One Real Bad Dude

I don't like wasps.  We have a lot of them around here.  They tend to build their nests on outside windows where they'll be dry when it rains.  They also like to build them in the corners of ceilings in the garage and patios.  I mix up some dawn dishwashing liquid and warm water in a cup and throw it on them.  They fall, unable to fly and I step on them and then smash their nests.  I also have a long wooden dowel that I wrap a rag around one end and poke the nest, killing the wasps.  Wasps are no fun.

Walking through the gate this morning from milking, I heard a weird racket.  I looked to see what was going on.  It sounded like the wings of a cicada (we call them locusts).  I looked and looked to see what was going on and then I saw it.  It was a cicada, but it was in distress!

The big locust was being mauled by a smaller, yet fierce, creature.  It was a sight to behold.  I would estimate that the locust weighed three times the amount of the insect that was utterly manhandling it.  I'm talking about the Cicada-killer wasp.  What an ominous name that wasp has, doesn't it.  It's name tells you exactly what he does.  He's ferocious, I'll give him that much.\

The cicada was trying to fight off the intruder, but the cicada-killer wasp was aggressive and nimble.  The cicada's wings are way bigger, but he couldn't fly.  The cicada- killer wasp has smaller wings, but they appear to beat with the speed and intensity of a hummingbird.  The wasp, amazingly, was able to fly with the cicada in tow.

As I read up on the cicada-killer wasp (sphecius speciosus), I learned that they kill cicadas and take them back to provision their nests.  Now there's a nest I wouldn't want to discover by accident.  The article said that they can sting humans, but rarely do and only when they are handled.  I'll promise you this: You don't have to worry about me handling any cicada-killer wasps!

Muscadine Time!

It is raining here everyday.  The ground is saturated and the garden, grass, and landscaping is growing very quickly.  The muscadine vines have spread out this year farther than they have in years past.  I'm going to have to think about how to trellis them better.  Many of the muscadines are ripe and ready for picking.  The muscadines, heated in the summer sun, are sweet and rich and so tasty.  I poked my head under the canopy of the vines to begin picking.

I should have been more optimistic in my container size, though.  I filled up the little quart-sized container in no time at all.

I brought these in to Tricia in the kitchen as she was preparing supper.  She started munching on them.  The grapes are filled with seeds - three or four in each one, but the flavor and sweetness is intense.  I grabbed a bigger container and headed back out to our mini-vineyard to pick.

As I was reaching in the foliage and pulling out handfuls of grapes, all of a sudden, something caught my eye.  What in the world?  Wasps were flying all around me!!  I took off running, spilling my muscadines in the process.  It must have been a funny sight for the neighbors to see me high-stepping like that.  I never got stung, though.  I still have a little pep in my step.  Would you look at that wasp nest tucked away up there?:

Now, this was a dilemma.  I didn't want to get stung, but I didn't want to leave the muscadines unpicked.  I had to kill them.  But how?  A cup of gas would do the trick, but I don't want gas or any other poisons on our grapes.  Aha!  I went back inside and got a cupful of warm tap water and mixed Dawn dishwashing liquid in with the warm water in a thick solution.  Then I stirred it up.

By the time I got back out there, the wasps had settled down and were back on their nest, laughing, no doubt, about how they made me run and spill all my grapes.  I'll have the last laugh, though.  I crept up to the wasp nest and doused it with warm soapy water.  Bullseye!  The wasps couldn't fly with the thick soapy concoction on their wings.  They fell to the ground where I promptly squashed them.  I pulled the nest off of the vine and through it to the ground.

I flipped it over to view that red, bad boy.  He's dead.  

Now in peace, I was able to continue my muscadine picking.

There's a pretty good bit still left on the vines.  I'll need to harvest every afternoon.  I noticed that the birds have discovered the ripened grapes.  They leave the skins of the grapes on the ground beneath the vines.  We'll keep picking each day until they're all harvested.  Then I'll research on how to properly prune muscadine vines.

Making a Birdhouse Gourd Into Something Other than a Birdhouse

At a seed swap years ago, someone gave me some birdhouse gourd seeds.  It was just a few of them.  I thought it would be fun, so I planted them.  They vined like kudzu, taking over the back portion of the garden, the cucumber trellis and then threatened to cover the cows, chickens, and goats.  What a prolific plant!

They produced many birdhouse gourds.  I dried them, sanded them, drilled a hold in the side and cut dowels to be used as a perch for the feathered occupants.  Then a hole was cut in the neck and a leather strap was fastened to it.  We hung the birdhouses in the pecan tree.  They looked so welcoming and inviting.  And they were.  But not to birds.  Wasps found that they provided protection from the weather and moved in.  Before we knew it, all of the wasps hung NO VACANCY signs.  They were full.

Birdhouse gourds produce a bajillion seeds and they come up volunteer every year.  Last year we had yet another bumper crop of wasp houses... errr birdhouses.  I vowed never again.  Tricia decided she'd make some colorful ornaments to hang from the tree.  We just wouldn't drill a hole in them this time!  Here's some of the gourds, sanded and ready for painting.

The industrious lady of the manor fashioned a mechanism with bungee cords and temporary electric fence posts to hang the gourds for painting.

The first three were painted a glossy cobalt blue.

I looked over and she had an assembly line of gourd processing underway.

Some were green...

Some were happy yellow...

The wasps (and birds) will have to seek out a realtor for their home searches.  These will be unoccupied decorations only!