The War on Yellow Jackets!!!!!!!

    I took the kids out back to school shopping this afternoon (I should get a prize for not leaving one of them there).  When I drove into the driveway, I just happened to look over at the school side of the house.  It was like a cloud of yellow jackets, something akin to the movie about the killer bees.  I am allergic to bees / wasps/ hornets.  As a child I stood in a bees nest, and in mind I looked like one of those gross Ripley's Believe it or not books where the guy is covered in bees.  The actuality was probably a lot less than that.  I did have at least 15 to 20 stings, and from that day forward when I have had the misfortune of being stung, I swell up like a balloon where ever I was stung.  I count myself lucky, because my Uncle Al goes into anaphalactic shock if he gets stung by a bee, in other words his throat swells, and he stops breathing!  If given the choice between my reaction and Uncle Al's I'll take mine, but I would rather not take any.

    I shoed the kids into the house and began to quickly unload the car.  Christopher came into the driveway from the back yard to help me.  "We've got a BIG yellow jacket problem."  he told me.  "I saw that." I replied.  He told me that he had been doing yard work and had discovered the nest when he was weed whipping and got stung on the leg.  

    We unloaded the car, and then met in the house for a plan of action to get rid of the yellow jackets.  I suggested that maybe we could smoke them.  On the t.v. shows bee keepers put their bees to sleep using smoke and they are able to extract honey from the hives.  We agreed on that course of action.  Christopher then added that "Billy the Exterminator" on TLC holds two cans of spray when he gets rid of nests, one to spray the nest with, and one to spray the attacking bees / hornets / wasps with.  I suggested it would be a good idea if he took allergy medication beforehand in case he was stung, done.  He wore as much long clothing as he could to minimize stingable area. The final decision was that he should tackle the problem at dusk, this was confirmed by an internet search.  We had a plan, a plan that involved me sitting in the house and watching my husband get his face stung off.

    I heard no screaming, that was a good sign.  When Christopher came into the house he looked a combination of shell shocked and high on adrenaline.  Our plan worked!  The smoke seemed to have kept them at bay.  I came out to take pictures of the work in process, only to have my husband ask me if I was a complete mental case "YOU'RE ALLERGIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  My reply was only three words, "But my blog".  At the end of the day there are a lot of dead yellow jackets.  They had burrowed a huge hole under our rain barrel, who knew they burrowed holes? (maybe Billy the Exterminator knew this).  Christopher destroyed the nest and covered in the huge hole (he said that you could have easily put a large flowerpot into the hole).  My husband just went up a good amount of rungs in my estimation, and I can look forward to no stings!