Yellow Jackets

So, to avoid telling my tale repeatedly, I'm just going to post it here...

A couple weeks ago we started noticing a yellow jacket or two in the house. We didn't know at the time that they were yellow jackets but figured they were trying to get away from the cold. We dealt with them...either killing them or relocating them as the opportunity arose. Altogether, we had maybe a dozen over the couple weeks.

This past Wednesday, things escalated. In the morning, I had to vacuum up almost a dozen at once. The boys and I were not happy. We called Nathan...who was in Boulder for the day. He called some local exterminators, but no one was available to come until next week. We ended up having dealt with 16 that day and decided to try to just be patient and wait for the cold weather to end things. We tried to block off any place we thought they might be getting in. 

Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday in terms of numbers. We blocked off a few more spots and hoped for the best.

Friday was crazy. We had lots going on, and Nathan was again working in Boulder for the day. By 10 in the morning, I'd killed 9 yellow jackets. At that point, I had to drive Micah up to CSU to talk with an expert for his First Lego League team project (which went great! more on that later). We left Asher at home to finish his schoolwork and eat before 12:30 when I would be back to take him to CEC. When we got back (with just enough time to switch boys), Asher was rather frazzled...having killed 40 more while we were gone. 

Yes. Forty.

Obviously, that's not good. 

So. I hurried Asher to class at CEC, left Micah at home to battle the yellow jackets alone (I tried to see if he'd just come with me but he had things he needed/wanted to do and insisted he'd be okay), and called Nathan to insist that he find someone who could come *today*. I then proceeded back up to CSU because it's homecoming weekend and there was a parent informational session I wanted to go to, and I needed to get a few things to Noah and finish up the submission of his annual FAFSA stuff. 

While sitting in the session, I was texting with Nathan (who finally found someone to come out but the time was such that I wouldn't be back yet so then he worked out leaving work early to be there, himself) and Micah (who'd been killing them left and right and had started deciding it hadn't been such a good idea to stay home but was willing to go over to the neighbor's house...but ended up just going for a walk to a neighborhood smoothie place with Asher once Asher had walked home from class). I offered to change my plans with Noah (who I was also texting with, as he had an advisor meeting and we were trying to figure out where to meet) and go home to get Asher and Micah, but they decided the smoothie place was safe enough, lol. 

(Sidenote here to say that I feel awful that Asher and Micah each had to deal with any of this solo. Huge kudos to them for staying on top of things and being brave...can you imagine if we'd all just come home and walked in to dozens of yellow jackets swarming about the house? Yikes!)

So. I then met up with Noah and delivered some Halloween goodies and his winter hat (which he'd asked for earlier in the week when it was snowing a bit). We went over the FAFSA and his spring registration stuff. All good.

Meanwhile, Nathan got home and the Orkin guy got there. They found a yellow jacket nest in the siding of our house and figured out that they'd been getting in through the ceiling lights and had apparently managed to make a bigger opening or something, hence the escalation. Oy. 

Anyhow, they sprayed them and closed up the openings/lights. The Orkin guy will be back to spray again and then to seal up the nest. Friday's total count in the house was NINETY, but we haven't seen any since then. Whew. Seriously not a fan of yellow jackets.