Versus the Wasps

Well it was an exciting venture, I tell you whut Bubba's. Me against a whole mess of angry wasps. I was wrapped up like a environmentalist standing before the riot police, rock poised my hand.

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A few days ago we noticed an ever increasing presence of wasps around the house. Being mindful of our beautiful child we looked about for the nest. It transpired that there were two nests nearby, one at a neighbours and one out the front of our place.

I do not like wasps. I grew up with them in NZ, they are aggressive, they hurt like hell and can sting multiple times (unlike a bee). They also scare me, I have a scar on my left thumb from an encounter with a wasp.
But that nest had to go. Traditional methods include tipping a jerry can of petrol down the entrance and blocking it up with a rag and a brick. Not having a jerry can I called on my neighbours who lent me a tube of some kind of 'DeathKill' powder for bugs.
When dealing with wasps one has to wait until it's dark when they go to sleep. Alternatively you can wait until it's cold. Both have the effect of limiting their activity.

I waited until it was dark. I also bound myself up with gloves, a thick shirt, heavy boots, my work pants (tucked into my socks) and had my head covered by a hat, t-shirt and tea towel around my face. Angry wasps go into a stinging frenzy, take no risks.

At the entrance to the wasp nest were a few sentries. Holding my Zippo lighter at arms length I fried them with a can of Baygon and ignited a tree stump nearby. Needless to say my adrenaline was up. I quickly dumped the contents of the 'DeathKill' powder into the hive entrance, blocked it up and slammed the rock in place just as the first wasps were teetering their way out of hole. Another burst of baygon napalm.

Which is about when I heard the buzzing near my ear.

A wasp was on me trying to get inside my protection and sting me behind the ear.

I ran inside (calmly)

I calmly called to Evie to spray me with Baygon (this engendered a robust debate about baygon).

Some more buzzing and then quiet.

I stripped off washed myself and sat shaking on the couch for a half hour.

By then I recalled I set fire to a tree stump and I had to brave the dying wasps nest again to put it out. Thankfully I seemed to won the battle with my first strike. The fire was extinguished successfully.
It was then and only then did I feel I needed a beer.