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So we had yellow jacket nests in the attic recently. A wasp is a wasp is a bug to me but I’m usually one where if it doesn’t bother me, I don’t bother it. Yes, that’s how I roll with these things.
Some time in 2019, while I was sitting in my bedroom, it came out of my ceiling vent. Just one. But it was enough for me to run out of the room and tell Zen Master that we had wasps in the attic.
Zen Master: No, we don’t.
Me: Yes, we do. It just came out of the ceiling vent.
Zen Master (looking at me dryly): It probably came from outside, through your window.
Me: Kinda hard to do when my window’s closed.
Don’t know why he didn’t believe me but there you go.
It wasn’t until the second one popped out a few days later that I was absolutely in his face, adamant that yes, we do have an infestation in the attic. He walked away semi-convinced then.
But we still didn’t go up into the attic to check it out. Just because. Maybe we were hoping that they’d just go away on its own. I was thinking that they’d just leave the same way they had come in.
So we had tenants in the attic now.
Fast forward to current COVID-19 days
Because of COVID-19 and no vaccine in sight, I work from home nowadays. Me along with most of the United States. So it wasn’t surprising or unexpected when my little yellow jacket friends started descending from the attic.
Not a swarm, thank goodness. But just one or two a day. I’d just get up from my desk, open the window for them and let them out. It became a game for me to see which yellow jacket wasp was smart enough to figure out how to get to the window and get out into the open air outside. And how long it’d take them to get out.
They never once bothered with me. I’d read something somewhere awhile ago that if you stay calm and cool, they’d leave you alone. I can say, yes, that’s true. But Zen Master poo-pooed that theory, saying if you mess with them, they’d mess with you.
Well, I had zero interest in testing his theory out.
So they’d just pop out of the ceiling vent and start flying around the room, announcing themselves. Then I’d open the window (minus the screen) and wait for it to figure its way out. Out of the handful that popped out, there was only one who couldn’t figure out how to get out and I ended up smushing it. (Because I don’t like bugs in my room.)
Don’t say I never gave ’em a chance to live.
Going After the Yellow Jacket Nests
We’re having our roof replaced soon and I knew we needed to take care of the yellow jacket nests just in case the roofers ripped off the roof and startled the buggers and they’d become casualties of their nasty sting.
I really don’t need that type of drama.
So Zen Master and I went to Home Depot recently to get some wasp spray that’ll kill the nest. And found Spectracide*. When the Home Depot person said that it had a 20-feet reach, that sold me. I really just wanted to spray the buggers and run. I mean, how quick does it take one of them to cover 20 feet? I’d be out of the attic before it could touch me.
Which probably meant me leaving Zen Master (being 78 years old and slow as a turtle) to fend for himself. This is what happens when he’s stubborn and wants to go into the attic with me to take care of the yellow jacket nests. Left in the attic dust.
Yes, I’m quite the conscience caregiver.
While We Were Up in the Attic…
But he’s locked in his mindset that the nests won’t be as bad as anything. Because he has had experience with them when he was a little boy in China. And while we were up in the attic, let me just say, his aim at the nests were relatively spot-on, giving his post-stroke hand dexterity. I think he misted me with it more before he actually hit the nests. I was double masked, hoodie-covered and well-gloved so I was fine with that.
I’d figured that if I were well insulated from head-to-toe, if I couldn’t in fact outrun these yellow jacket buggers, their sting on me wouldn’t be too bad.
Zen Master, on the other hand, went up there in his sweats and
- capless
- maskless
- gloveless
- and in his diabetic socks.
Ultimately we found just four fist-sized nests. There was only one yellow jacket flying at us. And when I soaked the nests with my spray, I watched it act like a sponge, soaking the sh*t in very easily. It was a bit anti-climatic, really, because nothing came out. No swarm, no nothing.
I’m thinking maybe nobody’s home or they were already empty nests. Or they were all sleeping and adios.
Whatev.
Strange to admit, but with the attic now quiet and empty, kinda miss the buggers. But I freely advertise to any future yellow jacket wasps thinking about moving in – enter at your own risk. I no longer have any problem going into the attic and kicking you out.
You’ve been forewarned.
PRODUCT REVIEW: SPECTRACIDE – 5 STARS – So worth the money and not expensive at all. Fragrance-free and easy to use. And the 20-feet spray is a big plus.
Sally in the Zen
