Abuzz in a bad way about Dad’s return
Submitted by Debra Legg on Tuesday, 30 June 2009
2 Comments
Here's a new one to add to the list of "things to check on while a soldier is gone for months and his car sits unused in the driveway":
Bees.
They weren't bucolic little honeybees like the ones I tell the guys to leave alone because they're friends who help grow our fruits and vegetables.
It was a literal wasp's nest. I'm guessing some queen declared the car a permanent structure and decided it was a great place to start a colony.
A quick check with the local zoning department would have let her know we don't have a permit for an outbuilding. I just had no way to put the "mobile" in automobile.
In almost seven months, the car had made exactly one trip around the block as person after person welched on promises to help with it - I don't drive a stick. A neighbor eventually showed me how to start the car so at least the battery wouldn't die, but I was not about to try to drive it.
And then I welched on a promise to the guys that we'd wash the car and make Dad's third baby all sparkly for his return.
I'm glad I did. I was anaphalyctic to bees as a child, though I haven't been stung by anything bigger than a sweat bee in more than 30 years and don't know if I still am. The guys both have been stung with no reaction, though Boots' foot did puff considerably and these things can escalate with each sting.
It added up to a trip delayed for Dad, who practically was skipping out the door yesterday morning in anticipation of quality time with the third baby. He was back seconds later.
"You're never going to believe this," he said. "There's a bee's nest in my trunk."
We - technically, he, because all I did was fetch a broom - went about removal the wrong way. Other than lighting a fire - clearly not an option with a nest that near a gas tank - memory failed me as to how my dad used to go about this.
I took the coward's way out, running into the house as my husband knocked the nest off the trunk and into the yard.
A few hours later, the wasps were swarming the car again. I'm not sure what an angry wasp looks like - really, I'm not about to get close enough to peer into their eyes - but these did appear exorcised at their eviction.
The only insect spray in the house was for ants. I went to one store - no dice. I lucked out at my second stop, if you consider paying $9 for a one-use can of bug spray lucking out. If you gotta, you gotta, though.
By the time I got home, more squatter wasps were buzzing around trying to reclaim their space. A few quick blasts quelled the invasion.
Bee spray now is added to the permanent list of items needed to welcome Dad home.
Copyright 2009 Debra Legg. All rights reserved.
Oh my goodness!! I am (ashamedly) a thirty-something with Boots’ tendencies toward finger-jabbing and angry accusations...
Whoa! I am really glad you and The Guys steered clear!
Once, some years back, my husband’s commute car became infested with ants. He took a “bomb” to it. That killed off the investation and he learned to be much more careful about food in his vehicle.
We once had a truck sit so long mushrooms grew on the floor. There was a leak we didn’t know about so while the truch waited for us to afford to repair it, it grew mushrooms. Don’t know if they were the salad kind. Cleaned it before there was time to test the fungus details. ((YUCK!))
Hope it’s all better now and the bees move along. Come to think of it, my dad used to take a stick with a gasoline soaked rag on the end, ingite it, and let the flames at the tip of the rag burn up the wasp nest. He always sent us indoors for this so we wouldn’t get stung. On the other hand, the nests were under the eaves of the roof of the house. Hm. And we were sent into the house. Hmmm.
Good luck with ridding the third baby of the infestation!
HA! My first car was a Volare (everyone sing along now!) that had chronic mushroom problems. It wasn’t just me either – one of our neighbors had a Volare with the same problem, so we eventually decided there was some sort of design flaw that let water ooze into the floorboards and create the right climate.
Of course, if I ever bothered to clean my car regularly …
Food »
Egg-free pumpkin scones
For some crazy reason – probably our “Cinnamon Roll Friday” tradition – the guys have decided that they’re entitled to a fresh-from-the-oven breakfast every morning of late. For some reason that’s even crazier, I’ve gone …
Girl Gone Wonk »
Take my kids’ dessert, Michelle. Please.
Note to Sara Palin: Michelle Obama is free to stop by my house any evening and tell my kids they can’t have dessert. After seven-plus years of this war, I’m battle fatigued. Michelle would probably …
Health »
If you’re laying off nurses, you better have a backup plan
The lack of health-care workers in schools is nothing new.
We saw the impact when Big Guy was in kindergarten and cooled his heels in the office for half a day after a snooty secretary diagnosed …
News »
Forcing myself into little circles
I’ve come to the conclusion recently that my perfect friend would be a geeky food-allergic liberal with quirky sense of humor, an obsessive interest in education issues and a tolerance for cute crap my kids …
Reviews »
Bad Kitty’s the purrfect read
In this corner we have Big Guy, who’s bored with every book I bring home and isn’t fond of fiction.
In this corner we have Boots, who could devour Step 3 books if he wanted to, …
School days »
When Accelerated Reader slams on the brakes
It’s a good thing Accelerated Reader wasn’t around when I was in third grade. I doubt there would have been AR tests for the Perry Mason novels I loved.
For unindoctrinated uninitiated, Accelerated Reader bills itself …
By the way
08/18/2009 | 1:34 pm
Sometimes life is all about timing. There’s a chance the soldier took his protective goggles off briefly during training in The Box – 1,000 barren square miles at Fort Irwin where soldiers prepare for desert warfare. Then ...
07/24/2009 | 9:47 pm
So there I was last month, stressing until 2 in the morning over Dad’s “welcome home” cake, worried that it would be ugly or dry or have the wrong color stars. Silly, silly girl. If I’d ...
06/12/2009 | 12:05 pm
I’m kind of frustrated this morning because I don’t have girls. I don’t even know any girls young enough to appreciate this. But if I did, I’d be all over the tutu tutorial – say that ...
05/30/2009 | 8:17 am
Poor Boots. He wakes up every morning chirping with the birds and with a cheery greeting. “It’s a beautiful day!” Somewhere along the line, though, the grind of the world beats the beauty out of it ...
05/21/2009 | 11:18 pm
On one level, it’s simple: When you’re about to fall, just let go and fall. Trying to stop the tumble or, even worse, flailing your arms and legs as you land will make it worse. Somewhere ...
05/20/2009 | 9:03 pm
05/20/2009 | 10:18 am
This one landed in my Twitter stream just as Boots was diving into a bowl of … Cocoa Puffs: “New peanut flour warning for General Mills cereals.” Luckily, he’s not the child who’s allergic and Big ...
05/19/2009 | 12:56 am
From the country that wants to censor the Internet worldwide in the name of protecting its children comes another bizarre project, also in the name of “protecting children” The British have launched a database, at a ...
05/18/2009 | 11:38 pm
Do I ever feel like a dolt after my post last night lamenting the difficulties of finding dye-free snow-cone syrups. I went to a Middle Eastern market today to pick up some hummus ingredients and ran ...
05/16/2009 | 8:16 pm
05/15/2009 | 10:15 pm
Six hundred and eight three killed in Afghanistan. Four thousand, two hundred and ninety six killed in Iraq. Many stories of incredible lives, often amazing sacrifices. This is one such story. Army Maj. Steven Hutchison survived two ...
To subscribe