“The earth is cursed.” – God
I guess I will never know why GOD invented wasps. I don’t like ‘em. Not only that, I can’t find any good reason we need them. If you find a wasp nest around your house you spray something on it to kill all the wasps, right? We hate them. It’s a universal hate. It’s the one thing I believe that everyone agrees on.
It seems they always surprise you. Sometimes you hurt yourself worse by trying to keep from getting stung. I think their only purpose in life is to sting me whenever they get an opportunity. Unfortunately, I have offered them many opportunities.
God said that the earth is cursed and we will face Pestilence all through our life time. Many insects are part of the pestilence we deal with. Obviously, wasps are the ring leaders of the insect wars against people. Chiggers and mosquitoes are really harsh to deal with, but wasps are the worst.
One pretty spring morning a buddy (DH) of mine and myself were going to go fishing in a small oxbow lake just off the Arkansas River. It was very small and all we needed was an empty flat bottom and a sculling paddle.
We arrived at the lake and pulled the boat out of the truck and into the water. It was a shallow lake with a lot of bush growing up out of the water. Bushes would extend out away from the shore line about twenty feet or so. On the other side it had cypress trees growing in the water. I would paddle in around all the bushes and trees that provided plenty of cover for the many large bass we caught from this lake.
For some odd reason, wasps built their nests in the many bushes that grew in the lake. We had been there many times and knew to be careful and on the lookout to see them before they saw us. From any given location on the small lake, you could see 5-10 wasp nests.
They were everywhere, maybe as many as 50-60 total, scattered throughout the lake. Most folks would shy from this lake due to their presence, but not us. We knew there was a good opportunity to catch some large bass so we went in spite of the wasps.
As we drifted out from the bank, I was tying on my favorite spinner bait. I knew there were bushes behind me in the direction the boat was slowly being pushed by the light wind.
Just as the boat bumped the brush I heard that familiar buzz very loudly behind me. There was no doubt to its origin and I immediately fell over the opposite side of the boat head first. It was only about four feet deep so I stayed under and pushed off the bottom with my feet.
I came up about twenty feet away. The water where I went under was covered with giant wasps splashing the surface with their wings wondering where the fresh meat had disappeared to. They didn’t completely fail as I had been stung 4 times on my back before I could wash them off by submerging and swimming away.
My buddy (DH) was leaning back and quivering as he was terrified because he could not swim and felt his chances were better to fight off the wasps instead of drowning. I eased to the back of the boat and pulled it and him to safety away from the nasty insects. About this time my back was beginning to burn from the stings.
A couple of hours later we were on the other side of the lake among the many giant trees. We had caught several bass and a few were near 5 pounds. (“A few” sounded better than the actual two we had caught that big.)
I was magically guiding the boat around and through the trees with my paddle when I came to a spot I could barely fit the boat between two of the mighty trees. As I passed them I was looking to my left not knowing there was a small limb growing directly away from us on the other side of the tree about face high from the water.
Suddenly the football size nest full of wasps was about a foot from my face. I fell backwards to get into the water but was blocked by the tree on the other side. That 1-2 extra seconds was all they needed. As I bounced off the tree to my right I was swarmed again before I could get over the side and under water.
I stayed close to the boat this time and pushed the boat back away from the danger zone thus saving DH again. I stayed in the water walking beside the boat until we had cleared the trees. I climbed back in and informed him that I was done. He agreed, and I paddled back to the truck giving a wide path from the original nest of fallen angels from hell that was near where we launched.
We got the boat back into the bed of the truck and headed for home and something to stop the stinging sensation all over my back and shoulders. Did I tell you I hate wasps?
“I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars.” – Charles Darwin
What? I’m not sure what that means but I think Chuck hates them also.
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