I was fascinated by this and now look at yellow jackets a little differently. When I was about eight and attending a day camp in our Connecticut town, I was included in a group of older kids for one of those elaborate team hide and seek games. I spotted an indentation overlaid with grass right in the middle of a few trees. A perfect hiding place. I hollered to several companions on my team and we dove in, scooched down and then just as quickly ran out screaming pursued by a horde of yellow jackets whose nest we had inadvertently invaded. I’ve never been stung so many times in my life. The older kids in the group hooted for days about that but I never really got mad at the insects. After all, I had sat on their house.
Funny timing because we just moved in to a new house on Friday and I got stung by a wasp for the first time in years. It hurts. My spouse hates bugs and wasps especially and will BOOK it away. I don't like to be close to wasps but I am glad they're here. Also that reminds me I need to figure out how rescue a wasp my spouse trapped a room upstairs (open windows, no screens yet.) I hope it figures out how to fly back outside.
I learned to live with yellowjackets at my previous house where I had a large vegetable garden. They were always around, and seemed to really appreciate the water that was available to them. I left them to their own devices and never once got stung. One moment that won me over was when they swarmed in and devoured a caterpillar nest on a tree - it didn't take long to eat them up!
What I won't tolerate is them building nests in/on the house. Twice we've seen them attempting to make use of odd holes in the siding. Duct tape over the hole puts an end to that.
I loved every beautiful word! thank you Amy Jean!!
Thank you for giving me appreciation for something I have struggled to have any appreciation for!
I was fascinated by this and now look at yellow jackets a little differently. When I was about eight and attending a day camp in our Connecticut town, I was included in a group of older kids for one of those elaborate team hide and seek games. I spotted an indentation overlaid with grass right in the middle of a few trees. A perfect hiding place. I hollered to several companions on my team and we dove in, scooched down and then just as quickly ran out screaming pursued by a horde of yellow jackets whose nest we had inadvertently invaded. I’ve never been stung so many times in my life. The older kids in the group hooted for days about that but I never really got mad at the insects. After all, I had sat on their house.
Funny timing because we just moved in to a new house on Friday and I got stung by a wasp for the first time in years. It hurts. My spouse hates bugs and wasps especially and will BOOK it away. I don't like to be close to wasps but I am glad they're here. Also that reminds me I need to figure out how rescue a wasp my spouse trapped a room upstairs (open windows, no screens yet.) I hope it figures out how to fly back outside.
I learned to live with yellowjackets at my previous house where I had a large vegetable garden. They were always around, and seemed to really appreciate the water that was available to them. I left them to their own devices and never once got stung. One moment that won me over was when they swarmed in and devoured a caterpillar nest on a tree - it didn't take long to eat them up!
What I won't tolerate is them building nests in/on the house. Twice we've seen them attempting to make use of odd holes in the siding. Duct tape over the hole puts an end to that.