A Bad Dream

A few days ago we noticed a few yellow jackets in the dog trot. I swooshed a few out the back door. An hour or so later my husband swooshed a few out the front door. The next morning I heard squeals and screams. The children had discovered more. A lot more. I did what any well armed woman would do. I sucked about 25 into the vacuum cleaner and deposited them outside. Then, hubby and I realized we each had swooshed a few earlier. We knew we had a problem, but did not know where to begin looking. There were no nests in the dog trot, no entry holes that we could see. A few could have come in when the children hold the screen doors open for way too long, but 30 or 40 couldn't come in that way.

We kept checking and one or two appeared throughout the day. That night at about 1:30 the Princess started screaming when she turned over and heard buzzing in her hair. She panicked and started pulling at her hair. When I got there and turned on the light. I saw the culprit - one of the yellow jackets from the hall. I killed it, but she was already stung twice on her fingers and once on her neck. The stings weren't bad because I think the yellow jacket had been trapped in her hair for a while (she just has so much of it) and was almost dead and in her panic she didn't keep her fingers anywhere for long. I still gave her some Benedryl and stayed with her while she went to sleep. What a nightmare? Unfortunately, it was real.

Now, she doesn't want to sleep in her bed and she starts squealing every time she hears any buzzing - including flies and honey bees. I can't blame her so she is sleeping in my bed tonight.