Well, We Did Say We Wanted to Raise Bees

     A few weeks ago I noticed some yellow jackets buzzing into the small opening between our siding and door frame.  I mentioned it to G but it was only a few bees so we didn't think anything of it.  Over the next weeks I noticed more and more bees buzzing around, but they were leaving us alone and we were busy so we still didn't do anything.  And then one afternoon there was a bee in our house. And the next day a few more.  So we decided we finally should investigate.



     After tearing off some of our siding and soffets, and cutting some insulation, we discovered a yellow jacket nest 3 feet by 3 feet by 1 foot in the space above our front door.

     G dressed up from head to toe in welding and winter gear and worked on spraying it while I kept the boys back, despite GD's insistence that he needed to help and wouldn't get stung (I'm pretty sure there was something in there about "because I've seen the Berenstain Bears do it, so I know how!"  I think he knows how to do pretty much everything because he's watched it on "bears").  After a trip to Walmart for several more cans of bee killer and some peppermint oil, he dressed up again and started tearing it down, this time the boys and I watched from inside as hundreds if not thousands of bees swarmed out of the nest.

    We thought we had it taken care of.

    But a few days later, we were seeing more and more yellow jackets again, and were getting more and more in our house.

     So G started tearing more of our house apart, and discovered even more nest.

     By this point we had gone from keeping our boys as far away as possible to letting one spray yellow jackets with peppermint oil as they flew by while the other one stepped on them as they died a slow death on the sidewalk.

         We think we have all the nest and yellow jackets taken care of but now we have the front of our house to repair.