An Example Of Nature's Bad Timing

[DofD]

When it comes to wasps and humans there really isn't any good time, but this was really bad timing on their part.

 

Okay the situation, it's a long weekend, the weather is nice, and I have a bunch of yard work and maintenance stuff to do around the yard and house. So for this morning it was sweeping out the roof valleys of accumulated crud. Up on the roof I go with broom in hand. Now my roof also has a rather significant pitch to it and walking around on it is rather interesting. So there I am minding my own business sweeping away and trying to be careful about my footing. When all of a sudden this group of wasps decide to check out what I'm doing. Now at this time of year the wasps aren't too bright around here. I try waving them off, but they're rather insistant on getting up close and personal. More stern shooing only only results all of us getting annoyed. I haven't got many options standing at the peak of the house, the concrete patio below is a very unappealing option, the wasps are being stubborn about getting up close and personal (where no wasp should ever go), another unappealing option. So I continue shooing them, which keeps them at a distance but makes me a mostly stationary target. Now I don't think wasps are capable of tactical planning but that is what it seemed like. A couple of the wasps took on the task of buzzing my head. This then distracted my from the third wasp which took the opportunity to sneak up from below, land on my knee, sink his stinger in, and take off again without getting splatted. Reveling in their victory all the wasps decided they'd had enough fun and took off. Fortunately I'm not allergic to them. But those wasps can thank their lucky stars for if I had been on the ground, they'd be winging it off to someplace other then their nest.

[Darkanion]

Nice! Sorry you got stung. But, I'm glad you didn't fall off the roof and hurt yourself. That could've gone bad bad wrong.....

[pennzoil29]

I couldn't begin to count how many times I've been stung while working on a house. My most recent one was from a yellow jacket, or 2 or 3. The bastards attacked my head, and the one that really hurt was the sting I took on the eye lid.