Ah, dammit
Carpenter bees in the attic. The web advice all says to wait until evening to spray. I may stick my nose up there first now, when there may be fewer of them around, and see what I'm facing.
2009-08-09
Horror show in the house
OK, K showed me the place where the buzzing things in the attic had tunnelled into the drywall and there was just paint remaining, which could be pressed easily. I got some visqueen, duct tape, wasp killer and a stick. Taped the visqueen to the ceiling, then ripped open the nest with the stick.
Those are NOT carpenter bees, those are wasps. Squirted wasp killer in.
Now it's about 3 hours later. We've sprayed a lot of wasp killer in, and I've used a piece of steel rod to poke through the plastic and rip up their nest. I've pulled out several fist-sized hunks of comb, and there are several hundred dead wasps lying in the pools of insecticide in the bottom of the plastic, besides all the combs and larvae that have fallen out.
I've sprayed a bunch of insecticide up inside the ceiling. There's still a heck of a lot of buzzing, but now it sounds more like a hundred than the entire squadron of bombers that it sounded like before. I'm going to let it sit overnight and see what the fumes do to them.
Eventually I'm going to have to pull down the drywall and insulation, seal up the holes, and rebuild that section. But if I can wait until November or so they'll all be dead anyway except the queen.
K is sleeping downstairs tonight. And probably every night until she goes off to college.
Those are NOT carpenter bees, those are wasps. Squirted wasp killer in.
Now it's about 3 hours later. We've sprayed a lot of wasp killer in, and I've used a piece of steel rod to poke through the plastic and rip up their nest. I've pulled out several fist-sized hunks of comb, and there are several hundred dead wasps lying in the pools of insecticide in the bottom of the plastic, besides all the combs and larvae that have fallen out.
I've sprayed a bunch of insecticide up inside the ceiling. There's still a heck of a lot of buzzing, but now it sounds more like a hundred than the entire squadron of bombers that it sounded like before. I'm going to let it sit overnight and see what the fumes do to them.
Eventually I'm going to have to pull down the drywall and insulation, seal up the holes, and rebuild that section. But if I can wait until November or so they'll all be dead anyway except the queen.
K is sleeping downstairs tonight. And probably every night until she goes off to college.
Entry tags:
Audiobook finished
To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer
Book 1 of Riverworld
Very interesting. Definitely going on for another book and see how this goes.
I've been meaning to check this series out for probably 20 years.
Book 1 of Riverworld
Very interesting. Definitely going on for another book and see how this goes.
I've been meaning to check this series out for probably 20 years.
Nintendo DS repair & more
T's DS Lite developed a bad L fire switch over the last few weeks. I ordered replacements from DealExtreme for a couple of bucks.
Did the repair today. Pretty straightforward though surface mount switches that are about 3mm x 2mm x 2mm are pretty hard to get on straight. Had to trim the button a bit too since there's no clue to aligning the switch exactly right and I got it on a fraction of a millimeter too high and the plastic button was constantly depressing the switch.
We also got nervous because the top screen was really screwed-up looking when we tested it, and the connector for it was just on the other side of the board from where I was soldering the switch on. I feared I'd messed that up, and there's no way I'd be able to fix that. However, it turns out I'd just messed up the contrast adjustment on the board.
Also finally got around to moving the speakers on the ceiling at church; moved them from the altar wall to the next set of beams towards the pews. Hopefully this will eliminate a lot of feedback and allow us to balance things better. I had to do this now because the ladders have been over at the church for months waiting for me to finish this job, and I need the ladders at home today to go after the wasps in the attic.
Did the repair today. Pretty straightforward though surface mount switches that are about 3mm x 2mm x 2mm are pretty hard to get on straight. Had to trim the button a bit too since there's no clue to aligning the switch exactly right and I got it on a fraction of a millimeter too high and the plastic button was constantly depressing the switch.
We also got nervous because the top screen was really screwed-up looking when we tested it, and the connector for it was just on the other side of the board from where I was soldering the switch on. I feared I'd messed that up, and there's no way I'd be able to fix that. However, it turns out I'd just messed up the contrast adjustment on the board.
Also finally got around to moving the speakers on the ceiling at church; moved them from the altar wall to the next set of beams towards the pews. Hopefully this will eliminate a lot of feedback and allow us to balance things better. I had to do this now because the ladders have been over at the church for months waiting for me to finish this job, and I need the ladders at home today to go after the wasps in the attic.