Pest Control Chronicles: Yellow Jackets Flew Up My Pants

Welcome to Pest Control Chronicles where we talk about all things pest control. Where real life pest technicians tell their first hand accounts from the field. So many crazy things have happened in this pest control life, hope you enjoy these pest control chronicles.

Ants

Pest Control Chronicles: Yellow Jackets Flew Up My Pants.

Let me take you back to circa 2011-2012. It’s summer in Marin County California (Norther California). I’m running a pest route in Sonoma and Marin County. I’m about 1 or 2 years in the industry. Im loving the job, love helping the clients, seeing different places each day, and building my clientele.

Then I get a call about paper wasps in San Rafael in the Peacock ? district. I show up, knock on the door and talk to the client. She explains to me that wasps are nesting in the eaves along the back of her home. No problem I tell her, I’ll take care of them. So I go to the back yard and I’m treating the eaves for wasp when I see that there is another nest in the roof jack vent! I think to myself, I’m going to take that nest out too! The client will love that. So I step back to get a better look at the area the wasps are flying in and out of. But when I step back I had no idea there was a yellow jacket ground nest!

The company I was working for at the time used dickies as the uniform pants. And they weren’t the dickies of today where you have skinny or slim fit option; nope, these were big, baggy and loose around the boots. At first I didn’t even notice I was on top of the yellow jacket nests. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw something dart out which caught my attention. But I looked down and didn’t see much. Then I moved my right foot only to find that I was directly on too of those pests! In a second the yellow jackets were swarming me, crawling up my leg and I began to swat them and spray them. But a few yellow jackets had gone up both my pant legs. I started feeling them bite and sting me. First around my ankles, then chins and calves, then around my knees. You can tell where this is heading. ? ?

The next thing I know I’m slapping my legs looking like I’m doing the macaraina trying to smash the yellow jackets before they get to my goodies!!! So I take off running from the back yard to the side yard so I can make it back to the front. The whole time I’m unbuckling my belt and taking off my pants. By the time I get to the front yard I’m pants less with a few yellow jackets stuck to my socks half smashed. If that wasn’t bad enough I look across the street and the house across the way is being remodeled by an entire construction ? crew. They have no idea what’s going on they just see a guy with no pants running from the back yard. They probably thought it was just like the scene from Friday with Bernie Mac and Ms Parker  ? haha

All I know is that was my first memorable moment from the industry. My first Pest Control Chronicle, when yellow jackets flew up my pants. To this day when I’m working in the peacock area of San Rafael I think about the day I had to take my trousers off for those damn yellow jackets. To this day I love when people call asking for me to take out a yellow jacket nest, it’s like a personal vendetta I got.

Bobby v. ALL the yellow jackets

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