Futility is resistant... um, or something

Actually, futility is spending far too much time going through an internet caterpillar database (yes, there are such things) to try to identify that thing to the left, only to find that the picture that exactly matches my specimen (right down to the plant it was feeding on) is only identified as being from the Noctuidae... which, as the Wikipedia link says, is the LARGEST family in the Lepidoptera (that'd be butterflies and moths).

Knowing that my creepy little friend is some form or other of an owlet moth doesn't really help, you know.

There's a reason why I studied mammals. An elk is generally easy to identify as an elk. An elk also can't normally be found stripping the leaves off of my father's delphiniums.

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I have a dilemma and a headache. Since there's no chance any of you can do anything about the headache, I think I'll leave you with my dilemma.

Given my druthers I'd leave you with the headache instead, but see above re: futility.

The dilemma is this: The wasp nest appears to be in the soffit right in front of the screen door on my balcony. I stood and watched them for a while yesterday, and of course they couldn't have given a flying rat's bum that I was there. Why they (well, one) cared enough to attack the other day is anybody's guess.

Oh, but I'm distracting myself. Did I mention the headache?

Back to the dilemma, then. I bought some wasp spray, but I haven't used it yet. As I said, at the moment they don't seem to care that I'm around. It's possible they'll get more aggressive as the season progresses, though. Do I trust that they won't and leave them to their little waspy ways (which do provide a certain amount of benefit, from an ecological point of view) or do I spray the living crap out of the nest and risk being trapped on the balcony by a bunch of angry, not-terribly-dead-yet stinging insects?

The nest is right in front of the door, remember. And before you suggest it, I wouldn't be able to get at the proper angle from inside the doorway. No chance of a quick slamming of the screen to keep the beasties at bay.

You do realise that if they'd only left me alone I wouldn't have even noticed they were there? And now I'm contemplating chemical warfare.





Seems like there ought to be some sort of lesson extrapolated from that, but my head hurts and I can't be bothered to walk down that particularly convoluted path. You can do it if you like. I won't even ask to be credited in your paper.

Going now.