Be careful, Jane. These things are deadly. That man in the bee-keeper suit is brave indeed!

The time to really check is early in the year when nests are small and can be removed by a layperson, esp in half-light or darkness. You were wise to call in the professionals!

"I am aware that there are some gardeners who would not have removed this nest."

I'm definitely NOT one of this number, and I'm tolerant (even enamoured) of many things in nature, almost all weeds/wildflowers, reptiles, amphibians, bats, etc. I respect and protect the bees despite my fear of them, although if the Africanized honeybee shows up here, all bets will be off. Hornets and wasps are enemy number one on my turf.

That nest was built in one week. I had moved those branches by hand just the week before when mowing. It's an amazing structure and method. The more I learn, the less I know. Life is SO big.

Thanks for the reminder, Jane. You might want to consider getting a prescription for epinephrine, just in case, since that sounds like a fairly severe reaction.

We have bald-faced hornets most years, but haven't had any in dangerous spots. I can remember one winter watching a blue jay tear apart a hornet nest near the top of one of our maples, looking for some extra protein from the frozen wasps.

We have had more stings from ground-dwelling yellow jackets that I have found weeding the garden and DH has found mowing. He gets the worst of it since the noise of the mower churns them up, while I usually hear or spot them before disturbing them too much.

I had the same thought, NHB, but hasn't the cost of it gone up something like 1,000 percent? BTW the manufacturer was just ordered to reimburse medicare millions of dollars for overbilling the epi pens.

More to the point and perhaps more helpful:

Benadryl or an equivalent antihistamine can lessen an allergic reaction. It can be your first intervention while watching for other symptoms. Remember it makes many people sleepy, so be judicious about using your chainsaw or driving after you take it.....

You may have been sensitized by such a severe reaction, and will have an even more severe reaction if you get stung again. I kept bees for several years and had increased swelling and pain from stings that took longer and longer to go away. Finally, I asked my primary for a prescription for an epi pen and she filled it without hesitation. If you have insurance it won't be $500!

Just curious, did you go to the doctor when you had the other symptoms? If not, maybe give a call and see what he or she would suggest should you get stung again.

It annoys me beyond everything that they black-listed epinephrine. I used to keep a bottle of it in the fridge along with the vaccines I used to buy for the horses, and the cost was around $3 for a 10 dose bottle back then. My husband is deadly allergic, so the epi served a dual purpose.

The last time (recently) the hubbs visited a doctor he asked about getting an epi-pen and was told that his reaction to the one and only time he was stung was not anaphylactic in nature and he should just swallow a bunch of benadryl tablets. However when he had that one and only sting long ago (on the end of his thumb and the swelling was up to his neck and he was getting dizzy) they treated him at the ER with epinephrine, so I'm unconvinced about that.

However you look at it, the task of evicting stinging insects from the property falls to me, and I have an irrational terror of these nasty creatures. (He's not afraid of them, but he should be. I'm not allergic so I shouldn't be afraid, but there ya go!)

NHBabs, I sincerely hope that yellow jackets never decide to colonize the underground here. That would absolutely send me into apoplectic fits. I shudder at the thought. We've had yellow jackets here but thankfully they have nested under the peak of the roof where they were visible and removable.

We had yellow jackets who apparently purchased title to our deck based on their aggressiveness. The hive was inaccessible to us except for a few cracks. It didn't take too many bites before conservation took a backseat to full blown offensive chemical eradication. After three battles we apparently now own our deck again.

Thank you, Marie, NHBabs and Sped - I did take Benadryl, it did knock me out and it did help. With help, I applied Ichthammol right away to draw the toxin out for the first 48 hours and thereafter, sprayed the wounds with Benadryl. The sting sites are much better and I have no more symptoms. However, before mowing, I went to check the area Wednesday morning just to be sure they were really gone, and they had, in 36 hours, already created another nest roughly 9" x 5" x 7". The stragglers that had been out 'harvesting' came back, found no home and perhaps from a remnant left deep in the viburnum branches, began all over again. Bee Man returned Thursday afternoon, again fogged the new nest, and with my loppers, he heavily pruned the whole area and took the nest with him in a bag. He also inspected the rest of the border (where the pines had been felled in 2008) and he walked the whole border of our yard - on both sides. The viburnum brush that was removed was sprayed, left in place for the stragglers, and Bee Man (really nice guy) will come back Saturday morning for further inspection before I remove the brush. That area may get mowed sometime this year and if not, I've already reached the 'whatever' stage of life.

The hornets' ability to build such an elaborate, strong structure so quickly is astonishing. So I guess one has to be ever-vigilant, especially in August!

Thanks,

Jane

P.S. - Marie - No, I didn't go to the doctor; I'm not quick to do that. I figured if I wasn't dead after the first 1/2 hour, and I could still swallow, I'd live. :)

Well...I'm like you on going to the doctor. Don't like to take my kids, either, unless they're sick enough that I don't think I'll hear, "It's just a virus. It will work itself out," which is what I heard for the first 50 doctor's visits as a new paranoid mother.

But...with bees I've heard enough stories to be cautious. Your reaction now can truly create a horrendous allergy. One friend's sister took just 5 minutes to swell up enough to block all air. She was walking in the woods and he said it was literally 5 minutes and she was gone. He's also an emergency room doctor and was there, bur clearly couldn't get to her in time. Quite a tragedy. Until then I had no idea it could be that vicious. She was an adult (probably late 40's) with no history of bee allergies before that.

Not to be a paranoid Chicken Little, but just do be aware. At least make sure somebody else is right there and you can reach them in under a minute if needed. (And they have a long flexible straw handy.)

Well, I feel a LOT better now, deanna! Very sorry about your friend's sister, much too young. Might be cheaper and easier to just buy a bee suit for gardening. It would work for mosquitos too - that are now carrying West Nile in our town. Gardening used to be a joy! It still can be, with awareness.

Jane, this is a very timely and important message and I thank you for posting. Also, thanks to all of the rest of you for the important information!

Several years ago, our neighbors’ teenage son and his friends were horsing around in the yard. They aggravated the hornets you describe, and one young man was stung. He went into shock almost immediately. It was a race to get him to medical care, but he made it (barely) and lives on.

My daughter was on a high rise balcony in Boston and was stung multiple times by wasps nesting there. She was in rough shape and totally humiliated to be rescued by hook and ladder, but now she knows her limitations around bees.

I have a bad reaction to yellow jackets, and they have no sense of humor when you dig into their ground nest late in the season (when they are most aggressive). Who knew?
My arms swelled like balloons and blistered from knuckles to elbow (but not anaphylaxis). Dr. told me to take 2 Benadryl pills if it happens again. Sure, I want to sleep all day (NOT)….but I will do as told. BTW, I’ve had yellow jackets chase me into the house and beat on my door knob! Geez.

Jane, my colorful sister-in-law refers to your hornets as the “white a$$ bees”. I’m a huge supporter of the pollinators, but be safe my friends.

Susan

I'm curious whether liquid Benadryl is absorbed faster than the pills. I suggested calling a doc just to see if there's any new advice, short of epi pens, on treating non-anaphylactic but serious reactions to stings. Actually, "Medscape" might be more helpful than a doctor.

I've never heard of liquid benadryl, but any capsule or pill bitten into (to break time-release granules in a TR medication) and held in the mouth for a minute or so will get into your system quicker via the more direct mucus membrane route, than introducing it directly into your digestive system by swallowing immediately. For that matter, holding a liquid in your mouth for 60 seconds or so also will start acting quicker than if swallowed.

The tales of tragic outcomes and near tragic outcomes on this thread are testimony to the dangers of these insects and their poisonous stings. An uncle of mine who I never knew well nearly died at my grandfather's farm here in Vermont long ago when they were haying a meadow and ran over or into a nest of white-faced hornets. They got him to a doctor just in time. My grandfather used to say that white-faced hornets have the worst stings of any insect. I'm not sure if that was his own experience with his son-in-law's near death experience, or actually a biological fact, but either way these insects scare me more than other wasps. Bald-faced hornets actually are in the family of yellow-jacket wasps, and are not true hornets.

Your account of the battle for title of your deck made me laugh, Deanna! Glad you won the battle!

My neighbor-friend gave me 2 Benadryl liquid gel caps after putting the Ichthammol on and I spent the next 7 hours in another realm. I think the drawing power of the Ichthammol, applied twice during 48 hours and those 2 Benadryl liquid gels, were about as good as I could have had because I did not go into anaphylactic shock. 10 days later, I have hard, raised white bumps where they bit me. Head is the worse, but ever so much better than it was... and I'm lucky to have a hard head. :)

Jane

I'm sure there are liquid antihistamines, but you wouldn't want to keep those in the glove compartment of your car. You would want to keep some sort of antihistamines around your person if you have a history of severe reactions. Now I'm going to read about ichthammol

I expect that liquid benadryl works more quickly than capsules or solids since my allergist gives me liquid benadryl if I react to my shots. Only a kid dose though since I am not safe driving after an adult dose - in lala land for several hours.

Re: benadryl, I have kids with allergies and EpiPen prescriptions. According to the allergist, benadryl is no longer recommended even for a mild anaphylactic reaction until you're sure it's not progressing to more serious symptoms. According to the doctor, benadryl makes you feel better, but could mask the symptoms, and the "cascade" of anaphylactic symptoms could still be happening. So you want to administer epinephrine and call 911 as soon as you notice potentially dangerous symptoms (your allergist can tell you exactly what the symptoms are you should look for--with us it's a combo of two mild symptoms, or one severe symptom like swelling mouth or breathing difficulty). There are no lasting side effects to epinephrine, but occasionally someone tries Benadryl first, waits too long to use the EpiPen, and it's too late to stop the progression.

Don't mess around with allergies or take medical advice from laypeople--or, I'd say, even your primary care physician, since allergy research is changing all the time. If you're not sure whether it's an allergy, get thee to an allergist and make a specific plan.

Your points are excellent and I agree. I didn't want to push the allergist since OP appeared adverse to doctor visits. I'm glad you called it. I've got my epipen and am certainly in the camp of the more expert information and planning the better because life's too short to die from a stupid wasp sting. Or even have a frightening hospital experience because of one.

But then, I've got a h (no "d" when I think of the event) who refused to go with the emts after stroke. So I had to drive him wondering all the while if he was going die in the back seat of the car. I've got very strong opinions about not being stupid about serious health threats. (no insult to OP, just my not so dh.)

Our yellow jackets have moved just around the corner (of the house) into a thick hedge. I think it's Sweet Box (Sarococca ruscifolia) based on the fragrant blossoms and how it anchors itself to the wall in a way that drives me crazy and keeps us from being able to open or close our windows. I was pruning it and out they came. For some reason I'm not a target for them, even when I'm the one holding the pruning shears. I stepped away calmly and watched, but our big dog was all about them, and they stung her butt through her thick coat. I suppose I will have to wait until a cold snap to prune because I'm not sure I can find the nest without antagonizing them first. This thread doesn't inspire blind bravery when it comes to them! I'll just wait it out...

I must have hexed myself when I said how lucky I've been to never have an underground yellow jacket nest to deal with! About a week ago I noticed that my daylily bed was all trampled down. I assumed a large animal had been through there, but I wasn't especially concerned because most of my daylilies in that garden are done blooming for the year.

Then yesterday I was wandering around from garden to garden, doing some minor tasks, in a zen-like mood, and I decided to remove some bindweed vines exposed by the destruction in the daylily bed. I pulled a few vines, when I became aware of buzzing, and the next thing I knew I was in the middle of a swarming inferno of the little @z*&%%'s. I beat a hasty retreat but not before one of the nasty buggars stung me on the hand. I let out a blood curdling scream while cursing them with words nowhere near adequate. I'm actually surprised I didn't receive more stings.

The exterminator is coming Monday, and his receptionist assured me that he will spray the yellow jackets, dig up their nest, and leave no survivors. I picked him out of the phone book, after eliminating those whose ads promised "eco-friendly pest management" and "nature's way pest control."

I have to remember to cover the outdoor goldfish pool and unplug the pump to their aeration system before the guy comes, and leave them covered for the rest of the day to protect them from wind-drifted toxic spray.

Today we have to mow and my other half has agreed to give the daylily bed a wide berth. We can mow those parts next time.

I'm so furious at being ousted from my own garden! Plus I can almost hear the squeaks of pain and thrashing of the unfortunate creature that caused the demolition of the daylilies, deer or dog most likely, so I've sworn vengeance on its behalf as well! Four more days, you hateful stinging monsters, then it's curtains for you! (I hope no new queens have left this nest to create new colonies.) I'm also a chicken-hearted gardener, and will probably wait until after several hard frosts to finish the vine removal task.

I know it hurt (been there, hurt that) but your post was funny. I'm thinking a live performance of curses that accompany stings, rabbits and deer damage would be as obscene as the most obscene stand up comic who was ever busted, banned or prosecuted.

Some hosta lovers might enjoy the sight of a deer getting a few stings. Got any extra surveillance cameras handy? I hope they don't do what mine did--move about 20 feet away to new shrubbery. Tell Mr. Bee Man to be ruthless.

Oh, Sped, I'm glad you are okay. Sped is one of the most peaceful people on Earth, --it must have been wicked! It has been 17 days since the hornets got me and I still have the hard bumps, but no other symptoms. Whenever hearing "...the meek shall inherit the earth", I always figured it meant bugs and bacteria.

For all their tenacity and fortitude, hive-making engineering is, indeed, a total amazement; I agree, Thyme. Despite the stings, it did not make me feel better to have them killed. Previous nests on our land which were built high in trees or out of people paths, I just let live and let die. As I have often said on this forum, "(life) isn't my design". The older I become and the more I learn, the less I know. I'm not sure why pollinators need stingers or toxin-shooting tushes, but like Mark Twain, I also have no idea why we need flies, mosquitos or the common cold. There are so many irritants from which to choose!

This guy is a peaceful type. Look at that pollen pocket! He likes zinnias.

Jane

Sped, I am so sorry to have jinxed you! May all of you spot the fierce ones before they find you!

Thyme2dig, your account of your encounter with the yellow jacket nest in your own daylily bed while weeding was like deja vu! I have to assume you can run faster than me to have escaped unscathed! Probably we all could run faster back in the day than we can now! I think you were wise to call in the professionals this time around.

Today was D-Day for the yellow jackets here. I scurried around this AM doing all the outdoor chores (watering plants, covering the fish pond, bringing the dogs' outdoor water bucket indoors, and making sure the dogs were all peed out and could stay indoors until the mass extermination was done). Then the guy showed up to evict my unwanted tenants. Feeling braver in the company of this fearless soul, I accompanied him to the outskirts of the daylily bed, and he discovered that the nest was not the much feared underground hive I had thought, but a large paper nest built around a stick lying on the ground. (Had I known this I would have sprayed it myself after dark.) Apparently when I had begun pulling weed vines, they had moved the stick which had disturbed the nest, and provoked the yellow jackets to launch an attack. That was the first time in 25 years that I've been stung, and I'm hoping it will be the last time in my lifetime!

I am very much relieved to have these spawns of Satan gone. I am definitely not peaceful when it comes to wasps and hornets. I can know no peace when these things are sharing my space. I can work up sympathy for almost any other creature in nature. I am not fond of ticks, mosquitoes, or flies, but they are food, after all, for birds, frogs, snakes, bats, and other life forms, and flies digest carrion, helping to break it down. They all have their niche in the scheme of things and serve multiple purposes, but I cannot coexist with these venomous stinging fiends. I eschew the use of any chemical fertilizers or pesticides or herbicides, but I make the two exceptions of hornet killer and the parasite-fighting formulations I employ to protect my domestic animals. I always try to nip wasps and their nests in the bud in early spring, because many of these early appearing venomous insects are queens seeking to establish new colonies. Ditto with later nests, the sooner they are removed, the less new queens will be emerging to start new nests. Vigilance is the key to a peaceful, wasp-free garden(s) and home.

I've been known to call the deer that ate my seedling spruce trees "evil pest deer" and "venison on the hoof" and to tell the out-of-control wild rabbit population that they need a predator, but essentially I have affection for them and great sympathy for whatever unfortunate animal had the run-in with my yellow jackets. I'm also very glad that no utility workers showed up to service the lines and put themselves in harm's way before we could warn them away. (A utility pole is located right next to my daylily bed where the nest was.)

I think Claire is the truly gentle, peaceful one on this forum. She feeds white-faced hornets at her feeder, isn't participating in this wasp hate-fest, and would never harm one of them. Her karma score is miles above mine!

I think no one hexed me, NHBabs. My guess is that this is a prime year for the little devils, considering how most all of our central core group here were afflicted with nests. I feel fortunate that I was not host to an underground nest as I had feared.

Jane. I LOVE that picture of the pollen packet! It's like they have their own briefcase for work. I had no idea...

Good work, sped!

I will say that the two types discussed here (ground-dwelling yellow jackets and the nest-building bald-faced hornets) are the only aggressive ones I know of. In our younger days we stored a key in the rafters over the door, less than 6" from the small, layered nests of some type of wasp. Neither of us ever were stung over several years of reaching up to get the key at least twice daily, so it's important to remember that only a few species of wasps are aggressive, while most can share our gardens peacefully, and are useful for pollination and pest control.

Hijack: Change of insect: my husband, a city boy, was inclined to go after insects with nuclear grade aerosols. The last one was "Terro" for....ants....mind you. I rebelled against preparing food in poisonous places. Now I'm just kicking ant traps out of the way.

He also likes sticky fly paper. It's not poison so I have less to complain about. They are revolting to look at and inevitably somewhere where my hair comes into contact with them. After they catch a few flies, I pull them down and dispose of them without saying a word.

Marie - I'm glad you take the fly paper down. Butterflies and birds are easily caught on it. Birds go after the trapped insect and small birds get stuck and die. It's bad enough to have to kill something that attacks you, like bald-faced hornets, but they were gone in under one minute in a fog. Struggling for hours while trapped is ... fill in the blank.

OK, I've bitten my tongue long enough. The thread is trending much less bloodthirsty now, so I'd like to add my own perspective to the discussion. My perspective is based both on my readings and on my own experience with stinging insects.

As spedigrees said above, "I think Claire is the truly gentle, peaceful one on this forum. She feeds white-faced hornets at her feeder, isn't participating in this wasp hate-fest, and would never harm one of them."

Thank you, spedigrees; I consider this an enormous compliment.

RE wasps in the garden: As NHBabs said "... most can share our gardens peacefully, and are useful for pollination and pest control." Google will give you a number of references, one of which is:

2 reasons to leave a wasp nest in your yard

I understand about severe allergies and the danger of having a nest in a public space where people can inadvertently get stung. In an emergency situation, of course you should remove a nest, but not all wasp interactions are emergencies, and not all wasp interactions require widespread slaughter.

RE peaceful wasp interactions: I was raised in a household where I remember watching my parents catch-and-release wasps that had entered the house through a roof vent. This was considered a frequent nuisance, not a disaster (flies were drowned in soapy water, though - a tricky maneuver).

I also remember seeing my mother sitting on an Adirondack chair sipping sherry and putting a drop of sherry on the armrest. She enjoyed watching the wasps drink the sherry and get drunk and fall off the armrest.

Needless to say, I never had the feeling that wasps were something to be hated, although they needed to be treated with respect. I believe these were all yellow jackets. I don't remember as a child ever getting stung by a wasp although I did get stung by a bumblebee I stepped on while walking barefoot on the lawn, and I think I deserved that.

I moved back here about twelve years ago and I've only been stung once. That was when a relative visiting next door decided to dig into my compost pile and broke into a yellow jacket nest and got stung. He left without warning me, and when I later went to add something to the compost pile, the angry wasps stung me too. I was really surprised until I noticed the broken nest on the ground. I avoided the area until they calmed down.

RE feeding hornets and other wasps: I put out jelly feeders for the orioles and catbirds, plus a dish on the ground to keep the raccoons happy and away from the hanging feeders.

In late summer and early fall the hornets and wasps will start visiting the jelly feeders as their usual food sources disappear. This annoys and alarms the birds but the hornets and wasps have never threatened me. I'm not attacking their nests and they're not interested in me, except when I bring them more jelly, which they appreciate.

RE respect for life: I don't want to sound sanctimonious, but to me it's an issue of trying to keep a general respect for other living things. From the wasps' viewpoint, their nest and broods must be defended from attack and the predators must be chased away. While I don't like to think of myself as a predator, the wasps have a point and I'm at fault, even if inadvertently. I'd rather just say "My bad" rather than slaughter the critters that may have stung me.

I'll go out soon and check the feeders and the mail. Maybe there will be some wasps in the jelly and I'll leave them there...

Claire

I suppose that only the Dalai Llama has a pure, true, and equal respect for all life forms. For the rest of us, we each have to reach our own conclusions about which life forms are to be revered or co-existed with, because in the grand scheme of things, the question remains: is the life of a wasp worth more than the life of a fly or a Japanese beetle, and/or is the life of a lady's slipper more worthy than the life of a poison parsnip plant?

I agree, spedigrees - in a perfect world all life forms would have equal value, but we sure don't live in a perfect world - at least I don't. So our life revolves around making choices - which organism has more value in my world?

I chose lilies over lily leaf beetles, and oaks over gypsy moth caterpillars, and phlox over woodchucks. I'm not saying that my choices have more intrinsic value in the grand scheme of things, but they make sense in the small scheme of my local environment and the local plant communities and my own concept of what my garden should contain; after all, I consider myself a steward of my garden with all the responsibilities and risks that entails.

It ain't easy.

Claire

Just a question Why hang fly paper outside?

No it was hung indoors! No birds or bees. Just nasty household flies who are, I'm sure, a food source for some hungry bird. I'm not going to catch and release houseflies, though god bless the good soul who does.

Marie

Speaking of birds indoors...We keep our back sliding screen door open to the air all the time until mosquito time at dusk. Last week we had a little bird fly into the house and were able to yell a huge, "No!" to the dogs just between their big sniff and big chomp. Just in time! They backed off, the little bird flew into a room, we took the screens off the windows, and then we steered him back outside. I have no idea what kind he was because it happened so fast, but I remember seeing his long curved beak open as he panted (I'm assuming he was petrified) and brown mottled foliage. Maybe a juvenile hummingbird, but he seemed slightly too big for that.

Sometimes I think some of them realize we are helpers. Have you seen the youtube video of the mother goose pecking on the policeman's car to come help untangle her baby from a string/cord? Amazing.

Mother Goose gets help from police

"between the big sniff and the big chomp." LOL Deanna, you always make me laugh!

The last time a bird flew into my house, she ended up staying for eleven years. It was a lost roller pigeon who flew onto the porch, and into the house when I opened the front door. Unlike your bird, this one was looking for her lost loft, or a reasonable substitute.

As far as the wasps, I'm glad to have them gone, but I ponder what I would have done had bees nested in my daylily bed rather than yellow jackets. Given the seriousness of the honeybees' decline, I would have probably tried to locate a bee-keeper willing to capture the hive and remove the bees to his own home.

Had they been bumble bees I might have at least considered leaving their nest and just avoiding the area for the rest of the summer. I once had bumble bees build a nest under my back porch and had to call an exterminator to kill them. The bees had to travel right by my collie's favorite lounging area on the back porch to get into their hive, and he used to snap at them as they buzzed by. Once he caught one and was stung in his mouth. Thankfully he was not allergic or it could have killed him. I was never stung once, and my dog was stung only that one time when he snapped the bee out of mid-air, so I gained a lot of appreciation for these bees' sweet disposition. If I had had a snapping beast at my front door I would probably have retaliated, not withstanding the fact that the porch had been my dog's domain before the bees decided to co-opt it.

Sped, we'll always be choosing, won't we? I'm happy to let them all have their space, but once they bit the kids for just standing on the deck 3 feet from the nest, well...

Thanks, Claire and NH Babs, for the balance. Getting bit is no fun, and it's very helpful for you and NHBabs to remind us that all buzzers are not stingers. I had begun to doubt the wasp-friendly gooseneck loosestrife I have, but I feel much assured to know they're not aggressors and can enjoy it at the same time we do. It stays! And hopefully it gets moved! Before it takes over everything else!

What a year! Get rid of the yellow jackets, and their cousins move in across the yard! This nest was the size of a large cantaloupe melon and home to white-faced hornets.

Wow! That's going to a BEAUTIFUL wall decoration after frost. I'm jealous!

No way! I'm not even saving photos of it. I'm tossing this nest on the fire, after we have a good hard freeze. There is no activity around the nest today, but I'm still too chicken to approach or touch it, even with a long pole.

The worst part is, I believe there is a second nest of these evil things 50 yards or so away from this one, but I can't locate it. A killing frost at this point will be a great relief.

I hate to be alarmist, but this article today made me think of this thread. Be careful out there.

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2017/09/26/massachusetts-man-dies-after-being-swarmed-by-bees

I'm resurrecting this thread because I received this Christmas card a couple weeks ago. Not recognizing the return address, I couldn't imagine who sent it.

Then I opened it!

It's from the company that sent the brave man who removed the yellow jacket nest from my daylily bed this past August! It made me laugh! How many people get a Christmas card from their exterminator!?