Monday, April 17, 2017

Return of the wasps

Those of you who have read most of my previous posts know that I have had an all out battle with wasps. Last year, they made their nest, or at least one of them, in between some pieces of sod that I had thrown in my trailer while I was waiting for a full load to take to the dump. This year, they are in my shed. Well, they got in my shed last year too, but because they were in an easily accessed part of the shed, it was hardly worth mentioning because I took care of them easily. Not so this time. The shed in question resembles this one:
The shed looks like this one and the wasps are flying in and landing
just above the doorway, out of sight.

I found out there was a nest inside when I opened it to retrieve my fertilizer spreader and several of the winged beasts flew out at me. Since I couldn't tell where that nest was above the doorway, and I didn't want to go poking around to find it, I set about trying to figure out how to get rid of them without putting myself or others at risk.
I first got my handy can of wasp spray and tried just soaking the edge along the top of the doorway. They were still flying in and out after that. So I darted over to Home Depot and picked up a fogger. I put a sheet of plastic in front of the doorway, put some duct tape on the sides to keep the breeze from blowing it out of the way, and used some rocks on the top and bottom to hold that in place. Then I sat the fogger inside and pushed the button. I saw several wasps fly out against the clear plastic and attempt to escape, but I also saw some of the mist coming out the cracks of the shed. I figured that it probably didn't hold the mist in long enough to kill the wasps, but the instructions say not to go in there until four hours have passed.
I'm thinking that I'm not going to use fire this time to drive them out.
If I'm still seeing wasps tomorrow, I may need to dress up in protective gear and just stick my hand/arm inside the shed and spray all along that edge, just hoping to get them. That makes me nervous though because I don't want to end up spraying myself in the face by turning the nozzle toward me on the other side of the metal, and then suddenly finding a seam.
I really need to fertilize my lawn though, and both the fertilizer and the spreader are in there. It will rain tomorrow and if the rain gets inside the shed, it's going to ruin the fertilizer, so I've either got to kill the wasps and shut the door, or not kill the wasps and shut the door.
So many adventures, so little time...

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