I just stuck some dinner in the oven, and noticed the faint smell of wasp poison lingering around the appliance. Should I be worried?
Last summer when we moved in, we kept finding one or two wasps in our apartment every day, usually hanging around the vicinity of the kitchen windows. I would catch them with a cup and a piece of cardboard and toss them out the door so we could go on with our lives. We thought maybe they were slipping around the window screens somehow, but after about a month we figured out that they were coming in through the fan vent above our oven.
This is a round opening in the ceiling above the oven, with a grate to cover it. Beyond the grate is a greasy dirty fan that carries away the smoke of burnt dinners, and beyond that is a pipe that leads to the rooftop. I'm not sure how it is covered on top, but I assume its another simple grate of some kind.
When we called facilities (we live in student housing so we get help with stuff like this for free, its pretty nice) they came and took apart the fan, thus discovering an actual populated wasp nest built inside the pipe! They sprayed it and dead wasp husks rained down into the worker's open garbage bag -and on the floor and the stove too. Yuck.
Except for the fan not working for another month (it must have shorted or something) we were very happy to have no more killer wasps. Joseph was happiest, because honestly, he's much more scared of them than I. He thinks he's allergic. I'll leave it at that.
But now that the weather has been warming up we have been slightly distressed to find the random wasp wandering around our kitchen every so often. They're usually walking instead of flying, a testament that there is still poison up yonder pipe, but the fact remains that they're coming back! I can only imagine the surprise Joshua would get if he decided to pick one up to pop in his mouth, as he is wont to do with interesting objects on the floor.
So yesterday we called facilities again, and they speedily appeared with a can of wasp spray handy. The man this time was going to spray on the fan until I mentioned that the last fellow had taken it out first. So he did so, and this time, thank goodness, he actually broke down the nest and disposed of it. They didn't do that last time....something about how it wasn't necessary because they don't come back. Hmmm. Yeah, lets leave it inside the apartment.
Anyway, he was nice enough to sweep up most of the mess (the last guy didn't) but I was left the job of clearing more rotting insect husks out of the burners. I soaked all of them in the sink for an entire day to try and get the poison smell off.
Maybe I should be worried. Nah.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
I lived in Married Student Housing at the University of Texas for five years, and there were some very nice aspects of it. (it was cheap!) I can't believe they didn't take the nest last time though. Sheesh. Glad you got it taken care of, but icky to think that poison is around.
On the other hand, wasps in the home are not a good thing. ick.
I was told in an entomology class (actually really interesting if you can get past the grossness) that you should leave wasp's nests because other wasps won't come back to that spot. (Not that they won't go to the spot right next to it...) But inside an apartment is a bit ridiculous if you ask me!
We have wasps in our bedroom every year...tons of them, it sucks. I kill them with windex and stain remover...they fall down and start convulsing. It makes me kind of bad but they need to die...or they'll sting me and the babies. Patrick's tried to seal up the windows, but they're still getting in.
Wow, that's crazy! We used to have wasps in our mailbox when we lived in Illinois. Our neighbor used to catch them and put them inside water balloons.
We've never had wasps...yet, thank heavens.
If you're worried about the smell, maybe you could leave your fan on overnight to air it out while you're not in the kitchen. You also might want to get a fan that you can point upwards to blow more air into the cooking fan to get the smell out.
Good luck!
I can't imagine that the little bit of remaining poison would affect you - it's got to be pretty miniscule unless it's a really heavy smell. Not that I'm an expert, though!!
I'm glad that they have been able to get rid of the wasps both times. I didn't know that you were suppose to leave the nests where they are. Interesting. Still...I'd remove it if it were inside my home. Just cuz.
rhea and tirzah- yeah, its the fact that it was inside that bothered me..you know, about them not removing it. I can see leaving it if it was in a tree or something.
kiera- remember when our brothers used to pee on the bugs that came in their room to kill them? I think they used windex later.
cardine- awe, thats so mean to the wasps. And to whomever they throw it at.
missy- I remember that there were wasps in your parents garage when we were little, we were scared of them. AND unfortunately the fan is shorted out again! Thankfully its getting warmer so we can open windows.
julie- yeah I'm not too worried. It could have possibly been the parmesian on the food I was making too. Maybe.
No I don't remember that...I remember the summer there was a nest in the ceiling of my bedroom or something and there were wasps all over. I got stung at least ten times in one sitting...ever since then I really hate wasps. Before that I was fine ignoring them or throwing them outside like you said. Mom got me a bug killing strip thing you hang from the ceiling and by the end of summer there were piles of dead wasps in the corners of my room...maybe I should have cleaned more, 'cuz that's kind of gross now that I think of it.
Post a Comment