Spheksophobia.

You don't know what that means, do you? Chances are, you know that it means a fear of something. But what?

Here's your first clue: the insect fun continues here at the Shelton House of Horrors!

Here's your second clue: Do you like our lovely new fireplace decor?

(That would be duct tape surrounding the fireplace doors.)

And here's your answer: Wasps. A lot of them. In our fireplace.

Our little wasp problem first happened when I was pregnant and I started noticing the little buggers flying around the house. I tell you, it was quite an inconvenience to have to put down my Taco Bueno, pause my rerun of Gray's Anatomy, get up off the couch, swat them with a magazine, and finish them off with bug spray. We had an exterminator come and take care of the problem...but it seems that now, almost a year later, our little problem has returned. I noticed them one afternoon while playing with the babies. I killed a couple, then gave up and retreated into the bedroom with the babies and the dog, shut the door, and called Brian with a pitiful, "Can you please come home now?" (It was already 4:30 by this point, so I didn't feel too guilty being a damsel in distress.)

The wasps come down through the chimney and escape through the cracks in the fireplace doors...so Brian's (temporary, and I'd go so far as to say genius) solution was to just eliminate the cracks in the fireplace doors with duct tape. I am somewhat obsessed with watching the wasps crawl around in there...as is Bailey. Every once in awhile she tries to bite one of them through the glass. I think she fancies herself quite the guard dog...

 

Of course, I don't have the heart to tell her that she would probably be on the losing end of a Bailey vs. wasps battle. Especially since I often find her like this...

Sleeping on the job!

These wasps are stressing me out a little bit. Every once in awhile, they will all group together on one side of the fireplace doors and I will think, They're organizing! They are putting their little wasp minds (and stingers) together and plotting a way outta the fireplace and into my living room! And I watch for a stinger to poke through the duct tape and listen for the telltale "bzzzzzz" of a wasp on the loose. But so far the duct tape has held. The exterminator comes on Wednesday. I do believe I will be taking the babies and the dog somewhere far, far away when the exterminating takes place.