LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Thursday, June 24, 2010

DIY Pest Control

The Pest Before


Darth Vader

The Pest After


I suppose I should have expected it. I haven't used pesticides in my garden for 5 months or so, and beneficial insects of all sorts have come to stay. I have lady bugs and praying mantises. The bees' nest however was a shock. I briefly considered leaving the nest there because we all know that bees fertilize plants... and make honey. Petunia likes honey and the idea of home-made honey was more than a little tempting. Besides, I mused, perhaps honey would bring bears... and then we would be able to keep a pet bear!!

But the bees chose the overhung just at the door of the patio. The patio door is open all day long and everyone needed to walk under the bees' nest to get into the garden. Our gentle Joy flatly refused to go out there. She had been chased (and badly stung) by a swarm of bees when she was little and I couldn't very well trap her behind the piano like I do Milo... collar her and then make her go water the plants right? Anyway, Joy is larger than I am. Gentle though she is, I sensed that when it came the bees, she was likely to collar ME and make me water the plants.

So the bees' nest had to go. I resolved to call the pest control the next day. However, the 2 testosterone deformed (click here to read more about this condition) people in the family decided to do some DIY pest control. The main actor was The Husband. The sidekick was Little Boy. I was the costume and set designer. The Daughter managed to sleep right through and no one had time to wake her.

The Husband was very brave indeed. He went out and covered the bees' nest with the pail filled with Liquid Derris Plus (a pesticide I used in the past for my plants). We had fashioned a Closed Seal. The bees were supposed to drown in the pesticide liquid as the mouth of the pail enclosed them all against the ceiling. But the husband was half blind. The mouth of the pail did not properly enclose the nest and masses of bees crawled out and tried to sting him. Thank goodness the protective gear did its work and quite a number of bees did get trapped in the water!

Those who escaped were downed by a very effective water-based insect spray called Kill Fast (NTUC house brand). It really does live up to its name. Unlike Baygon which should be renamed BayNotGone.

Little Boy was irritating at first. He kept asking...

- "You are gonna kill ALL of them?"

- "Can't you find a way to trap them and bring them downstairs?"

- "Why must you kill all of them?"

- "If you keep them, they will help your garden, Mom."

- "You are gonna kill ALL of them?"

"Can't you find a way to trap them and bring them downstairs?"

It went on for quite a while. Half ashamed of myself, I said nothing. Then I snapped,

- "Shut up, you twit. Make sure your Daddy is safe!"

Obediently, he helped in the Ignominious Bee Massacre. I rather wonder whether my son has traces of Red Indian in his blood. He respects nature so much that he is apologetic about killing anything... and yet, if he has to (for house, home and mother) he does it proficiently enough. He held up the torch very nicely.

Phew!!

8 comments:

Open Kitchen Concept said...

Oh... Eeeeekkkk... the bees look terrible. But hey.. it's a nice first picture of The Husband - complete with oven mittens and all! :p

Fresh Fry aka 福星 said...

so scary! if my dad would be doing tat (which is very likely!), i'd yell at him not to be an idiot and call the pest control right away. nevermind the screaming matches and cold war for a week.

oh, the collision of mars + venus. hahahahahahahaha.......

Petunia Lee said...

OKC - Heh! I was a bit surprised he agreed to let me upload.

Petunia Lee said...

Fry - It went against my better judgment too... but since he was adamant, I thought I oughta be fully supportive so as to keep him safe. I was really worried though!!

Blur Ting said...

Wow, the men in your family are tough! Applause!

And little boy... he's just adorable!

Petunia Lee said...

Ting - Thanks! Your sons would probably do the same I think.

Malar said...

wow! tht's a lot of bees! We had one at our home back in my hometown when we were still schooling! many times stung by it! Ouch....! end up my father called someone to removed it!

Petunia Lee said...

Malar - Stung? Many times? Gulp!