Lest you folks think my life is all about sheep and llamas and Montana and Hawaiian kine stuffs, oh yeah, and knitting and spinning, I’m here to show you that it’s not. Seriously.

Last week our property manager let me know that our tenants had told him there were some vicious bees that attacked a salesman at our house. Bees?  Or hornets?  Yes, to quote someone on Ravelry, I am a foot soldier in the battle to end bee slander.  There is a huge difference between bees, hornets, wasps, and yellow jackets. Bees are good; the others can be really nasty varmints. 

I called a company we’d used before to rid our house of hornets, several of which stung the living daylights out of me two years ago here at home, and they could send someone out first thing Friday morning. I arranged to meet the guy there. Cuz you know, photo op lidat.

Brian got there shortly before I did and we talked strategy for a bit. We could see what at first looked like hornets swarming out of a hole in the ground, and he told me what he was going to do to remove them. I went back and sat in my car, camera at the ready.

Brian got into his bee suit; it looked just like the one Nolemana used to use when we had several hives of honeybees.

He got everything he needed from his cute little rig.

Then he put the face mask and top over his head, and got the sprayer out of the back.

On went his gloves.

And then he got his sprayer all ready.

Then, with the buzzing varmints all around, he sprayed directly into their nest.

I could see the mad hornets (found out later they were yellow jackets) flying all around as Brian made sure to get a lot of poison in there.  One thing I love about this company is that they use ecologically friendly stuff that won’t harm vegetation or animals. Just the hornets.  I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s true.

Brian called to me to make sure I had my windows rolled up. Check.

He stayed there for a bit to make sure that the spray had an effect.

I tried to take a photo of the mad yellow jackets, but my cell phone just couldn’t pick them up. (Well, yeah no, not literally!)

See how nice and far the bee suit comes down over Brian’s boots?

Umm…. Houston, I think we have a problem. A teensy buzzing-like problem.

Ack!!!  Brian started jumping around, trying to get his boot off.

His boot flew off, and I could tell he’d been stung. Auē!!

He checked inside his sock and his other boot.

And then got out of his bee suit.

I was sitting in the safety of my car, watching the yellow jackets swarming all around. Savage, I tell you!

Brian’s bee suit was almost off, and he could see the critters inside it.

I felt so bad for him, and there was nothing I could do to help without getting stung myself.

He grabbed his bee suit, looking for yellow jackets in it. He sure didn’t want any in his vehicle!

And he left it in the middle of the road while he called his manager…

…who told him he’d better go to the ER. I told him about meat tenderizer and Benadryl, but he didn’t have either in his rig. He showed me his ankle, which was already really swollen, and told me he’d gotten stung at least six more times.  I turned my car around so that I could take a photo of the cones and signs Brian left to warn people away from the area.

Danger is right!

Dunno if you can see them in the video, but if you look close, you can see the yellow jackets, hūhū as hell, swarming around. No way I was gonna get close, but I did get brave enough to take the video with my window open.

Brian texted me later and said the Dr told him not to go back to work; she gave him some Benadryl, too. Later that day, we met at the house again; the yellow jackets were still buzzing around, really mad.  I felt so bad that he’d gotten stung like that, so I went to my favorite coffee shop in Damascus and got him a gift card. I gave it to him when we met, and he was very grateful and surprised. We agreed to meet the following Monday to assess the situation, which we did yesterday.

And yay!  The beasties were all gone or dead. The puka was quiet; Brian carefully dug around the entrance to make sure, and nobody was home.

His stings were still really painful, but he was getting a little better each day. Through all of this ordeal, Brian was awesome; he didn’t freak out, didn’t lose his cool or his temper, and was extraordinarily polite and friendly each time we met.

I’ll keep a close eye on the place; his company gives a 90-day guarantee on their work, but hopefully we won’t need to call them.

What could be next? All I can tell you is the excitement ain’t over yet!