Saturday, August 15, 2020

Stir up a hornet's nest...

 COVID-19 - School Closure - Day 150

Was in the back yard today... trying to stage four of my stools so I can spread my kitchen area rug on it for some spraying and cleaning.  All of a sudden... I see 3 or 4 flying insects dart out of nowhere and then *PINCH!!!!!*. I got stung by a wasp!!!!  

It hurt... a lot.  But the worst part is... the pain grew bigger and longer.  Burning.  Knifing.  With a whole lot of twisting!!!  I screamed.  I jumped.  I ran... afraid the rest of its friends would come after me.  The kids popped their heads out and I promptly shooed them indoors and closed the door.  The pain continued.  I examined the spot where I got stung... and a huge ball was there now.  Did my foot swell up so fast so bad?!?!?!  I looked for the stinger... remembering that wasps don't leave a stinger.  I shined my phone's light on there to get a better look and realized that ball... wasn't a swollen mass... but rather my ankle.  Ok... anatomically, it belonged there.  Heh...

Quickly googled what I oughta do... wash with soap and water then ice it.  Good enough.  Easy enough.  Warm water? Cold water? Doesn't say.... then I remembered when SW had his nut allergic reaction...that a warm bath exasperated his hives.  Sigh... the pain finally subsided.  The venom had drained into my skin and was now in my blood.  

After I iced it for a few minutes... I grabbed my can of organic, environmentally safe wasp spray out to pay my respects.  They were gone.  Without a trace.  Then out of curiosity... I turned one of the stools over and there it was... on the bottom of the stool was a wasp nest the size of a ping pong ball, crawling with 4-5 of those wasps.  Dang it.... who would've known.  After I exterminated two of their more visible nests....there lies a third one, out of sight.  How many more are there??????  

Honeybee Emoji (U+1F41D)


Wasps.... I hate wasps.  Grrrrr.......  The only silver lining out of all this.  It was me who got stung and not Joyce or the kids.  


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