Minty Death!

If you click on the above link, you will be taken to a website for 'Planet Natural' products.

Wasps have been flying around lately. Since March, we had noticed them hanging about around the house between the foundation and the wood siding. Derek asked me yesterday to get some bee killer, since he was pretty sure that they are building a nest up inside the house. He saw far too many of them for it to be just a fun place for them to warm up in the sun.

Since we don't have any brake-kleen (long story, but that stuff melts their wings right off), I went to Fred Meyer to collect Amdro ant block, along with bee killer, and something for dinner. Killing a colony of bees can work up an appetite!

Among all of the products on the shelves, I spotted this 'Poison Free' brand of goods. Looking at the label, it is packaged very nicely, I was drawn to it since there is supposedly no harmful or nasty petro-chemicals or other nasty things, in fact has no poison. If you look at the ingredients it is very basic :

Mint Oil
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (its in detergents, toothpastes, etc)
Water
Carbon Dioxide

That's it. Amazing.

Being a good skeptic, I also bought a bottle of some heavy duty, instant death, big skull and cross-bones hornet and wasp spray. (Can shoot from 50 feet, and causes neuro-toxicity and instant paralysis in the bees, immobilizing them until they die).


When I got home, I gave Derek the natural stuff. He glared at me. He gave me that look like "you're kidding? Right? You expect me to kill bees with natural stuff? No way! You can spray them, I'll be calling 911 when you are swarmed'.


I handed him the bottle of death.

He smiled.


He opted to try the natural stuff first.

To our amazement, as soon as he shot it out of the can, the wasps fell to the ground, they rolled around slightly, then died. Nearly instantly. Not long enough for them to fly up and sting anyone. Amazing stuff. Amazing.

So Derek emptied the can along the cracks of the foundation, and up along the boards where the foundation joins together. Mmmm, minty fresh death! The smell of mint was heavy in the driveway. Amazing, truly no other word fits.

So, fast forward 20 minutes, I go into the basement to do some laundry. The *entire* basement smells of mint. And not good mint, overpowering 'I just broke a bottle of candy cane juice' mint. Wow, instant headache. The cracks in the wall also allowed the 'scent' of the mint to flood the house.

Now, everything in the basement has a smell of mint. Including all of my clothing. *sighs*
I smell like a rejected worker from a the York Peppermint Patty factory. As I type this, I smell mint.

At least it isn't liquifying my lungs into gelatinous goo.

The good news, it kills bees.
The bad news, it is Minty Death!