So Long, Suckers!!

If you're an occasional reader of my ramblings, you'll know that we've been having problems with wasps! The major problem is that there are so many wasps outside, my children don't want to play outside anymore!! I truly think it's a crime when children are not playing outside on a beautiful summer day. First we went with "Wasp-be-gone" in a squirt bottle - it's a little concoction I came up with and put in a squirt bottle for Caleb to spray on any wasps he sees. It works o.k. (only to the extent that he's no longer terrified to go out the door). However, it doesn't really do anything to the wasps, except maybe get them a little wet.

I tried the 2L pop bottles filled with sugar water. Tried pop in the bottles; didn't work. Tried sugar water; didn't work. Tried pop & sugar; didn't work. Tried jam; didn't work. Tried sugar water in a shallow dish; didn't work. I was ready to go out and buy some nasty chemical-laden wasp spray, but I did a little more research on the internet. Turns out that at this time of summer, wasps prefer meat to sweets. I saw a diagram for a fish hanging over top of a pail of water. We don't have any fish in the house, and the only meat we had was some sandwich meat. So I strung it up over top of an ice cream pail full of water with a few drops of dishwashing detergent using the boys' tent poles to hold it up. Not expecting anything, I went inside and forgot about it.

An hour later, I went outside and low-and-behold!! Dead wasps in the ice cream pail (about 15) !! I am now Caleb's hero!! He thinks I'm a genius for killing wasps and he claims he's no longer afraid of wasps (because Mommy kills them all!). Joshua & Caleb often discuss amongst themselves how they will kill all the wasps in the world & the whole world will be a happier place! I set up another lure in the front, and got about 6 more wasps. So I decided to share my success with you all and hope you enjoy the picture of dead wasps floating in 2 ice cream pails of water!!