Almost a Rotten Day!

Written September 5th, 2012

Today I was trimming branches on the cedar tree that is right outside our front door.  About mid-way through the job, I was cutting through a branch when a Yellow Jacket Wasp whacked me in the ear and gave me a good sting (Just for the record, he stung me right on that hard tip of cartilage that is right above the ear lobe, and yikes, is was the most painful sting I have experienced so far in my life).

Now, I do not typically lose my head, however, whenever I get stung by a wasp, I tend to get really mad.  And while I am content to usually leave wasps along and let them go about their business, once I get stung, I go on a mini rampage and destroy every wasps nest I can find.  Today was no different.  Once the pain of the sting began to sink in, I grew quite angry and determined that I would have revenge on the colony of wasps from which my attacker came.

Believing that we were out of wasps spray, I determined I would simply find a broom and give the nest a good whack.  Probably not the smartest idea, but if the nest contains only a few wasps, and if you have room to run, you can sometimes get away with doing this without suffering any additional stings.  And even though you don’t actually kill many wasps by whacking the nest with a broom, it does offer a momentary feeling of satisfaction.

Before grabbing the broom, I decided to locate the wasp nest.  Since I was stung while trying to cut a branch, I figured that the wasps nest was likely attached to the branch I was cutting.  My figuring was correct, and in just a few seconds I located the nest.  And once I located the nest, my idea of the broom no longer seemed like such a good idea.

Fortunately, my wife discovered that we had some wasps spray after all.  And so, with a push of the button, I took my revenge.  While many wasps got away to live another day, I at least got to see a satisfactory pile of dead wasps lying on the ground under the once thriving nest.

It was only as I resumed my chore of cutting the branch that a great deal of thankfulness filled my heart.  Though the sting I received was not pleasant, it suddenly occurred to me that the one sting I received prevented many.  I was less than two second away from completing my cut through the branch when I was stung.  And had I actually completed the cut and sent the nest to the ground, well, let’s just say, it probably would have been a pretty rotten day.

Thank you Father for my one sting in the ear!