In other news, we're back to more of a normal because the yellow jackets are gone!! It was one super long month ordeal of the invasion of the yellow jackets in our home. It was awful. I think I would've been less stressed and worried about them if I hadn't been stung ...attacked, you remember, haha, that first day. All I could think about was them getting to my kids. We went through SO much to get rid of them. Matt rigged a shop vac to one level of our roof and sucked up hundreds and hundreds. We were still having a problem, so we had exterminators come. Note to self, get exterminator first...if we're going that route! They were completely ineffective because Matt had gotten so many with the vacuum, so we blew the money, argh... and us being unsure about whether we wanted the inside sprayed due to the chemicals (now we know, spray inside!! lesson learned), they didn't even bring the supplies to do that....so the yellow jackets made their way inside the house....inside the kids' bedroom!!! We spent a week at my parents' after we found a slew on the windows in our kids' room, interrupting my precious girl's nap. I am so grateful that she appeared to be just fine, but we were home alone, and I called Matt frantically to come pick us up. It was awful. I really wish I had reacted better to the situation, but there is something about bees that makes me nuts. Probably because ever since I was little, they are just attracted to me, and just seeing one would mean I would get stung. Well, pretty much. ;) That whole month was pretty awful on multiple levels though. We just felt attacked on all sides. I'm so glad we were able to stay at my parents' for a week. My brother's family moved out just in time for us to move in, haha! The kids had a blast (and decided not to sleep, haha), and I needed it too, even if we slept on the floor...trying to convince Stevie to go to sleep. Bless his heart. He was SO excited to sleep at Grandma and Grandpa's that our first night there he only slept 2 hours we think. The next day...and the coming days, he was exhausted. He just loves it there and has only stayed overnight when Lydia was born. I always think it's fun to sleep in the same room with our kids. And when we came home and were still battling a few yellow jackets...contained in their room...we still went back and forth to my parents' house for a week for naps, and then the kids slept in our room at home too. I loved it. Once I was comfortable, and we hadn't seen any in a couple of days, back they went to their room. Bittersweet. It was fun while it lasted, but Matt and I needed our room back.
Speaking of that man, he was the one who really did all the work. He sprayed the interior himself with organic spray. It was really strong though...and our house smelled for a month! At least being natural oils and stuff it didn't smell horribly, haha. His vacation days kicked in at the right time to take a day off...so the first day he was eligible, he took one...to rip off an exterior wall and find these things. I made the mistake of looking at it before he put it back together. YIKES, haha! But, he's the best and put it back together wonderfully. He eventually found the nest under/in the soffit. Check this out! We knew it was going to be big, bad, and ugly because of the horrible time we had with them. I know it's kinda hard to see in the first picture, but the whole area is the nest!
It was over 4 feet long and filled the entire soffit area. It crumbled when Matt took it out. The reason we were still having some stragglers after the exterminator came was because babies were hatching and were unable to get out, so they came inside the house through the kids' room windows. Yuck, yuck. I am so thankful Matt found the nest and destroyed it! They seemed to be especially bad this year. Several people we know and some neighbors had nests in their walls as well. We were told to keep our gutters clean (otherwise, they are attracted to it) ...yeah, needed to do that, and spray the outside of the gutter lines, windows, soffits at the beginning of the spring season. We'll have to do that next year!
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