Good morning from the sunny and hot South

[Clipper]

Another beautiful but hot and humid day here today. I am heading out to move some more dirt and restore some more of the trench line from the sewer project. I may seem like it is taking forever to complete the project but it is about a 50 foot trench line and the dirt is piled about a foot and a half deep and a 2 or 3 feet wide. The damned clay has made it a task that I work at for a couple of hours at a time, usually in morning or evening when it is not in the 90's and unbearably humid. You have to know how difficult it is to work with the heavy clay in order to understand the lengthy process of leveling the area off to re-seed it. Every shovel full has had to be loosened up with the tiller before it can be shoveled and raked off. It needed to settle before restoring the area and when it settled it settled hard as a brick.

My next task will be to deal with bumble bees again while removing the old gutters and facia boards from the garage. I noticed yesterday that there is a nest somewhere in the soffits with bees coming and going steadily. The trouble with living in such a warm and temperate climate is that wasps and bees thrive here because they really don't freeze off in winter if they are in a sheltered location out of the weather. I guess I will have to hook the facia board with my hammer, yank it off and run like hell, then go back at night when they are all in the nest and spray the hell out of them. I suspect that I may encounter some wasp nests also before all is said and done. Hell, I need to buy a beekeeper's suit the way things are going this summer with the pesky critters, haha.

I am off to enjoy another day of outdoor work. I am happiest when I am out in the fresh air and busy. It makes the time go by faster in these times of relative isolation with the pandemic restricting normal travel and social life. Have a good day and stay safe and well. I see that the rain is supposed to stop at some point this morning for Utica and CNY and pleasant weather is forecast for the next few days.

[Deleted]

Can't you just drill a small hole in facia board then insert the tube that comes with bee's and wasps insecticide then spray the inside completely. Should kill those bees off so you can do the work.

[Clipper]

Having dealt with the wasps and bumble bees already this summer I chickened out and called a pest control company who will come and fog the loft area over the garage with a professional grade fogger and fogging solution. I don't worry so much about myself, but Kathy's nephew is going to help me with the job and I don't want him to get stung or have to deal with the bees.

I see wasps going up under the metal roofing sometimes and would not be surprised if they were also nesting in the attic over the garage.

[Clipper]

I am glad I called an exterminator. He went up through the hatchway in the garage ceiling and when he dropped the square piece of plywood that covers the hole in the ceiling it made a thump and must have vibrated the rafters up there. He said there is a HUGE nest of bumble bees up there. The droning buzz when he stirred them could be heard down in the garage fairly loudly. There is also several wasp nests up there.

He is coming back tomorrow to run an electric fogger up there. He says it will fill the area with a fog that will make it look like it is on fire up there and will penetrate every nook and cranny, killing anything living up there. TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS!! Yikes! Better safe than sorry. He says that by the sound of the swarm it would have been very bad to pull off the facia and expose and disturb the nest. He said the number of bees could be anywhere from 50 or up in the hundreds and that they produce a pheromone that is detected by the rest of hive when disturbed that makes them swarm aggressively and that they will chase you and sting the hell out of you. Nope, nope, nope. I have had enough bumble bees and wasps for one summer.

[clarencebunsen]

Yikes

[Deleted]

OMG be careful. I can only imagine what will happen when the guy introduces the fog mist from the fogger. I'd go away for the day and not come back to late evening.

[Clipper]

I don't normally have any fear of bees or wasps but I can't imagine being trapped in an attic, stumbling over the trusses to get out of there should I disturb a nest of the nasty buggers. I will feel much more comfortable doing the project knowing that the bees are all eradicated. When you work around buildings that are 50 or 60 yrs old you never know what you will uncover when you start tearing wood off of them or opening walls and roofs. I don't fear them but I have a high degree of respect and caution when dealing with them.

Many years ago I was working part time with a contractor on my days off from the base fire department. We were repairing some rotten spots on the roof of a barn. We were about 30 feet above the ground. I was ripping off an old rotted roof board and stuck the claws of my hammer into a large wasp nest. By the time I scrambled down 30ft on an extension ladder, I had been stung 10 or 12 times. Mostly on my head and face. I got stung on the lip, on both eyelids, and all over my crew cut head. My eyes swelled almost closed and my lips looked like I had been punched in the mouth or had shots of botox, so I went to the ER at Rome hospital.

The exterminator said that I should be able to go back to normal activity in the garage after about two hours and that the residue, if any in the main level of the garage would be confined to a space about 4 feet squared directly below the hatchway. He said when he introduces the electric fogger and turns it on, the space will fill with fog quickly like thick smoke and none of the bees should survive. Those that may not be in the nest will be killed when they return and come in contact with anything anywhere around the attic area.

I have never used that space for anything and now I won't be going up there with all that insecticide residue all over the insulation and such.

[BHU]

I know what you mean when you mentioned ripping things out. Last fall I wanted to replace the old wood window in our garage. Figured I'd just order a vinyl replacement window, tear the old one out wam bam thank you ma'am, be done in a few hours. When I tore the window out I found a nest of carpenter ants & it was huge. They were all dead but they did a job excavating the window header, two studs, etc., etc. Turned into a real project having to replace the window & some sheetrock.

[Clipper]

The bug man was here at 8:30. He sat the fogger up in the attic and turned it on. It wasn't long before the fog was coming around the eaves at the vents at the end peaks of the garage. It ran for about 15 minutes until empty. He applied 1/2 gallon of the chemical, which is the maximum application allowed by law. No more buzzing when he thumped on the rafters. He said a few may come down into the garage as they try to escape the chemical, but that they will not fly far before they drop down dead.

Guaranteed for 30 days. He will come back Monday morning and make sure it worked. If there are any bees left, they will send a guy in a bee suit to peel back the insulation and uncover the nest and will spray it and then fog again.

I have been out shoveling more dirt already this morning. Two heaping garden trailer loads shoveled up and piled where the stumps have been removed so that at some point I can rake it all off and plant grass. So far I have moved the dirt from the 10 or 12 feet of trench on the house side of the driveway and about 16 or 18 feet on the other side of the driveway. There were significant piles right next to the driveway on both sides where he had piled the dirt that was underneath the driveway. I still have another 16 or 18 feet to go to the tank. Slow going, having to loosen the soil with the tiller before I can shovel it. I came in to rest and cool off. It is about 80 so far and going to 91 with 85% humidity and UV index very high. I probably will work for another hour or so and then wait until this evening to go back out when the sun has moved around to where I am working in the shade and not working in the sun.

[Clipper]

BHU. I remember trying to change a faucet in an upstairs bathroom in a house I rented on River Road in Marcy when I was single. It was the old fashioned pedestal sink and the supply lines came out of the wall. The pipe was so rusty that it twisted off in the wall. Ended up opening the wall so I could cut the elbow and twisted pipe off, and then had to go in the cellar and lower the rest of the pipe as I cut it up in sections. Then I replaced it with rigid copper, pushing a section at a time up through the wall, soldering and sweating the pipe as I went. Thankfully the landlord bought a new vanity and sink and a new single handle faucet. I opened the bathroom window and threw the heavy old sink out the window along with the pedestal.

When you tear into an old wall you never know what you are going to find. Fixing the wall where I cut out the old plaster and lath was almost as tedious as replacing the pipe.

[BHU]

I'm not a big fan of pedestal sinks. We had one here & I got rid of it when the pedestal cracked as I was taking the trap apart to clear out a clog. Went to Lowe's bought a vanity, faucet, new water lines & that's that.

Glad to hear your landscaping project is going well. I've been tilling up the back yard where the grass died off this summer. That tiller makes short work of it. Tomorrow they're forecasting some nasty weather up here, so I won't be doing any yard work. T-storms for the afternoon around the same time I have to go to the dentist.

[Clipper]

Glad your tiller is working well for your lawn restoration job. Mine works great but for any real tilling I use the bigger 6hp 24 inch. I had to stir that clay with the bigger tiller in order to be able to shovel it. I finished moving the excess dirt today. I am taking a day off tomorrow and will start raking the area off in preparation for seeding on Friday. I hope to get the seed down and mulched with straw this weekend, and then it will be onward and upward to the two stump sites to rake all of that off, level it, and plant those areas.

When we lived up there we had nice black soil and the little Honda Harmony we had at that time did a good job of tilling our garden as well as doing the cultivating. The clay here wore out the gear box and it died.

We are supposed to get some heavy downpours as the tail end of the hurricane moves through here on Saturday. Flood warnings for small streams and low lying areas.

[Deleted]

Speaking of dead bees have you counted the dead bodies yet. How many!!!

[Clipper]

The bumble bee nest is under the insulation and not visible from outside. I did have to take a brush and sweep all the dead wasps and the old nests out of the soffit space behind the facia boards. Most of our wasps must have been nesting in the garage attic. Since they fogged the garage the wasps that have been so plentiful all summer are mostly gone. I don't mind wasps, but there was an inordinate number of them flying around this summer.