I’m sure many of you knew I’d be getting back to this story. I couldn’t have jefbot stress out about the wasps at his parents’ house for the rest of eternity, after all. In Real Life, it didn’t exactly go down this way, but me angsting for hours over how to go about removing the wasps while keeping them alive wasn’t exactly exciting comic strip material, so I fast-forwarded to the good stuff. Let’s see if jefbot’s any more successful the next time around.
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Hey! The strip’s back after a hiatus due to the San Diego Comic-Con and some extreme fatigue following it. See my blog post about the convention, here: Back From SDCC. Feels good creating and posting JEFbot again!
Oh look, a new comic. o.O
Also, well played Mombot. I would have done the same. 😀
yep – i felt a little rusty getting started, but after about 10 minutes, it felt good to be writing and drawing JEFbot again, TCG!
and check you out: you just achieved the Shades of Firsting! wear them well, since these come with a beekeeper’s veil attached for all your wasp-fighting needs:
😎
Woohoo! My second pair!
WOO! congrats! 😀
Inviso-shades of seconding. xD
Welcome back from the Con! Would have absolutely gone to the botbooth, but the whole “in another country” thing got in the way.
I can never be so calm about flying bugs like you. There was this bee flying around this window inside the house, and I was assigned to get it out. I spent a solid half-hour standing next to the window holding a jar just staring at it. After I caught it, I realized that I was gonna have to open the jar eventually. Thing is, the jar was a Gerber, the small one. I felt like a loser after all the fuss I made. 😐
the Inviso-Shades of Seconding are yours, ShadowShuffler. here:
feels good to be back from the con, but i’m already getting the itch to go back. hopefully you’ll make it to the BOTbooth at a con soon!
and i’m sure you and bot could compare similar bee/wasp stories. you’ll see exactly why in the very next strip. 🙂
Haha love the peaceful approach to bug control. I’m the same way.
i do have a soft spot for ’em, Zac. as long as they don’t break the truce.
XD
I’m always on hose-the-wasps detail when someone else wants to go outside, but I haven’t prematurely sprayed anyone… Yet.
heh. well, in the future if someone gets “accidentally” sprayed in the back of the head, you can always point them to this strip, Rinthia. 😉
Welcome Home and I hope you are well rested!
GOOOOOOOOD Morning BOTiverse! And Happy Friday! My second favorite F word….
About to dive into the Exhaulted One blog post all about the Con.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
it’s been a week and i STILL don’t feel rested, Pixie! probably cuz i had to go into the office the day after i got back from San Diego. i should of taken a couple days after the con to just CHILL. i’ll have to remember next year. 🙂
I’m not sure if it would be better or worse for ‘bot to have Lor as back up . . . She’d keep her cool, and her aim is no doubt lethal — but who would she be aiming at?
at least Lor would have a less lethal aim than Xinda, Sarah W! i don’t think Xin can be trusted to hold anything with a trigger. 🙂
I thought of Xinda and shuddered a little. But Lor’s still ticked about the Spider-thingies, right?
Suuuuurrrrre it was an accident. I can totally see Mombot doing that on purpose just for the fun of it. I know *I* would! 😀
I’m glad you’re back and recovered from ComicCon. I need to go read your post now! I hope you had a great time and sold LOTS of stuff and met lots of cool people.
ha! yes, it’s entirely possible Mombot did that on purpose to poor ol’ bot, Shanna. most likely she just has a nervous trigger finger, though. heheh. i should probably warn Taranchilla not to let you get behind him with a garden hose!
and thanks for reading the post about Comic-Con – i had an awesome time! 😀
My wasp removal plan usually involves a can a wasp spray in one hand…..
and an acetylene torch in the other. There are no survivors.
i probably should’ve employed your method, 52pickup – although no doubt something would’ve gone wrong.
is it creepy of me if i said that i totally love mombot expression in the last panel? so kawai!!
naw, not too creepy, jf#300 – i totally wanted Mombot to look cute/sympathetic/nervous/embarrassed in that last panel!
This Is why I don’t trust people using hoses… If you know them you have about a 60% of them using it on you.. Which is why my plan is to always stand behind them, so they end up having to decide if it’s worth getting wet as well.. I’m a big fan of leaving people with options which work out well for me or bad for both. If i can help it, that is..
As for getting rid of insects my scream gets pretty high when I’m near any type except for bees or ants so I could never go about the humane way of capturing wasps.
you must’ve known some of the kids around my neighborhood, Satoshieyes – if one of us had the garden hose, chances are, someone was getting wet. amazing how much fun water is when you’re young! 🙂
I wonder what’s to prevent the wasps from building a new nest in the same spot? Do they know they’ve just been moved or do they just think something destroyed their homes and they need to rebuild? A Jeftastrophe so to speak.
i was afraid of this very thing, TPC; i’ve been keeping an eye out for the wasps ever since i took the nest down, so i can take it out early if they start rebuilding!
I had a run-in similar to this not too long ago. I was swapping out a bunch of those 5-foot tall oxygen cylinders for some maintenance equipment, and we keep the cylinders in locked big steel cages outside. One cage for new cylinders, one for depleted cylinders. There were 8 cylinders total to change, and these things weigh about 100 lbs each.
Perched up in the corner of the new cylinder cage was a huge wasp nest, probably a solid 8 inches in diameter just SWARMING with the buggers. Every time you moved a cylinder it would make a ridiculous amount of noise and shake the entire cage, which would send the wasps into a frenzy.
To make matters worse, in the depleted cage there was ANOTHER, albeit smaller, nest that sat right about chest level. At least the one in the new cage was a few feet over our heads, this was dead center of it all, meaning we had to work around it.
The coup de grace came when we were almost done staging the new cylinders to be loaded onto the equipment. Each cylinder has a steel cap to protect the valve at the top from being broken off, and as we swap them out, we trade the caps from the new cylinders to the old cylinders. My partner started unscrewing one of the caps, and as he turned, wasps were pouring out of the thing.
Finally, after much frantic running and dancing about, we got the cap off and were able to find the source of the wasps: ANOTHER nest nestled up inside, although apparently we had managed to uh… “drive” the occupants all off.
How we managed to finish changing the 8 cylinders without a single sting between the two of us is beyond me, but I will never forget that day. I’ve never been so nervous in my whole life.
Great story! You’re way braver than I am, I don’t think I’d even get close to the cages if I knew a swarm of wasps were there.
yep. Alexander gets the win for bravery, for sure.
yikes! EIGHT INCHES!? that’s WAY bigger than the nest i had to deal with, Alexander. i think at that point i would’ve had to just go in with a beekeeper’s suit and a can of Raid. 🙁
glad you managed to finish your task without anyone getting stung!
Yeah it was an adventure, to say the least. I had long sleeves, gloves, pants, and steel-toed boots on, but my head was completely exposed. And there’s always that chance of one flying down your shirt or up your sleeves or something where it sits and panics and stings the crap out of you until you either swat it dead leaving a mushy bug mess under your clothing or manage to shake it out.
Sucks too cause we had to rush the cylinder change, so we didn’t have the time to be gentle and prevent spazzing the wasps out. We needed the equipment up and running for use before the shift ended, and what would have normally been a simple half hour procedure was already taking almost twice as long cause we spent a bunch of time running and screaming like maniacs.
Just try to imagine two supposedly professional Airmen dancing around like they’re on fire fighting off ninja monkeys, and that pretty much sums up that particular afternoon.
Ha Ha. I love the use of blue in the third panel. Really adds to the feel of getting splashed by your mom in the back. 🙂
thanks, Saeed! i’m always tweaking the “timing” of the strip, so i’m glad you dug that third panel. 🙂
While my usual method is to destroy the nest (it’s no big loss, there are plenty of others around to take up the insect eating slack), I have to ask, what is the plan once the nest is in the jar? Are you going to glue it to a branch somewhere?
well, in Real Life, the plan was to somehow get the nest in the jar, Roborat, then throw the jar in some nearby bushes, then run into the house and hope the wasps had abandoned the nest by morning. as we’ll see in the next strip (which doesn’t necessarily mimic Real Life), the plans go awry.
Oh, never thought of that. I was thinking that you were going to try and relocate them, and for the life of me, couldn’t figure out how you were going to put the nest up without being stung. The best I had come up with was putting a bunch of superglue on a branch, throw the nest onto it, and run.
My mom would be the same way. The thing being that she’s severely allergic. I’m not so lucky me, I get to deal with it. Also, I get to get rid of other creepy crawlies, spiders, mice and the like. 😛
luckily, i don’t think i’m allergic to wasp stings, DJ, and i hope no other family members are, either. let’s hope we don’t find out anytime soon. 😉
Right, nervous, got it. I would’ve done the same thing though, just when the other person turned around I’d just grin at them a laugh a little. Then depending on the person I’d have to protect the hose as they’d try to get it to return the favor all while I keep spraying them with it. That or they laugh a little too and walk off out of range of the hose.
BTW: I’m missing Los Angeles’s weather of highs in the mid 80’s and a constant cool breeze. Texas is a killer with it’s highs in the 100’s and a very infrequent somewhat cool breeze.
doesn’t that always seem to be the case, GardeBlaze – someone always gets squirted and then it’s a mad dash for the nozzle or faucet while minimalizing getting soaked. 🙂
and, yes – weather in L.A. is pretty nice right now. a bit warm but nothing compared to Texas!
HEY! Sorry I haven’t been on in a while. We lost the ‘net again. May be a while before we get it back, so I’ll be using library computers to check in and stuff. VERY NICE Mombot! That gag was obvious, but funny. The classics always are. I’ll keep in touch as often as possible. Hopefully the lack of ‘net won’t last too long.
thanks, KB – glad you liked the strip! also glad to see you back here – sorry to hear about your ‘net outage but glad you still have access at your library. 🙂
You wanted to keep them alive? what for? Sure getting them away in one big jar is preferable, but they will be agitated anyway so feel free to take out the stragglers who stayed out of jar…
i’m just that way, Maryz! i just hate killing things – including creepy, crawly, buzzing, stinging things – unless i have to. and no doubt those wasps are gonna be pretty agitated if/when bot gets them trapped in that jar!
Welcome back! I’m so glad SDCC went so well (except for the stupid printers being stupid about books).
And yeah, I don’t hand a hose to my family members when my back’s turned. I don’t trust any of them enough to know they won’t get me.
thanks, T! while i had an awesome time at SDCC, it’s good to be back in my own place makin’ comic strips again!
and Mombot can normally be trusted – she just has a nervous trigger finger, apparently. 🙂
There is a hose in the garden at my Mothers house. I have learned not to try and play with the dog outside as my mother is malicious and will spray me.
In that light, I feel great sympathy for Bot right now, and I expect a moment of silence for our brothers also soaked.
Good to be back!
ha! i love that your mom can’t help but spray you if you’re outside and within squirt-distance, AngelSquid! but, as they say – turnabout’s fair play, so if you catch her outside, you know what to do. 😉
Heard the weather there is hot JB, at least the hose is cool and refreshing right? I didn’t realise the Wasp problem hasn’t ended, and here I thought you acceded to my suggestion to kill them with fire
It’s always a bit hard for me to kill things, bugs included. I happen to have grown up pretty deep in a forested area, so I watched a lot of wild life grow up, that’s not to say I won’t eat meat or anything, but killing a animal seems awkward for me, more so when I have had a lot of pet dogs as a child. For things like this for wasp I admit I am a little less careful, normally because I just have to wait till most of them are gone (they don’t stay in those things all day unless you leave the thing to get MASSIVE, luckily we don’t wait that long.) and knock it down.
LOL!! Mom would totally do that! Mombot and Jefbot are quite a pair! They’re so funny together.
come now bot u cant let the person with the itchy trigger finger hold ur six