6–13 August 2019

A war on blackjackets forces Flathead Memo to stand down

Update 2, 13 August 2019. What I thought were paper wasps were bald-faced hornets, aka blackjackets, a member of the yellowjacket family that builds paper nests that it defends with considerable ferocity. This was a first for me. Paper wasps have been a constant problem, although they’re not that aggressive, and yellowjackets, which are aggressive, an occasional problem. But this was my first — and, I hope, last — encounter with blackjackets.

Update. Victory! After I clean up the battlefield, I’ll return to blogging.

Original. Yesterday, moving plastic lawn furniture away from my house so that I could knock down some tall grass, I found a huge paper wasp nest under a little table. I chemically destroyed the nest without incident — but when I returned to the tall grass to move a couple of chairs, I was swarmed by a horde of amazingly aggressive wasps. I retreated inside, but not before receiving three stings on my right forearm, which swelled and stiffened, and one on my left thigh, which felt as though I’d been poked with a red hot nail. Ice and lidocaine ointment cured the stings. Four hours later, the swelling and stiffness were gone. But the wasps that attacked me were still there.

Today, at the onset of morning civil twilight, the coolest part of the day and the best time to do battle with wasps, I sallied forth with my wasp spray to finish the job. After taking out a two-inch nest in the eves above my back door, I advanced to the spot where the swarm had started, expecting to ambush wasps made sluggish by the cold and dim light.

Instead, I was swarmed again.

This time I retreated back inside my house without being stung. I’ve never encountered such aggressive wasps in NW Montana. Consequently, I’m suspending blogging today until I replenish my arsenal of wasp killing chemicals, don a hazmat suit, and squirt the mean little devils to Kingdom Come. My backyard belongs to me, and by thunder I’m not going to be denied its pleasures by mean and angry trespassing insects. When the battle is won, and I will win it, I’ll lay down my bug spray and pick up my blogging pen.