I have a live-and-let-live attitude towards most living things around the house. There are a few things I kill any time I see them, like fleas, ticks, roaches, mosquitos and flies. If I find a big spider in the house, I catch it and release it outside. If it’s a small spider, I generally pretend I didn’t see it. I sometimes catch moths, or centipedes or beetles and release them. I have caught scorpions in the house and released them outside, usually with a stern warning not to come back. In the past we would see scorpions inside maybe once or twice a year. In the last two days we have seen three. Now I kill all the scorpions I find inside and even those I find outside within a few feet of the house.
I am not particularly happy about that situation, but somewhere between one or two scorpions a year and three scorpions in two days, the scorpion population in the house crossed a line. I doubt that my new policy will make a noticeable difference in the scorpion population outside or inside the house, but that’s now the rule.
The late, last scorpion, pre-mortem
And now the wasps.
I usually ignore wasp nests, unless they post a danger of a sting. I had to spray a nest that was on the under side of the front walk handrail after Leah was stung, but I have left a large nest in the shed where I keep the lawn mower. The door slides up very close to the nest, but they haven’t seemed to pay any attention to it.
A few days ago a wasp stung me for no apparent reason as I came in from the deck into the bedroom we use as an office. I slapped it off my upper arm and stepped on it. I went inside prepared to put an ice cube on it, but it didn’t really hurt. I was not happy about being stung, but I know it happens. A wasp lights on your arm and then your sleeve presses on it and it stings. That’s just the way it goes.
The next day I was on the lower deck starting some nails in some wood blocks I needed to screw up on the upper deck ledger board. A wasp came up and bumped into the ladder, and then flew at me. It stung me on the forehead and then, after I swatted at it, on my right ear. I think I have mentioned in the past that I can no longer run because my knees are worn out. It turns out that if a wasp is stinging my ear, I can still run. I ran across the deck, up the stairs and into the office, where I struggled to get my shoes off before running into the kitchen to get an ice cube.
The sting in my arm the previous day didn’t really hurt, but the sting on my ear hurt. A lot. It hurt so bad that my stomach started hurting. It felt like I had swallowed the damned wasp. I sat at the dining room table, held an ice cube on my ear and tried to calm down. I melted two ice cubes against my ear. By that time my stomach was OK and my ear wasn’t hurting too much. As I write this, two days later, my ear is red, and itchy but the pain is gone.
I had seen wasps on the lower deck earlier so I had tried unsuccessfully to find a nest. Night before last I sprayed some wasp killer blindly into a crevice under the deck and a few wasps fell to the ground. Last night, armed with a fresh can of Rain wasp and hornet spray, I thoroughly doused the nest.
After an ear sting, I’m afraid wasps are now going to have to get the same treatment as scorpions.
What is it about ears? I’ve been stung twice on my ear, once by a wasp and once by a hornet.
Pablo — This is the first time I’ve been stung on the ear. I assume the ear is more sensitive than the upper arm, but this sting was really, really painful. Maybe the wasp was irritated because I swatted at it, and injected more venom than other stings.
I’d still move the scorpions (a long way away from the house), but the wasps have got to go. I know you’ll agree with me on that second point. The onset of fall has it’s hazards–and wasps are one of them.
Have I told you my scorpion story? Kali and I lived in central Florida for 7 years. Kali was still looking for work, but I was at my job one day when she called from home and said, “Scott, there’s a scorpion in the bathroom.” Having no experience with scorpions (and thinking they were restricted to the Southwest), I told her “Just close the door and use the other bathroom until I get home.” Well, when I got home, there was a scorpion in the bathrooms, and it was exactly where Kali had first found it. Boy, was I chagrined. We relocated the scorpion outside. Actually, it was the only scorpion I ever saw in Florida, and I had a job in which I was outdoors quite a bit.
One more thing, Mark. When I get a wasp sting, I soak a cotton ball in ammonia and hold the wet ball against the sting. The ammonia is supposed to help neutralize the venom. Old wives’ tale…?
Ow ow ow. That ear sting does sound painful. I have a catch and release policy for most things too. Fleas get killed though. The house we are renting right now has a lot of spiders. I relocate them to a pleasant spot outside. I’d probably kill a wasp that was stinging me, just out of an autonomic, self-protection response. Not sure what I’d do with a scorpion, not ever having met one.
Well, you pegged the two arthropods that I open season on, too. Scorpions appear now and then in the house. I will escort them outdoors if convenient, but if not, it’s flushed down the toilet. Sorry! I’ve been stung by a couple, probably the same small species you show, and it’s painful – probably about what you’d get with a honeybee sting, but not a wasp sting.
And paper wasps? That’s open season too. They haven’t been around much in the last five years, but in 2007 they were everywhere. They built nests in enclosures and hung outside the entrances in the dozens. Evil spiky things.
These things seem to come in cycles, which is what I’d guess of R-selected species. One year, soon after we built the house in 1991, we had hordes of small centipedes coming up through the AC vents. These ones didn’t bite, but they did give off a vinegary odor, according to Glenn. (I have had a couple of encounters with larger ones that *did* bite, and in bed, no less.)
So yes, have to have policy changes now and then!
Scott– I have a scorpion story that I might have told. When I lived in Alabama I was stung twice. Once was when a scorpion fell off a beam running across the living room and fell right between my legs. The second time was when I slipped into bed and rolled over onto a scorpion. Neither sting was particularly bad, but I didn’t get into a bed without looking between the sheets for years after that.
Robin — I always figure that if a spider is in the house, it’s probably eating something I don’t want in the house, so, as I said, I either remove them or ignore them.
Wayne — The problem I have with wasps is that I can never tell what they’re going to do. The last attack seemed unwarranted, based on where the next was and what I was doing. But just today I was slamming the shed door around and there was no response at all from the huge nest inside the shed. Nevertheless, I will probably spray that nest tonight.
Wasps – the little yellow ones with the cinnamon-colored stripes and the neat, hexagonal nests are fine. I actually had one built inside my patio door when I came back from a month’s business trip (apparently the door wasn’t properly shut) and they never bothered me. I did discourage the young queen from building there again in the spring, but on the deck is okay. But the big black ones with the fungus-like nests? They are super aggressive. And they go.
Ridger, all the wasps we have around here seem to be the big, dark ones. As I said, I am unable to predict their behavior, and they sometimes seem to sting without any obvious provocation. I tend to agree — they gotta go.