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Friday, June 08, 2007

I'm Not Having It!

 

The nature show that is my backyard... I've had enough of it.

Last week I found a tick on my ass.

How does one get a tick off their ass all by himself? Well it ends up looking like a one-man game of Twister that's what I can tell you. I found another on my calf a day later and just two days ago found a little, tiny speck of one on my youngest son. How does one get a tick off of a 4-year-old boy? Well let's just say that I think the head of the tick is still on/in him.

Little boys don't know how to stand still when their dad is hovering nearby with tweezers.

Last weekend I came home from work after a shift to find the house empty. So I retreated to my back deck with an adult cocktail and got to the business of unwinding. But the backyard was a-twitter with critters. A pair of birds, orioles I believe, were either humping or fighting. Whatever they were doing they seemed to make a whole lot of racket in the process. Then some raven was crowing from the top of a pine tree in my yard so I decided put some music into the boombox because that's how I do it... drowned out nature with rock & roll!

Then I noticed this wasp hovering slowly in front of me, arms length and eye level away.

Carrying something.

Some sort of larva I guess and then the wasp dropped it and I watched it retreat back to it's nest, which just happened to be on the roof of my deck right outside the sliding door. There's too much kid traffic right here for me to leave it be so I got out the toxic death spray and annihilated the bristling nest o' wasps and their brood.
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3 comments:

Dan E said...

Man, ravens/crows are the worst.

Carole and I were walking to the Farmer's Market last Sunday, and we came across about six of 'em on the sidewalk, trying to peck a small sparrow-like bird to death. It was really awful to watch. We scared 'em back into the trees, and stood guard over the little guy (who was still upright and breathing, but obviously quite scared and exhausted) until a woman from the nearest house came out with a towel, rapped him up and took him to safety indoors.

Idaho Dad said...

It's only mid-June and I've sprayed at least 20 nests in and around my yard. The wasps are relentless. Strange thing, I never see yellowjackets around my house. Or honeybees... What happened to all the honeybees?

Dan W. Boles said...

Remedy for Ticks: Take a cotton ball, and dip it (liberally) in Vaseline. Rub it in a circular motion over the location of the tick.

great piece on The Story!

Cheers.

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