a wasp nest on our mailbox. It was fortunately empty when she found it, and removed it all by herself as her mommy was saying, "What's that you found, Emmy?" not knowing what it was she found! Good luck...hopefully the bees are already all gone!

Lisa said...

Thanks! i actually did find the nest, they had built it in one of the metal pipes on our BBQ. We've scraped out as much as we could, but we'll have to try and get the rest so they don't come back.

Jessica Munk said...

we have the same problem. They make nests in the BBQ. We spray them then run for our lives. They also like to be in the swing set structure bars...i find that leaving the fumiaged nest and dead bodies does help keep them away...otherwise what is going to prevent them from make a new one next year? we dont actually use the BBQ so by not knocking the nests off its not like we "eat" them.

The Shill Spill said...

Wow! I am so glad your dad is around to help you out! I am sure I would have called on someone, such as my dad, to do the same. Although, if they had stung both my children - much like yours - I'd be mad too...and You'd probably see me in my back yard with goggles, oven mits, long winter coats and hats...and boots...just to KILL them all! :) So, if you ever see me dressed like so...you know what's going on at our house! :) (That is much like the way I cook my bacon on my stove top.)

Kevin said...

You cold-hearted murderer!