Unwanted Visitors!

I love being on the pier!  It makes me happy to just observe the different critters that live in or around the Bayou.  I have a hard time finding reasons to dislike any of the creatures as I learn from each of them.  There is always some survival tip that I can pick up from watching the animals and I figure that if I ever need to have that knowledge I might as well learn from the best.  These critters know how to survive!  They can find food during the bleakest of times and have no problem creating a shelter when necessary.  I watch...I learn.

Lately though, I do believe I have discovered one critter that thoroughly irritates me!  For the past week or so every time I go fishing,  I am surrounded by Yellow Jackets!  Those nasty, ill-tempered, stinging wasps that come to feed upon my bait or fish, irritate me to no end!  It seems that these things can smell a fish from miles around and will hone in on it with the precision of the finest of GPS systems! They also hone in on my hands when I have been handling said fish.  I know it is not wise to flail around when in the vicinity of wasps but instinct sets in and my arms start waggling around above my head like a windmill in a hurricane!  All of this movement just riles the Yellow Jackets into a frenzy then I instantly regret my moment of panic!  Luckily, I have not been stung...yet!  The wasps dive bomb my head and will hover threateningly around me for a few minutes before settling back on some piece of fish or ick stuff left behind when hooking a bait.  I suppose they are more interested in eating than attacking a crazy lady!

Yesterday, Mark decided to clean a few of the fish while on the pier.  The Yellow Jackets were crawling about in all of the fish scraps and even getting on his knife.  He would shoo them off and just continue with his job!  Me?  I would have had to smack those critters to pieces before cleaning another fish!  I am positive that the Yellow Jackets have a nest somewhere near the end of the pier which is right where I should be cutting grass in the morning.  Knowing my luck, I will find that buried nest the hard way!  Invariably, my lawnmower will be shoved directly over the small, one-inch diameter hole which is the doorway to the nest.  Those angry flying torpedoes will most likely swarm around me in a instance causing me to abandon the mower and make a mad dash towards the Little Bayou House and safety!  This is not something that I relish so perhaps I should make a survey of the area before I start cutting the grass....or....I could just leave the grass grow taller and taller and call it a meadow!  Yeah!  A meadow full of tall grass just blowing in the wind and buzzing with honeybees....ummm....Yellow Jackets!