Caution

[ksitte]

Several weeks have passed since we last used our Escape. Anticipating our next trip starting Wednesday, I decided to give Last Best Escape a general maintenance check. As I was testing the in/out operation of the awning, lo and behold, there was a wasp nest right inside the front end under the cover. Two of the three yellow jackets tending the nest left as I partially opened the awning. The third, unimpressed by the operation of the awning several times, received a short blast of wasp spray, knocking it out of commission.

While I was at it, I checked all the other obvious openings and found no other intruders. While I tested the operation of the AC, I think I'll wait till the weather is much cooler before checking under the cowling.

Mud daubers and paper wasps don't seem to like living around here. But yellow jackets are in abundance.

So, hey, be careful out there!

[Mike Lewis]

Lots of bugs including wasps down here. They like to build under the rolled-up awning. They also like to get in the propane tank cover. I think they get high off of the whiffs of propane that come from the tanks on occasion.


It's the snakes, though, that get my attention. I decided to enter through the back door.

[cpaharley2008]

Yes, snakes RULE. when I found a black snake coiled up on my riding mower seat in my shed, I left it there and hired someone to cut my grass the rest of the year. Eventually it departed....

[scubarx]

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

Lots of bugs including wasps down here. They like to build under the rolled-up awning. They also like to get in the propane tank cover. I think they get high off of the whiffs of propane that come from the tanks on occasion.


It's the snakes, though, that get my attention. I decided to enter through the back door.

A nice Copperhead will always get your attention.

[WillyB]

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

Lots of bugs including wasps down here. They like to build under the rolled-up awning. They also like to get in the propane tank cover. I think they get high off of the whiffs of propane that come from the tanks on occasion.


It's the snakes, though, that get my attention. I decided to enter through the back door.

Remember! Snakes with Round Pupils are not poisonous.

He's just a friendly king snake keeping all those unwanted critters away

[Iowa Dave]

Probably not surprising I’ve liked snakes since I was a kid. Here’s a pair of bull snakes that were in a nursery tree hunting baby robins still in the nest. I relocated them to my park house where I later observed lots of young ones but the mice and ground squirrels disappeared.
Taken about 1973 when I still had a little hair. Never had much sense though. Used my head to ring the doorbell. Rita opened the door. Her response “Get those “expletive deleted” things out of here. So I took them about 75 feet and turned them loose in a junk lumber pile.
Iowa Dave

[Mike Lewis]

Originally Posted by WillyB

Remember! Snakes with Round Pupils are not poisonous.

He's just a friendly king snake keeping all those unwanted critters away

Oak snake, I've heard them called. They get in the house on occasion and I use a grabber to pick them up and toss them outside. They never run from me, oddly enough.

They're not keeping the bad guys away, though. This moccasin was in my front yard a few weeks ago.

[Mike G]

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

This moccasin was in my front yard a few weeks ago.

I think I'll stick to Minnetonkas, thank you!

[Chasing Trials]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

Yes, snakes RULE. when I found a black snake coiled up on my riding mower seat in my shed, I left it there and hired someone to cut my grass the rest of the year. Eventually it departed....

I catch & move them far away! They eat my chicken eggs & last year clean out my place of my toads(which I love!) about 20/30 of them. Moving a 1/4 of a mile didn't work, back eating my eggs in a day. SO now they go to the other side of a river. This year was a small one the day after, I found the mourning dove nest raided.