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| I think this is the river behind Bill's house. Bill? |
Franklin and his dog, Mercy, await breakfast at the Goose. The picture was taken by his mom, Carly, a friend who visits me there every few years. We became friends through this blog, as a matter of fact, when I first started it in 2005. At the time she was in California and I was in New York. You can read more particulars
here.
Anyway, she and her son needed a nature break from Kansas City, and she had the dubious privilege of opening up the Goose. One year it was the
dead squirrel who had tried to chew its way out of the Goose and failed. One memorable year, Changping was with me when I opened, and it was the
plague of fleas, It is pretty much the same problem I have in Block Island every year, though there it is more likely mice and leaks in the plumbing.
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| The river behind Bill's on Carly's first visit, when her now college kid was Franklin's age. |
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| Franklin is not holding a wasps' nest |
Anyway, this year it's hornets, or, as Bear calls them, waspers. Carly (who Bear was deeply enamoured of back in the day when he was still speaking to me) killed three or four in the bedroom the night she arrived, and several more the next day. She duct taped the windows and doors, and still they kept getting in.
I know their nest is about 12 feet up in the back of the Goose—or it was when I tried to kill them off last year.They seem to have the hollow of a cement block filled with their kind. There is an entry and an exit hole, but how they ae getting into the house—or why they would want to—I have no notion. Anyway, we caved. Carly is going to call Dianne's exterminator. Stay tuned!
Stop!!! PLEASE do not exterminate them.. for one thing,it may upset the neighboring eco-system.. let me find the article about Findhorn . Plus you will be committing murder ... unnecessarily.
ReplyDeleteLong story short... Findhorn was one of the earliest "back to nature- new age communities" ..In Scotland, I think. One year wasps built their nests right in the entrance ways to the guest's cottages, and the Findhorns, fearful of losing their guests... destroyed the wasps.
Then , because wasps kill many of the insects and creatures that invade gardens, all the Findhorn's crops failed that season...eaten by bad bugs. So the next season, the Findhorns got together and communed telepathically with the wasp population , and expressed their apologies for killing them the previous year. They then politely asked the wasps to please build their nests some where they would NOT inconvenience the human population. The wasps complied, and moved their nests to bushes near the gardens. .. and that season, the gardens thrived.
Since I learned of this many years ago, I have become a Wasp Whisperer. When they come in my house, and believe me, there are a lot of them in Georgia at certain times of the year,, I ask them please to leave.. I open the doors or windows, and they fly out.
I was an extra on the set of the film In Dubious Battle, playing a laborer.. and in the "bunkhouse" where we all stayed as Depression Era workers.. the bunks were built three deep. Up above the bunks there were skylights and that day, wasps had congregated in the warm windows.. Everyone was freaking out, leaving the set..afraid they'd be bitten. In fact, we were "ordered out", lest we get bitten and, I suppose, potentially sue James Franco. I heard one of the PA's saying he was getting the spray insecticide.. so with Josh Hutcherson sitting pretty much underneath me ( he was a lead). I said to the PA.. if you want to kill those wasps you'll have to kill me first.. Just give me a minute ".... I climbed up to the top bunk to prevent anyone else from getting up there, and "spoke " to the wasps.. there were quite a few. I explained the situation to them, and within minutes they all flew away.
Now if you have a white-headed hornet, you might not be able to reason with it. They are very beautiful , but as mean as a Kodiak bear with a toothache. That said , maybe I just don't understand their particular dialect.
But before you kill all those sensitive living creatures and probably insure that your other foliage will fall prey to insects far more destructive,.. just try talking to them. Send them visual images that express what you want them to do. Bet they will.... and you could read this. Not sure if the wasp tale is in there.. it's pretty famous. Like I should be!!! How does this sound .. Christian Mink : Wasp Warrior.!
Too bad Josh didn't pick up on my brave act and hire me to be in his next film. I played a District 13 doctor in Mockingjay, too.. the scene where he tries to kill Katniss. Sigh. I did not make the final cut .. but still.. being in that particular movie was So Fun!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Findhorn_Foundation