Coming home late from work, I stopped at the drive, opened my mailbox, and felt for nothing. Managed to get back in the car and in the house before I felt a couple stings and the damn mud daubers which occupy my mailbox in the summer had moved in early and one hitched a ride in my jacket sleeve. After freeing him from my wardrobe, I smacked his *** with a roll of bubble wrap out of the sky, and he landed in my freaking toaster! Once he came boiling out of that, he got Babe Ruth'ed into the wall, crash landed, and got squashed. Then I went off in search of benadryl. Swelling gone done, pain mostly gone 90 min later; I am fortunate that it was a mud dauber and not a black wasp, which haven't been seen on the property since I burnt their bush-nest with a roofing torch two years back.

Been meaning to replace that mailbox with a tighter sealing one. I hate bugs.

 

You could enjoy the cold and snow of Colorado. That really helps eliminate a lot of the bug issues. Well except for these...

 

I too, had my first interaction with a paper wasp yesterday. Returned to vehicle to perform some errands, and some pesky critter started crawling up my arm. By this time, I was well up to posted speed limits but quickly found a place to pull over before comedy and insanity ensued. I'm sure the garbage men near by, got a chuckle out of a middle aged fat man dancing in the street with flannel shirt flailing about.

 

My father in law gave me his WW II M-65 field jacket. I stuck my arm through the sleeve and it had a nest in it

 

Stinging bugs suck!

Wasps are attracted to the RF energy on alot of radars. We sweep up piles of them during the summer because we keep the labs chilly for the equipment.

 

Mosquito bites here in St Paul Sunday April 4th, unheard of.....

 

My wife is a clean freak, I swear she folds her trash before throwing it away.

She constantly complains about the wasp spray cans I have stashed around the outside of the house. You can’t go 50 feet around the house without finding a can. She always complains that the cans are a “eyesore” 🙄. It’s not like I have them in plain sight, or spotlights shining on them! Basically, once I find a wasp nest somewhere, there will be a can nearby. We have several family members who are severely allergic to wasp and bee stings, I don’t play around. It also seems that they are stubborn, once you destroy a nest, it’s not long before they build another either in the same place, or very close.

 

I have poured half a cup of gasoline into holes in the ground where yellowjackets have decided to build nests. Typically discovered while using the gas weed trimmer, of course after getting stung. I let that gas sit in the hole for a minute or two, then toss a match in the vicinity (small amount due to the flammability of the fumes). ALWAYS satisfying to hear that "POP" explosion that burns their entire nest. Yellowjackets are the a-holes of insects.

 

I did the gasoline thing once on a nest that was in a small fallen tree. I was mowing and they started swarming, so I poured an inch of gas in a bucket, lit a rag and tossed it near the nest, then slung the gas in a wide arc. HUGE fireball ensued and took them all out of the air. Now fiercely angry wasps with freshly singed wings were squirming on the ground and were easily stomped. Aaahhh, good times.

 

On completion volunteering at the national wildlife refuge Anahuac, tx this fall, putting in the slide of our motorhome about 70 wasps came with it. A bloody battle ensued my wife spraying me swatting and stamping.
IBe been told if you hang a replica hornets nest wasps will stay away..