Comments | 6_bleen_7: The Vespid Chronicles, Vol. II

6_bleen_7

The Vespid Chronicles, Vol. II

Oct 11, 2008 21:35

When we evicted the yellowjacket horde from our house last week, it was a matter of biological competition, and not of personal animosity. Following their instincts, honed by millions of years of evolution, they moved in without asking-and we merely asserted our territorial prerogative. In fact, I almost felt sorry for the last of the survivors ( Read more... )

general_science, rant

Comments 6

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6_bleen_7 October 25 2008, 03:58:25 UTC

Norman wrote:
I've really enjoyed your chronicles about yellow jackets. I have always been fascinated by these critters. I now collect them for a medical lab that uses the venom for sting allergic patients ( ... )

(The comment has been removed)

6_bleen_7 October 13 2008, 17:24:02 UTC

Heh-heh-have you seen any stumbling along on the ground? That might be worth capturing on film, if you have a cruel streak.

I agree that individually, spiders are creepier than wasps-33% creepier, if you just go by the leg count. My personal reaction is not nearly as severe with spiders, however, partly on account of my personal history with Vespidae and partly because spiders are generally less aggressively territorial: if you keep your hands and other extremities out of dark hidey-holes in your basement, you should be safe from spider bites.

That said, once early in the spring, I took off on a bike ride from our house in Utah, and a big-ass spider crawled out of the inside of my right handlebar and bit me on the hand. Hadn't realized until then that the hole in the end of a rubber handlebar grip doubles as a spider's front door.

chillyrodent October 13 2008, 17:17:41 UTC

Yecch. Just yecch.

6_bleen_7 October 13 2008, 17:27:31 UTC

Fortunately, winter will soon be here and put an end to this mess. Looks like summer is currently having an instant replay, however. Eighty-one degrees yesterday! As expected, though, we had a spike in the number of dying yellowjackets in the basement, and even one in the bedroom that must have found the other heat register. SIGH.

chillyrodent October 13 2008, 17:32:36 UTC

Have you figured out where they're getting into the ductwork? Oh, and I heartily recommend metal (not duct) tape for any kind of sealing-off you might need to do in the duct. Or other places, for that matter. Our home inspector turned us onto the stuff, and I'm crazy about it.

6_bleen_7 October 13 2008, 20:25:04 UTC

I'd love to know, but we don't have easy access to the wall space housing the nest. I'd like to find someone who has something like a colonoscopy probe, so I can go looking around in there. Because we haven't seen any confirmed activity at the other vent (the worker I found today was stone dead, and is not likely to be today's crop), I suspect that the nest is very close to the affected vent, and perhaps abuts the duct. (That's why I plan to wait until at least midwinter until we try removing the register.) The thought is disconcerting, however, as it implies that the nest is more than four feet from end to end [shudder], given where we heard the rustling and scraping before and where Dave concentrated the crazy wasp dust. One important piece of information may be the distribution of yellowjackets in the basement (found six new ones this morning, five of them still alive), which seems to be centered on a little vent in the ductwork branching out from the furnace. The vent itself is closed, but there are two gaps near its top ( ... )