12
Aug
Where’s the body?
Yesterday morning I was in the kitchen when I saw something flying with the corner of my eye. I turned to look and saw a black wasp making a course straight for my head. Recalling recent tales of swollen ears from wasp-in-hair action I dodged and ran out of the kitchen. It went back up to the skylight and I could see it from a distance that it was a paper wasp. I decided to give it time to find its way back outside the same way it got in. Two hours later I couldn’t see it any longer and a few trips through the kitchen were ok, but then I paused to pick up something and I turned to see it coming for me again. This time I knocked some things off the counter in my hurry to get away. A few hours later the wasp was still there and I was starting to get hungry so I went to the store and founds some non-poison flying insect killer (mostly mint with a touch of sodium lauryl sulfate) and the claims of “kills in seconds” was promising.
Once home I verified the wasp was still there and then I just had to wait for the wasp to get within reach. I wasn’t about to get on a step stool since I figured I might seriously hurt myself in an escape attempt. I had to wait for it to crawl down to spray it, and then a second time, and then a third time, and then a fourth time. Kills in seconds is true when it’s about 1000 seconds. I was just outside the kitchen waiting when I heard it fall to the floor. I looked just in time to see it right itself and fly into the kitchen window where I lost sight of it.
I looked carefully in case it was just pissed off and waiting to strike, but I saw no evidence of a wasp. While I waited I munched on the snack food I bought when I got the bug spray so I wouldn’t be subject to another sneak attack in the kitchen. A couple hours later and I looked more thoroughly and still no sign of the wasp. My best theory is that it crawled under the window in the track but moving the windows hasn’t turned up a body yet. I’m satsfied I won’t be troubled by that wasp again.