I'd gone out pretty early while it was still too cold for the hornets to be stirring and raked more stuff away from the spot where I'd seen them hovering. The plan was to see if I could locate the hole so I could eliminate the threat.
I was back inside washing out my coffee cup -- I know, I know, but I didn't start drinking coffee until after I'd gotten out of the Navy -- when I felt something like a sting on my side. Huh? I went and looked in the mirror in my bedroom and saw something that looked like a sting. "There must be something inside my shirt!" I said, taking said shirt off and shaking it out.
Sure enough, one of the little demons flew out of my shirt, but this time it would be different. "You're in my territory now, son!" I exclaimed, running into the kitchen and grabbing my ant and roach spray. It does work on wasps, too, even better than wasp spray in my opinion. I gave the thing a good soaking -- probably overkill, but I wanted to make sure he was dead, then scraped him up with the fly swatter and flushed him.
Now for the good news, I'd taken a 24-hour Claritin before I went to bed last night, so hopefully enough of that was still in my system to prevent a breakout from the venom. So far, it seems to be working.
A bit of bad news, I did not sleep at all last night. Seriously, it was after 3:00 AM before I even fell asleep, and was back awake by 5:30. I believe it was from the steroid ointment I'd been putting on my wasp stings, and steroids have wicked side effects. Sleeplessness is one of them, and it would also explain why I couldn't seem to stop eating yesterday.
Despite feeling terrible, or maybe because of it, I decided I wanted to go for a walk this morning. I haven't been able to do that at all this week. Monday I had to deal with the tree guy, Tuesday was the dentist, and tomorrow I have to go in to work to do inventory, so today was the day. First I drove down to the Lee Tartt Nature Preserve, but they were out there getting ready for the Enchanted Forest thing they are doing this weekend. If you're local, it would be a great thing to take the kids to. Starts at 4:00 PM, according to their Facebook page.
I didn't want to get in the way, so I drove on down to the lake and walked the fitness trail by the tennis courts, for you local folks.
(This is not the trail by the lake. It's a photo I took on the Bottomland trail several weeks ago, but I didn't take any today, and I needed a thumbnail for the link.)
About halfway through the trail, I realized I'd worn the wrong shoes. Out of sheer habit, I had put on my work boots instead of my hiking boots. Oh well, nothing could be done about it but to finish the trail.
The only thing wrong with that is that I tend to buy my work boots a size too big, because my feet tend to swell when I'm standing on them all day, especially in the summer.
I had to laugh a bit when I passed a guy out on the trail. He was jogging one direction and I was walking the other direction, and as we passed each other we both said, "Morning" as you do. Here in America, I mean. I watch some European channels on YouTube and they all say they don't do that over there.
And now, the best news of all! When I finished my walk and came home, I walked out into the back yard while I was still wearing my jeans and hoodie, and glory be! I found the hornet's nest!! I immediately ran -- and I do use that term very loosely-- back to the house and grabbed my can of wasp spray, then ran back --again, using that term very very loosely -- and emptied the entire can into the hole where they were nesting. I followed that up with two -- yes TWO-- cans of ant and roach spray, then dumped a bunch of diatomaceous earth into and around the hole. That should take care of any who managed to survive the first two assaults.
Even better, I think I managed to kill the queen. There was one hornet that was much bigger than all the rest, which I believe must have been the queen. Once she's dead, that's the end of the colony.
I hope.
The last step was to pour some vinegar down the hole to keep any hornets from coming back. They supposedly don't like the smell, from what I've read. I'll give it a couple of days, then I'll take some of the red clay and fill the thing in.
Once that is all done, I can finally start cleaning up all of that mess back there.
I really didn't do much else today. That sleepless night finally caught up to me and I spent most of the day watching TV. Hopefully, all of the steroids have cleared my system and I can get a much better night of sleep tonight. But for now, I'm going to go take a quick shower -- even though it's still pretty early, I feel like I need to be under some hot water.
And I'll catch you on the flip side.
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