I Hate Wasps

I Hate Wasps

We finally had a freezing night, and I was hoping that all the wasps were now dead. I'm working my way around the outside of the house, using the warehouse/telescope ladder to seal all of the openings in which wasps might be secreting themselves. (I am quite confident on this ladder, unlike a conventional ladder, where I don't think I would feel stable enough to do this without someone standing by to call 911 if needed.)

I pulled an ornamental piece of art off the wall, to seal the siding edges behind it--and there was about 15 of the little darlings, huddled together for warmth. I wasn't sure if they were still alive or not, but by the time I returned with the wasp spray, they were beginning to move their drowsy little bodies. Splat! Got 'em all in one burst!

One area where the old house was better than this house is the question of sealing. Anytime you build from wood, you are going to have expansion, contraction, and warping. When that happens, it opens up gaps. The old house, either because it was in a less extreme climate, or because the wood had aged longer, didn't have so many gaps--and all of the places where gaps could have developed had been sealed before painting. They probably used a very flexible sealant, because I never saw any of those gaps open up.

This house was not consistently sealed, and some of the gaps that have opened up over the last several years are large enough to let the little critters get inside. One place that I just found yesterday was up high enough that until I was on the ladder, I didn't see it. When I looked inside, it was like the hangar deck of an aircraft carrier, with more little wasp bodies than I could count. I've sealed that up. They won't be landing there in the future.