The wasps' nest in our Mexican yard

Kelly noticed it before I did. Neither one of us was eager to do anything about it. So it grew and grew, right next to our path down to the street.

The wasps' nest would not have lasted the months that it did if the wasps had been aggressive. But they were homebodies who never went after us... unless we messed with them. Kelly had removed another nest, much smaller, from another part of the yard, and he had unpleasant memories of the sharp stings he had received.

When Roberto started working in our yard, he had several ideas for removing the nest. Like us, he prefers not to use poisons. We arranged that he would come over very early one morning, before the wasps could fly. He explained that in the cool of the night they become very inactive.

So he came over the other morning just after it got light. He took the long pole that we normally use for pool maintenance and took off the brush attached to one end. From a good distance, with the pole, he was able to knock the nest onto the ground. Some of them could fly and he got stung, but he said later that it was only four times and of no consequence. I wouldn't have shrugged it off so casually, I'm sure!

He poured some buckets of water over the nest, and later in the day Kelly hosed it off from a good distance. Eventually something like 500 wasps took the hint that we didn't want them here and they swarmed away.

I do kind of miss them. They were always rearranging the front door of their nest, adding new layers, and so on. But I breathe a lot more easily going down to the road.