Last week, I wrote about being attacked by yellow jackets while blowing leaves near their underground lair. And about the far more disastrous results of my defense campaign. Result? Several days later, my wife Trudy and I committed full-scale waspicide. Still, I must admit feeling sympathy for the little devils.
We waited until dark, when the entrance was unattended. And then we sprayed a megadose of bug killer into the hole and dropped a slab of cement on top of it. We completed the assault by building a rim of dirt around the newly-installed headstone.
I had mixed emotions. I knew it was necessary, but it also seemed a bit macabre. “Maybe we should say a few last words,” I suggested. Trudy punched me in the arm and told me I was too soft-hearted (I suspect she meant “soft-headed”).
The next day, the Great Tomb of the Wasps was haunted by two lone yellow jackets. They’d apparently been on reconnaissance during Waspmageddon, and were the only survivors. They looked so forlorn wandering around the sepulcher. After another two days, I put them out of their (and my) misery with the sole of my shoe.
Then I said a prayer. Go ahead, laugh. I may indeed be a soft-headed sentimentalist. But I can’t help feeling an innate sense of respect for all Creation, even the so-called “pests.” Could it be some indwelling sense that “all creatures great and small” have a greater role than we understand in the Grand Scheme?
Anyway, like a Cheyenne warrior thanking the spirit of the buffalo he’s just slain (too over-the-top?), I spoke words of gratitude and remorse. I couldn’t help feeling sympathy for the little devils. After all, one day “the lion shall lie down with the lamb.” And so too, perhaps, the yellow jackets shall live peaceably with the humans. Or, well, not “with” them per se, but preferably…
In a different part of Paradise.
😁👌 I’m the same way… I even apologize to the carp at Christmas, telling him that if I lay in water for a few days, he’d probably enjoy eating me too. I’ve noticed that if you give wasps really high-calorie food, they get significantly calmer. Ideally, a big bottle of beer where they can party until the end of their days. Have a lovely rest of your day, dear Mitch!
;>) You too, Mic.
I am so deeply sympathetic to you in this. All last spring and summer, a single hornet nested in the roller-blind box above my French window. It was very busy, kept regular hours and never bothered me. I checked with the experts that it wasn0t an Asian hornet, but a common native European hornet (I live in Switzerland) and thought, it has just as much right to its life as I do. In fact, I read on Google that hornets killl wasps, so thanks to my little lodger I was spared the usual summer wasp attacks. When I finally found its little corpse on the ground outside the window in autumn, I actually mourned its passing. it was a very beautiful creature, a wonder of nature. Now, though, I have to get my son-in-law to check that it hasn’t lef a nest full of babies behind in that box! One lone hornet is fine, but I don’t want a colony!
🧡
I have a confession to make brother; when I was ten, I fell into a a ground yellow jacket nest and was the unfortunate victim of over 100 love kisses from them. My father took me to the local fire station in Nyack NY where the firemen version of 1951 EM, treated me. I now love those little devils. When I was in training at Camp Le Jeune in the 1960s I ate many of them I my field prepared peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I swore I’d get back at them in ’51!
You’ve taken the old saying “revenge is a dish best served cold” literally, Russell!
I understand. I live in a renovated basement space and seem to have some unwanted roommates at various times of the year. I capture and release what I can…the rest I dispatch with a quick death, all the while uttering “I’m sorry,” as I watch their bodies spin away down the porcelain throne. It stinks.
Your 🧡’s in the right place, Sandy.
My husband and our neighbor poured something flammable down their hole at night and then ignited it. When a second ground yellow jacket hole was discovered and my youngest son was attacked, my oldest son poured gasoline into the hole at night. He said the fumes would kill them. It feels mean, but they are vicious and don’t stop attacking and I have grandchildren playing in my yard.
Understandable, Lisa.
Funny how even the tiniest creatures can tug at our empathy. This was both hilarious and strangely touching
Thank you, Maham.
I empathize with you, Mitch, and can relate to the eulogizing of your slaughtered little victims. If you have a garden, they likely helped keep the pests away. Unfortunately, as you noted, they can be quite aggressive. 🙂
If you swat at one bothering you such as landing on some food you’re eating, it will chase you for 100 yards or more. . One stung me on my lip when I was a kid, so no empathy here
On the plus side, yes, they’re polinators and pest-eaters, but they also kill honey bees sometimes too.
Your heart was in the right place, Mitch. You did the right thing.
Thanks for the smiles and chuckles in this great read, Mitch!
My pleasure (now, but not then), Terry. ;>)
The Bible teaches us that we must kill those who are trying to kill us.
I have no sympathy for the little wasp devils.
It’s really too bad that they get so aggressive in the fall and so many of them are killed. They love building their nests in my eaves and have realized if they do it high enough, I can’t reach them. I always feel bad when I kill one of God’s creatures, but that’s the way it goes now.
I had a run-in with them years ago. That being said, since the incident happened on the border with another property one could make the case those buggers were not entirely mine to eradicate. So, I reached a truce with them I’d never venture into that area again, as long as they also respected the border, and a peace accord was reached.
A commendable approach, Bruce. ;>)
I don’t believe we have these little critters here in Australia, Mitch, thank goodness. Wasps that attack for, what seems to be mindless arrogance, deserves swift retribution. A ‘quick’ end, of course!
I love Mic’s suggestion. Let them enjoy their end. Offer beer!
;>)
I’m with you. I’d feel sorry for them, too, but I agree you had to do it!
<3
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You turned an ordinary backyard crisis into a meditation on life, death, humor, and humility, Mitch. Beautifully done.
Thank you, Rakesh.
Well you dealt with them as you must have. Poor critters can’t control themselves. “They know not what they do”.
Exactly, Randy.
The mascot for the university where I teach is the “Yellow Jackets”. Our cheers included “Sting ’em, Jackets”, with our pinkies held high in the air!
;>)
so cute 💯
Love this story of triumph and defeat. The victor gets to write the history. Good job!
Thanks, Ray!
Yes. May they live happy, fulfilled eternities in a part of Paradise WAY far away from me. AMEN
;>)
I say a prayer when I pass roadkill.
Now that’s tender-hearted, Martha.
I’m incredibly allergic to wasps, but I’ve developed a truce with them at the farm. They eat a lot of pests and they help pollinate the cross, but rarely do they make nests close by. They still build nests in some inconvenient places – like the barn door which means wasp spray has to come out. For the most part, they leave me alone and I leave them alone. However, we have fire ants here in Texas and they’re sneaky little devils. They usually don’t become apparent until I step in a mound low too the ground.
One day we had lady volunteers working at the farm. I had my back turned and I suddenly heard one of the ladies screaming and heard somebody yell, “take off your clothes”. She had been covered after stepping on a nest. She started peeling off clothes. I didn’t see the rest. I was too embarrassed…
!!
I felt sad for the two left behind. I have a problem with ants. I know there’s much to learn from them but I don’t like them in the home. It pains me to be cruel to them while they’re working but they can’t just invade my space 🤷♀️… it’s a dilemma 😁
I completely understand, Iba.
😁
The sense that you care is of great character. God knows your heart, but you’ve got to protect your home and family.
🧡
You have a tender heart, Mitch. Thank you for writing your posts–your tenderhearted nature reveals itself quite often!
So kind of you to say that, Karen.
What I love about you Mitch?
You are not afraid to show and tell of that tender part, call Mr. Teemley. Enjoyed the post. Funny too.
You reminded me of my youthful age when I used to put a hand over the hole on the wood made by the bees. I did endure a few stings before removing my hand to let them fly away. In my later years I learn while watching a show on bees that the substance from the sting cures a diseased, I am unable to recall the exact name as of this response. If my memory serves me right–epilepsy, not quite sure.
Bless you, Bernadette. And, yes, nature’s full of surprises, isn’t it?
I have always been terrified of those things, but have never been stung thank the Lord. It reminds me of one time years ago when a bee got into my mom’s house. She grabbed it up in a cloth and ushered it outside, but when she put it down on the back stoop, it didn’t move. She went back into the house, got a little bit of honey and put it down by the bee. The bee ate it and finally flew away.
I don’t like killing bugs either, but I refuse to live with them, so there is no alternative. At lease bees and wasps have some purpose to be alive. But when it comes to bedbugs, I see no purpose whatsoever for them, and kill them I do when I find them, and with no remorse either. 🙂 I think I have just about conquered them, but now I find a few pharaoh ants invading my kitchen. I don’t appreciate nature coming into my apartment trying to live off of me–literally, where the bedbugs are concerned. The joys of apartment building living.
Yep. :>(
Gotta admire your mom for her tenderness toward that bee, Diane.
So,,,,, it had to be done, but you didn’t get a buzz doing it. Them neither!
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You did the right thing.
Maybe God has already created a heaven for yellow jackets, which also happens to be a neighborhood of hell for humans.
;>) https://mitchteemley.com/the-good-mosquito-3/
Will there be wasps in heaven? Bed bugs? Maybe there is salvation in having sympathy for little devils, but we should check our celestial room thoroughly if and when we get there before handing over our credit card.
;>)
A wonderful piece of writing, Mitch. I can’t believe I, too, began to feel sorry for the hornets. To be honest, lately, I’ve started to look for less lethal ways to remove invading insects from my home. For example, gently urging a spider into a disposable cup for transfer beyond my four walls. I even did that with a (lone) wasp – and felt very brave – not to mention virtuous (lol).
I draw the line at cockroaches, however. I would still cheerfully squash them without compunction.
Thank you for your kind comment, Shimona. I didn’t see it at first because WordPress had classified it as Spam. I use the same technique to rescue housebound bugs, btw. ;>)