Wasps… and more wasps

I wonder how many wasps there are in this world? The reason for the question is because I really think that we just might have the majority of them on our farm for this part of Iowa. I was painting today and every once in awhile I would have one land on me. Now no big deal, I would try not to freak out and then I would brush them off. They seemed a ‘little goofy’, what I mean by that is that they were a little slower than normal today. They were acting like when it’s cold outside and all the bugs fly just a little bit slower and not very focused. So I was painting, painting, painting and I kept seeing more and more wasps. I couldn’t figure out where they were coming from until I moved my ladder to just the right spot and looked up. This is what I saw!

This is what I saw when I looked up today

Close up of one of the nests

I really wanted to get the painting done in that spot so I went to the house to try to find some wasp spray. I looked all over and found out that we really have a lot of car cleaner spray for our tires,  but no wasp spray around. I finally found some bug spray that I bought a million years ago and figured it was going to be better than nothing – so back to the cattle shed I went. I really stopped for a second to think if this was a good idea and thought it couldn’t be that bad could it? Yea, I should have thought to myself  YES it could! So I climbed up the ladder and took this can of bug spray that you have to get about 4 inches from where you want to spray and started to spray. This is where it turns out to be a very bad idea. The wasps went crazy and this spray turns out to be very potent. Now all the wasps are literally falling on me and my head from the nest. One of them landed on my hand and if anyone asks if a wasp that is falling lands on you can they still sting you? The answer is yes. So now I’m running through the yard trying to get away from the wasps and thinking if they go away I’m still going to finish painting. I went to the mud pile that I visited yesterday and scooped up some mud and put it on my hand to see if that worked. To be honest it’s just a little tender tonight so I think it was the right thing to do. After a couple of minutes I went back to check on my wasps with a yard stick in hand to knock down the nests. No wasps and then no nests. I wish I had on some better shoes other than flip flops because it was a little scary smashing the wasp nests after I knocked them done with just those shoes on. But that side of the shed is mostly done with red and now I’ll have to paint the white trim on it. I’m not planning on painting tomorrow, but maybe on Sunday night I might do some. As for tonight I’ve got the next batch of salsa ready to cook and Daryl is outside working on putting up new replacement boards on the barn.
I’ve also decided to keep track of how much paint that we’re going through just by the empty pails. So as of today we finished 75 gallons and opened up the next 5 gallons of red. I know that I’m biased, but whew our farm is looking good!