Hay - cows!
Photo by A. Graf
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Comet Appears Out of Nowhere
I asked my teenage daughter to scour the bathroom sinks yesterday. Today after school she asked if she could have Lizzy over. I told her to wait until Dad came home as he was very tired and it would depend on his mood. He came home an hour later indeed very tired. My daughter then went a step further and asked if I could drive over and get Lizzy. I asked her if she had scoured the sinks. She said she had spent 15 minutes scrubbing the downstairs sink. I flipped on the light in there and looked at the sink. While I know I am trying to emphasize my daughter's complete and utter lack of cleaning expertise, with my next remark I will cast a certain shadow over my own housekeeping standards as well. The sink was filthy.
A few minutes later as we were about to sit down to dinner, this lovely woman/child daughter of ours got upset about being told that she had to actually use scouring cleanser and a sponge when she scoured a sink, so she took said cleanser and threw it across the kitchen, casting a nasty-smelling plume of Comet into the air and all over the floor. She stomped off to her room while we all gathered our plates and went outside to eat standing up in the wet yard. My youngest whimpered because he thought he was going to breathe in the noxious dust and die of lung poisoning. It was a jolly time. Lizzy isn't coming over today.
A few minutes later as we were about to sit down to dinner, this lovely woman/child daughter of ours got upset about being told that she had to actually use scouring cleanser and a sponge when she scoured a sink, so she took said cleanser and threw it across the kitchen, casting a nasty-smelling plume of Comet into the air and all over the floor. She stomped off to her room while we all gathered our plates and went outside to eat standing up in the wet yard. My youngest whimpered because he thought he was going to breathe in the noxious dust and die of lung poisoning. It was a jolly time. Lizzy isn't coming over today.
Rain
It's one of those lovely August days: blessedly cool, thunder echoing softly behind the sound of rain, the last week and a half until school starts up. Most of the kids are off on their various adventures, except the youngest who has spent many strenuously long minutes recalling in great detail the funniest parts of his favorite movies for me. I try to laugh along, but since I haven't seen Chicken Little, I don't really get the true picture.
I am baking brownies for a friend's birthday, playing around on the computer, occasionally getting up to throw in more laundry, pick up toys, or file a few more of the bills that have been piling up on the kitchen table. I keep coming back up here to the computer, a sure sign of boredom.
I got an e-mail from the company that is sending me the handheld GPS I just bought. They have shipped my newest toy and included a UPS link so I can follow the progress of my package from Montana to Wisconsin. It struck me as funny that I could track my GPS as it traveled across the country without me. What an odd and wonderful age we inhabit.
I am baking brownies for a friend's birthday, playing around on the computer, occasionally getting up to throw in more laundry, pick up toys, or file a few more of the bills that have been piling up on the kitchen table. I keep coming back up here to the computer, a sure sign of boredom.
I got an e-mail from the company that is sending me the handheld GPS I just bought. They have shipped my newest toy and included a UPS link so I can follow the progress of my package from Montana to Wisconsin. It struck me as funny that I could track my GPS as it traveled across the country without me. What an odd and wonderful age we inhabit.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Monday, August 14, 2006
YJ Update 2
I just said goodbye to Mike from The Bug Man & Queen Bee, Inc. I was compelled to call in an exterminator after being stung again this afternoon on my way out the back gate. They got me in my right shin this time. Dean ran in the house and got me the ice pack to wrap around my leg and I continued on to the grocery store, where I had been headed. Once in the grocery store, with the ice pack still wrapped over the wound, I flagged down the manager and explained that I needed Benedryl NOW. She walked me over to the Health and Beauty aisle and allowed me to open some medication right there and take a swig. I thanked her and then went on to buy veggies, eggs and milk.
Dean stayed home and called the above mentioned company who in turn showed up a few hours later. Lexie, our schnauzer, ran out to greet the visitor and was immediately stung. She started biting at her paw, shaking her little head and sort of running in circles. I quickly dispatched her to the house for ice treatment.
Mike was genial and willingly posed in his "bee suit" as he shot a high powered spray of Talstar One directly at, around and under the nest site. He followed this with a chaser of Ficam dust, a very fine powder that clings all over the nest area and is taken in by any yellowjackets that try to reenter or even leave the nest, sort of tracking them down and killing those that survive or who return to the nest after the spray.
Mike told me before he drove off that this was one of the most aggressive colonies he had seen this year. This was, of course, after seeing them go after my dog and getting one small sting himself before donning the bee suit. I feel totally exonerated in my numerous attempts to destroy a community of some of God's smallest creatures.
Dean stayed home and called the above mentioned company who in turn showed up a few hours later. Lexie, our schnauzer, ran out to greet the visitor and was immediately stung. She started biting at her paw, shaking her little head and sort of running in circles. I quickly dispatched her to the house for ice treatment.
Mike was genial and willingly posed in his "bee suit" as he shot a high powered spray of Talstar One directly at, around and under the nest site. He followed this with a chaser of Ficam dust, a very fine powder that clings all over the nest area and is taken in by any yellowjackets that try to reenter or even leave the nest, sort of tracking them down and killing those that survive or who return to the nest after the spray.
Mike told me before he drove off that this was one of the most aggressive colonies he had seen this year. This was, of course, after seeing them go after my dog and getting one small sting himself before donning the bee suit. I feel totally exonerated in my numerous attempts to destroy a community of some of God's smallest creatures.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
YJ Update
We have sprayed the yellowjackets' nest four times now. They appear unaffected. You have to go out after dusk and hit 'em when they are settled down for the night. Last night, I admit at my suggestion, my husband stuffed the holes in the compost bin and the gaping hole at the end of our landscape log next to the bin with Great Stuff* after shooting in more poison, hoping to seal them inside to die. They were out as usual this morning, obviously entering and leaving their hideout through other, more clandestine means.
The icing on the foolhardy cake was witnessed this morning as my not to be defeated husband took our garden hose and aimed it at the nest - in broad daylight! I watched from the upstairs window, aghast, as he sent streams of cold water onto the compost bin and surrounding area, occasionally jumping back, jogging left and right and flipping the spray up and down, side to side as individual insects obviously zipped by. He looked like Luke Skywalker battling an invisible enemy. It was quite a scene. Now everything I've heard and read intimates that this is not a good idea. I went to find the first aid kit, but he returned to the house a minute later, unscathed. Lucky man.
(*Great Stuff comes in a can and is used to plug up holes in your foundation or whatever you need plugged up. It is commonly used to seal cracks in a house to make it weathertight. You spray the yellowish foam into the space and it immediately expands, usually bulging out of the space, and then hardens later. You return then and scrape off the excess stuff.)
The icing on the foolhardy cake was witnessed this morning as my not to be defeated husband took our garden hose and aimed it at the nest - in broad daylight! I watched from the upstairs window, aghast, as he sent streams of cold water onto the compost bin and surrounding area, occasionally jumping back, jogging left and right and flipping the spray up and down, side to side as individual insects obviously zipped by. He looked like Luke Skywalker battling an invisible enemy. It was quite a scene. Now everything I've heard and read intimates that this is not a good idea. I went to find the first aid kit, but he returned to the house a minute later, unscathed. Lucky man.
(*Great Stuff comes in a can and is used to plug up holes in your foundation or whatever you need plugged up. It is commonly used to seal cracks in a house to make it weathertight. You spray the yellowish foam into the space and it immediately expands, usually bulging out of the space, and then hardens later. You return then and scrape off the excess stuff.)
Friday, August 11, 2006
Flip Flops
Glacier Sandals - Women's - '06 CloseoutPrice: $34.93
* Compare At: $69.00 You Save: 49% (REI sale)
Would you ever pay $69.00, or even $34.93 on sale for a pair of flip flops? Does anyone else remember when you could walk over to the nearest Ben Franklin variety store and buy a pair of rubber thongs for 99 cents? I saw a pair of Stuart Weitzman flip flops for $200 at Boston Store earlier in the season. This is beyond me.
Further Yellowjacket News
My father called a number of days ago to tell me he had also been stung by a yellowjacket while trying to turn his compost pile. The colony had taken up residence in the bottom of one of his metal cans of old leaves, used every so often as a dry layer between more wet layers of kitchen scraps. This was our situation as well - a nest in our compost pile.
Today, three or four days later, my dad had to go to the doctor and get an injection of antihistamine and some prednisone because of this same sting. I'm having a hard time removing the visual of the German army under Hitler out of my mind.
Today, three or four days later, my dad had to go to the doctor and get an injection of antihistamine and some prednisone because of this same sting. I'm having a hard time removing the visual of the German army under Hitler out of my mind.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Speaking of stinging insects, I photographed these bullet ants at the Milwaukee Public Museum. I found the following information in an Internet report by Randy C. Morgan, Associate Curator of Entomology, Insectarium, Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden: "Paraponera clavata is best known for its giant size and unusually severe sting. Workers are 18-25 mm. (up to 1 in.) long and look like stout, reddish-black, wingless wasps. Their stings are the most painful and debilitating known for any insect (Schmidt 1986, 1990)." Ouch.
Photo by A. Graf
Monday, August 07, 2006
Paravespula germanica, German Yellowjacket - found dead this morning in my yard. Take a look at that stinger! The one that got me left his stinger behind, but this is probably his brother or sister, cousin or in-law. In any case, he/she won't be bothering anyone. Let this be a warning to the rest of the colony!
Photo by A. Graf
Retraction
It appears I have provided some inaccurate information regarding the stinging habits of yellowjackets. They can and will, if provoked, sting multiple times, and they don't die after doing it. Rats.
The good news is they do die after a nighttime dousing of Wasp-B-Gone.
The good news is they do die after a nighttime dousing of Wasp-B-Gone.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Backyard Nature Update
I was ready to log on here and rhapsodize about the wonders of the natural world, the monarchs that we raised from eggs and recently watched fly away as adults across our yard, the swallowtail we found as a young caterpillar on our queen anne's lace that also flew off a day later, the latest fat monarch caterpillar that somehow escaped his enclosure on our picnic table and was found days later in chrysallis form attached to the underside of our patio umbrella . . . but just before I could take time out from these wonderful creatures, just after mowing the lawn and weeding the vegetable beds, just after greeting neighborhood children at the back gate, I swung my arm back and *POW*! I got stung by something very nasty. The natural shine immediately faded from that backyard apple, so to speak. My right index finger came alive with pain like fireworks. The stinger was still in there and I frantically pulled it straight out, thinking this would help. It didn't. I had to leave the children at the gate and run inside to shove my hand under cold running water. This didn't help much either, but I forced myself to lather soap over the tiny wound, following this with a few squirts of Bactine and some spray stuff that is supposed to deaden the pain of bug bites and stings. I dug up the last two teaspoons of Benedryl liquid in the house and drank it. That stuff is yucky tasting, I might add. I now feel more sorry for my children, upon whom I have foisted the stuff in the past.
All this helped some, but wrapping the finger in a flexible ice pack worked the best. It was still hurting 20 minutes later, but not as badly. It was also red, hot and rather itchy. I am glad it was me and not one of the kids. They honestly would have been screaming. Turns out the bugger was a yellow jacket. They have a nice little colony in the bottom of one of our compost bins, right by the back gate. My husband went out and bought some poison at the hardware store to deal with them, but we have to wait until tonight, after the sun goes down and all the little minions are back in their beds before we drop the bomb on them.
The last time I was stung by anything was in the summer of 1998 in Rapid City, South Dakota. It happened out of the blue (like what the heck did I ever do to these guys in the first place???) and it hurt like hell. I had never felt anything like that before. I tried ice and painkillers, but a couple hours later it still hurt so bad that my dad drove me over to the hospital clinic. The doctor there told me that yellow jackets contain their own special bacteria that can be easily transferred to you when they sting. I was given an antibiotic and more painkillers. The finger swelled up like a little polish sausage, became red, hot and itchy, and it throbbed whenever it was below the level of my heart. Driving through the Black Hills for the rest of the vacation, I kept my finger up in the air, dangling my hand from the coat hook above the back window of the car. Two days later when the swelling went down, the skin around the area peeled off.
After googling proper treatment for insect stings, I learned that I should not pull the stinger out if it is left in my skin. Use the flat side of a credit card or a butter knife to scrape it out. Pulling can make more of the toxin get into the wound. My bad. They did recommend 20-30 minutes of immediate ice, which I luckily did do. I seem to have gotten off more easily this time around, but I would recommend that anyone leave those little demons alone. The only consolation is they die after stinging you. Eat black death, you tempermental ingrate! I give you a nice place to live, I feed you, I purport to like anything with six legs, and then you go and and abuse your biggest supporter, and for no good reason!
Okay, I'm done. Centipedes still frighten me and I no longer see any reason to like yellow jackets, but I will try to focus on the gajillions of other creepy crawlie species that continue to fascinate.
All this helped some, but wrapping the finger in a flexible ice pack worked the best. It was still hurting 20 minutes later, but not as badly. It was also red, hot and rather itchy. I am glad it was me and not one of the kids. They honestly would have been screaming. Turns out the bugger was a yellow jacket. They have a nice little colony in the bottom of one of our compost bins, right by the back gate. My husband went out and bought some poison at the hardware store to deal with them, but we have to wait until tonight, after the sun goes down and all the little minions are back in their beds before we drop the bomb on them.
The last time I was stung by anything was in the summer of 1998 in Rapid City, South Dakota. It happened out of the blue (like what the heck did I ever do to these guys in the first place???) and it hurt like hell. I had never felt anything like that before. I tried ice and painkillers, but a couple hours later it still hurt so bad that my dad drove me over to the hospital clinic. The doctor there told me that yellow jackets contain their own special bacteria that can be easily transferred to you when they sting. I was given an antibiotic and more painkillers. The finger swelled up like a little polish sausage, became red, hot and itchy, and it throbbed whenever it was below the level of my heart. Driving through the Black Hills for the rest of the vacation, I kept my finger up in the air, dangling my hand from the coat hook above the back window of the car. Two days later when the swelling went down, the skin around the area peeled off.
After googling proper treatment for insect stings, I learned that I should not pull the stinger out if it is left in my skin. Use the flat side of a credit card or a butter knife to scrape it out. Pulling can make more of the toxin get into the wound. My bad. They did recommend 20-30 minutes of immediate ice, which I luckily did do. I seem to have gotten off more easily this time around, but I would recommend that anyone leave those little demons alone. The only consolation is they die after stinging you. Eat black death, you tempermental ingrate! I give you a nice place to live, I feed you, I purport to like anything with six legs, and then you go and and abuse your biggest supporter, and for no good reason!
Okay, I'm done. Centipedes still frighten me and I no longer see any reason to like yellow jackets, but I will try to focus on the gajillions of other creepy crawlie species that continue to fascinate.
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