I have some food for thought for any home owners here in the group. The past few days here have been an experience I had never imagined I would encounter... it was like something you would see on tv but never expect to happen to you.
4 days ago there was a massive invasion of hornets in my house. My husband had been battling them all summer with wasp & hornet spray, and we thought he had been winning the battle. (Please, everyone, if ever this happens to you, double and triple check everything before you decide you have won the battle!)
There were hornets here and there outside all summer, that is normal and we knew this yr has been bad for them all over. 4 days ago my husband woke up in the morning and discovered a kitchen full of hornets. He pulled out the vacuum cleaner, the fly swatter, and closed off as many rooms as he could and spent 3 hrs battling to kill them all. (28 in total) Then he went in search of where they had come from. An entire day spent searching revealed that the small overhang roof area over the bay window in the breakfast nook area had a hole in the molding outside. As he inspected further he discovered a small area of drywall that had gone soft inside, and a nice little hole had been chewed through it. This is the room where my 120 gallon goldfish tanks sits, with my prize fish... Freddy, and its an open top tank.
In a hurry to stop the invasion, he proceeded to fill the little hole with spray foam to plug it up in a hurry, also believing that the spray foam was toxic to them if they chewed through it. (thats a long story in itself) He went outside and used 3 cans of spray on the nest he had found outside, and by day's end was convinced he had won the battle. That was where the mistake was made.
The next morning he went off to work, daughter went off to school and I slept in, trying to recover from the pneumonia. When my daughter walked in at noon she announced that the kitchen & nook area were covered in bees and they were attacking as she walked into the house.
To shorten the story, lets just say that finding an exterminator on short notice is not an easy feat, calling every number in the phone book, and hearing over and over about the chemicals they planned to use in the nook where the bees had chewed through the drywall... where my fish tank sat and the bees attacked if you went anywhere near.
My neighbor came over with a large sheet of plastic and we contained the nook area where the bees were coming in. They had chewed a hole around the spray foam and were streaming through like something you'd see in a documentary on tv. He also helped me get a few garbage bags cut and taped over the top of the fish tank as best we could while being attacked by bees. For those of you shaking your head, please know, this was not just "a few" bees... I am talking about hundreds of yellow jackets, agitated and aggressive.
I finally found an exterminator that was willing to work with the fish in the house, and he came out later that day. The hive we discovered through about a 10'x 3' section of overhang, so when we open it up in a couple of months to replace everything we intend to take pictures, we know its huge. As the exterminator was spraying dust up into the hive from the outside, the bees in the house were going back into the hive through the drywall holes they chewed, we assume to help protect the nest from the attack. The exterminator assured us that any bee up there would die quickly, then we had to wait 24 - 48 hrs to go into the room or unseal the plastic over the doorway.
We watched all night and into the next morning as the hornets attacked the plastic looking for an opening. Tonight began our clean up after the holes in the drywall were once again patched, this time with the dust and plastic, duct tape, and if need be I'll add a few staples to it. My first check was on my goldfish, who is obviously suffering from extreme stress and low oxygen, but otherwise appears to be ok. If anyone needs an exterminator for anything, try to work with one who uses the dust vs the sprays. It is much easier to seal up and keep the fish safe from it than the sprays.
I began counting the dead hornets tonight as we started at one end of the room and began cleaning our way out... we are 1/2 way through and at a count of 41 hornets. I expect to find more tomorrow as we finish up.
I was very surprised when I called all of those exterminators. One of them became very rude when I explained I had 14 fish tanks to protect from whatever chemicals they were going to use. He bluntly informed me that he didn't guarantee pet safety, especially not fish. Some of them never even answered their phones... and then there was one who was very nice, very helpful on the phone, but couldn't send someone out until Monday. There was no way we could wait 3 days for an exterminator. The one I finally found came from the internet. He is 30 minutes away yet not listed in our phone book because of county lines. He went into the room with the hornets to get a look at the multiple openings they had chewed by that time, removed some things I needed from the room, and even offered to feed Freddy for me before he left. He took his time and was so careful to be sure Freddy was safe through the entire ordeal, I was amazed.
So, it is possible to get fish safely through such an ordeal if you can find the right exterminator. Sorry for such a long story, but when you try to condense 4 days of activity into 1 post it gets a little long. This is information you don't find often online, so I thought it should be here somewhere for those who need it. Never again will I say "it won't happen to me".... for anything. And after this, I am looking at my aquariums in a new light, thinking of new safety measures I can put in place now to protect them later should something like that ever happen again.
I am hoping that Ray, Giancarlo, and some of the other long term hobbyists can share some safety tips/tricks they have invented and/or used over the yrs, to help others who may find themselves in a similar situation some day, and also anyone else who has already been through it or prepared for it.
Thanks in advance for any contributions anyone else can make for this topic.
Dawn
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