Simple Suggestion #121... Put up a wasp scarer

They're back. Yes, those yellow and black plagues that take the pleasure out of barbecues, picnics, and sometimes even compost piles. I'm referring to wasps, of course. I noticed one buzzing around my composter this morning and was reminded immediately of last summer...

We were about to leave on holidays when I noticed the critters going under my new birthday present, our three bin composter. So my wonderful husband got geared up, took some chemicals known as a wasp bomb that we had left over from previous years, and out he went to wage war, successfully, he thought. Then off we went on vacation that very day.

About halfway through our holidays, I thought to call home and ask my dad if the wasps had left... and if they hadn't, would he be so kind as to call an exterminator? He did, and fortunately, the exterminator's fee of $50 included a guarantee -- because when we got home at the beginning of August, the wasps were still acting as if they owned that composter. Mr. exterminator paid us one more visit, nice young man, and that was that.

I don't want to go through that rigamarole again this year... so today I went out and put up a half dozen of my famous wasp scarers (read: brown paper lunchbags, a package of 100 is less than $5) in strategic spots around the yard. (I forgot to last year, and you know what happened!)

Wasps are territorial, so they won't nest if there's another nest nearby. They also aren't too good at determining whether a brown paper bag is a nest or not. So you don't have to buy one of those fancy wasp deterrents that use more resources than a paper bag even though they really are glorified bags with fancy wire frames and cost about $13 (I know, they are much prettier than my paper bags). In the picture above, you can see that I've situated one of my wasp scarers on this side of my composter wall. There's one on the other side, too, because that's where our trash cans sit, and I don't want wasps bothering my garbage guys, either. As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure... and what's even better is this is a chemical free way to keep the wasps away and save the bees. It's all about living simply, so that others (wasps in particular) can simply live... ELSEWHERE!

Go ahead, try it! Another simple idea that works.

P.S. See the other 100+ Simple Suggestions here.