Living the Exterminator Life
The life of an exterminator is full of excitement. There is never a dull moment when trying to eradicate the pests in the world. It is chemical warfare where the insects or creatures fight with a passion to protect their home. If the exterminator is not careful, the pests can win and leave the exterminator hurt or even dead. It is not a profession for the faint of heart.
I have spent the majority of my time trying to rid homes of wasp and hornets nests. Wasps can be aggressive when aggravated, but for the most part, will leave their nesting area once their hive is knocked down or destroyed. Chemical sprays will prevent the wasps from returning later, but home owners should always be on the lookout for new nests.
Hornets are definitely more dangerous than wasps by any standard. A hornet's nest is usually high off the ground and tends to be on the overhangs of roofs where people walk by and do not see them unless they look up. Hornets will attack in a swarm if they feel their nest is threatened. Not only do they protect their nest, but they will stay to rebuild it long after it is destroyed.
The first time I ran into a hornet's nest was at a neighbor's house I was pressure washing. My helper was hosing down the front porch when he tilted the sprayer up and hit the nest. Luckily, he heard the hornets buzzing out of their nest and used the water spraying from the best electric pressure washer to keep the hornets at bay. He managed to keep from being stung, but now we had a problem. The bees were swarming all around the front of the house and prevented us from finishing our cleaning.
We tried a few different ways to get the nest down. First we tried spraying it again to knock it loose. This, of course, only made the hornets angrier. Next we took a long handled broom and were successful in knocking the nest loose from the roof. As soon as the nest started falling we ran like scared children to a safe distance. It took almost two hours for the hornets to finally calm down.
I have since learned there are much safer and easier ways to handle these stinging pests. Local hardware stores like Lowes or Home Depot carry many different wasp and hornet sprays that allow the user to stand a safe twenty or thirty feet away from the nest they are spraying. Above all, always remember you are going to battle and it's not a battle that will be fun to use.
Source: clanios.com
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