I Will Call Rottler on Monday

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Of course, by now you have probably read about my little encounter with yellow jackets after running over their nest with the lawn mower a few days ago. I am fine, by the way. The worst part of the whole ordeal was back issues from multiple falls while being chased down, and where they got me it just itched a bit like really bad mosquito bites. I survived is what matters. Nonetheless, I gave some consideration to handling the situation myself. For one thing, I was in pest control for some time in a past life, and so it's not like I don't have a fair amount of experience dealing with these evil creatures. I spent some time yesterday observing them. I wanted to learn the behavior of this particular nest. I also wanted to get a feel for the size of the nest by sort of counting what was outside of it knowing there's usually a percentage outside of it. Normally we would don a bee suit, ideally, and then use a bellows duster with a long wand to introduce poison dust into the nest, then come back a few days later to inspect activity and either reapply more dust or determine dormancy. Then you dig out the nest. I do not have the equipment, but I do have some Termidor and a backpack sprayer, even though my Termidor is over 10 years old. Its potency might be questionable, but probably still effective. I can shoot from a distance of about 20 feet with the backpack sprayer. So, I also determined the direction most were going to forage for whatever they needed and laid out a game plan of attack. Get on the opposite side of their main flight path, aim good and soak the nest trying to get as much into the hole as possible. Wait a day or two, observing activity and either reapply from a distance, or inject the poison directly into the nest with a hard attack. Termidor is a slow acting chemical that allows the insects to take the poison deep into the nest and ultimately to the queen before it kills them. Killing the queen is paydirt. So, after all this careful consideration and planning I brought my plan to the wife and she immediately told me no. She's fearful I may have another bad encounter despite my past experience. Ultimately, she's the boss, so I will just call Rottler on Monday and have them deal with it with the proper equipment.