Are We Winning?

The War of the Wasps is still on.We will win this war. (I hope.) I did take a few photos of the paper-like nests that the nasty creatures make. They like to nest under something that will protect them from wind and rain. They started out mostly in the old sheds on our property. As seen in these first two photos the nest is under the 2 x 4 wooden brace. There were some up higher but most were about 4 feet up. Just low enough they were hard to see unless you bent over. In the first photo you can actually see a wasp on the bottom of the nest. The nest is made our wasp saliva which hardens into a paper-like stuff according to what I read. They leave holes in the nest where the queen lays an egg that develops into a larvae that is feed by the adult worker wasps. After cleaning out these nests in the shed the wasps decided that the front porch would be the place to live. Right around the front door. They moved into every tiny crevice they could squash into. Behind the fake shutters they were starting to build a nest. Behind the porch light. And behind the door frame. I got stung while spraying the porch for them. Lee sprayed and sprayed and thought they were gone only to find one going behind the porch light again today. 

 These are the two sheds that the wasps were living in.

This shed is the first one we have finally finished in cleaning out. I wish I had taken a photo of it with all the stuff the previous owner left. It was so full you could not get into it. Boxes and boxes of the cheapest, and creepiest holiday decorations you can find at all the dollar stores. Then the mice had made there homes in the stuff. Boxes of old stereo equipment, old clothes, books (even
Bibles and she professed to be so religious). Some of it we refused to look into it looked and smelled so bad we just put it carefully in large plastic bags. And hoped the bags didn't break. All of it had to be pulled out and put our for the trash truck to take.

This photo is of the second shed that we have still been working on. Not as many mice here but a lot more wasps. There were stacks and stacks of old metal curtain rods. I can't find any kind of recycle place close by that takes metal, or any kind of recyclable stuff or I would have hauled the curtain rods to them. I didn't want to use them as they were rusted and yucky from being in there for who knows how many years. We did keep a snow shovel that we don't think we will ever need to use if last winter was any example. Found a fishing rod that might be usable if we ever decide to go fishing (I won't.) A couple of pipe wrenches, (so that's why the plumbing under the sinks is so crazy.) and a gas can and what we hope are spare tires for the ride-on lawn mower that she left. It was the only thing she left that was worth anything. That is after Lee bought some new parts and worked on it to get it working again. And no the mower was not in one of the sheds. It won't fit in one even after they are cleaned out. It sits on the carport.