This morning I finally got around to clearing out the paper wasp & mud dauber nests before the bats return from hibernation.
I tweaked my technique a little. Last year I had two problems:
1. A few of the wasps went down my neck and stung me.
2. I broke the stick that I was using to clear out the nests.
This year I made the following changes to my procedure:
1. Took photos of the crevices, and looked very carefully at the photos to ensure that no bats were present (panning & zooming on the camera display). I did have a flashlight with me but it is really hard to see in the crevices during the day, even with a flashlight.
2. Used a stiff plastic planting stake instead of a wooden stake to scrape out the nests. Worked great.
3. Wore safety glasses to keep wasps & junk out of my eyes.
4. Wore the hood of my coat to keep things from falling down my neck.
5. Tightened my sleeves to keep things from falling up my sleeves.
Of course it would be smarter to put the ladder off to the upwind side, not directly under the house, but due to the ground slope, other logs, etc. I have to place the ladder directly under the houses, thus everything rains down on me as I knock it loose. Fortunately it was fairly breezy so most of the wasps & material blew away. But still there were wasps bouncing off my arms & head.
I noticed that a number of the slats have come unglued either from the little blocks or from each other. I kind of expected this to happen. I am tweaking my design such that the slats are attached only at the top, and thus can expand and contract. I have enough materials to build three more houses but haven't had a chance to put them together yet.
Here are some before and after photos.
West house, before cleaning. In the center top you can see mud dauber nests, in the center bottom are a bunch of paper wasps.
After cleaning.
East house, before cleaning.
East house, after cleaning.
