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Hymenoptera again
Jun. 5th, 2013 10:58 amAm paying someone to come here while we're out of town and spray poison behind our shutters to de-yellowjacket them.
On the one hand, it feels like we must be doing something wrong, here I try to pick out organic fruit for my kids and now we're applying seriously toxic stuff right to our own house? It's not like they're a huge problem, the nest is small, we've only seen one or two at a time, nobody's gotten stung... On the other hand, our shutters are apparently just the kind of place they like (south-facing, warmed by the sun) and the residual poison is supposed to encourage them to stay away, and, what, I want to wait until there are hundreds of them and one of my kids has gotten stung? Josh has pointed out that in the long-term we could look into removing the shutters, but presumably there'd have to be a whole bunch of caulking and patching the holes where they attached, and I don't want to ask someone to take them down if there are live yellowjackets behind them anyways, so we'll have to spray at least once, and gah. (I guess if we were going to have them taken down immediately, they could spray with the non-poisonous mint stuff that doesn't leave the residual... ugh, I don't know, maybe I should have tried to coordinate something like that, but honestly just contacting professionals at all took coping-with-stuff energy. Why is this stuff SO HARD.)
On the one hand, it feels like we must be doing something wrong, here I try to pick out organic fruit for my kids and now we're applying seriously toxic stuff right to our own house? It's not like they're a huge problem, the nest is small, we've only seen one or two at a time, nobody's gotten stung... On the other hand, our shutters are apparently just the kind of place they like (south-facing, warmed by the sun) and the residual poison is supposed to encourage them to stay away, and, what, I want to wait until there are hundreds of them and one of my kids has gotten stung? Josh has pointed out that in the long-term we could look into removing the shutters, but presumably there'd have to be a whole bunch of caulking and patching the holes where they attached, and I don't want to ask someone to take them down if there are live yellowjackets behind them anyways, so we'll have to spray at least once, and gah. (I guess if we were going to have them taken down immediately, they could spray with the non-poisonous mint stuff that doesn't leave the residual... ugh, I don't know, maybe I should have tried to coordinate something like that, but honestly just contacting professionals at all took coping-with-stuff energy. Why is this stuff SO HARD.)
