As Deputy Dave is riding off on the lawn tractor and will be gone a few acres distance, I stay behind at the tent and this means I must be ready to do battle against any pests. Wouldn't you know it? As soon as Deputy Dave was out of sight, a huge bee-like winged creature stole its way into the tent.
Looking around, I tried to decide which method to employ in an effort to rid the tent of this potentially painful pest. Bug spray would certainly leave a residue and pesticide odor to our new tent. That wasn't appealing. So, I opened a couple of other tent flaps and tried to shoo the stinging stinker out of the tent. What did it do? It didn't want to fly out; it wanted to develop an attitude and fly directly in my face, over and over. Eventually, it's constant attacks did result in me being chased out of the tent.
Hey, I wasn't trying to be the bad guy. I was actually trying to help Mr. Bug find his way home again and all I got for my trouble was a bunch of threats.
After about 20 minutes of this cat and mouse game, I decided, "Oh, the fight is ON my winged enemy." I grabbed my trusty broom and went after the mean-spirited bug as it continued to rush toward my face with sinister intentions. However, I moved quick. With a couple of swats of the broom, I took out Mr. Bug, permanently. The deed was done.
If he would've valued freedom more than he valued trying to sting my face, he would've lived happily for the rest of his bug life, and I would have been saved the rush of high blood pressure that came with the chaos of trying to swat him away, then the swatting ending up as smashing.
My broom prevailed.
I looked back at all the cans of pesticide that I had arranged together on the picnic table and figured I'd done pretty well without the concoctions. To be honest, I hate killing anything...even a bug. But, the stinging jerk in the tent had every opportunity to escape and it choose to do battle; he lost. Still, I don't like killing anything. My youngest daughter will move a worm off the sidewalk so it won't sizzle beneath the Texas sun. If a June-Bug flys into the house, we carefully take it back outside to release it. Recently, Deputy Dave even caught and released a snake that had slithered into the house. Random killing of one insect won't really make a difference in their population, so there's no sense in executing a bug for wandering into the wrong spot. However, this flying bug was not nice.
It makes me feel as if I'm related to St. Francis of Assisi of the 12th century. If you knew how St. Francis of Assisi lived, you'd understand. The guilt I feel when executing a wasp is definitely something that is not shrugged off. I do feel guilty when I must protect the INSIDE of our territory by deterring determined pests from mooching or munching on us. One way or another, I will re-route their direction elsewhere.
So, whether we're camping or at home, I keep my broom extra close and there's a couple cans of Raid ready to be put to work as well.
Bam, Bam, Bam, or Spritz, Spritz.
Life can be brutal.
4 comments:
I'm exactly like you!! But for me, once they cross into what I call the 'forbidden zone' like inside the house (or tent) they need to look out! That really is one seriously looking wasp though, I probably would have just let him have the tent, I'm not that brave, even with a broom!
I like that "forbidden zone" mentality. As for things that sting, I'm always on guard. I'm sure you could picture me in the tent, with a broom, with Woodstock hair flying all about my head as I try to kill the wasp as it continued to fly at me. I can't believe my aim ended up to be so good. It wasn't easy, that's for sure. Afterward, I was only concerned about his little friends coming to avenge his death. :-/
Lana
Good for you with your broom! :o)
Ew! That's one nasty looking critter. Nice work!
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