I can now tell ya about the second
half of my battle with the 3 yellow jacket nests in the yard.
They just didn't go away completely even with the dusting so I took drastic measures. Got
the shovel
and the dust. Gave each nest a light dusting to settle them down then did a
quick deep dig right into the center and removed a plug! Then I ran like the wind cause
this made them very mad. I only got stung once, lightly on the thumb. But I did slip in
the grass once while retreating and scrapped my arm up good. Oh well, there are always
casualties in battle. I let them each simmer down for a few hours then attacked again and again -
dusted, dug open, and dusted more. Each time there were less wasps and I exposed more of
the nest. Finally I had dug out each nest (about the size of a grapefruit each) and all
of the wasps were gone or dead. Below is photo of one of them and you can see some of the nest -
sort of like a bee's honeycomb without the honey. I now have filled in the holes and with
all the Sevin dust mixed in them I don't expect them to return to those locations. But
have to keep my eyes open. I learned today that neighbors beside us and across the road
have also found such nests in their yards.
Another little outdoor problem we have had is with a nasty little bird, yes basically only one little bird, who likes
to sit on mailbox posts all day and do his business. This leaves our nice white posts looking really yucky in a few
days. So, we decided to make our post uncomfortable for him by adding a spike. To the left you see an example of a
post like we and everyone on the street had. On the right is our "new and improved" antibird post. Do you think it worked?
No. Bird still soiled it! Then Shirley got the idea of scareing him away with "mirrors". She used two
small triangular pieces
of an old CD. She glued one to front
side and one to back
side of the spike
, none on left or right
sides cause could distract
driver if sun reflected off it. She got idea from homemade mobile we have in garage to keep birds out. Well, it
works! And glad we did not put CD pieces on sides cause other afternoon I caught glare in the house off of it and
was suprised
at how bright it was from the evening sun.
Guess you could call this the end of the road.
Links:
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream.
It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same,
or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children
and our children's children what it was once like in the United States
where men were free."
- President Ronald Reagan
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