Before all hell broke loose, all hell broke loose anyway starting last Saturday.
After a very hot muggy day my husband waited until dusk to mow the tall grass near our shop on the hill. Some baby bunnies spooked and ran under the mower. My husband stopped ran to the house to get me. I dropped everything to run up the hill and see what we could do. Two buns were DOA and I set them aside and kept looking for the nest. I found the third bun unharmed nearby. It was very scared but I put an open metal cage around the located nest so mama bunny could return to tend her baby at night. After the all clear, my husband mowed far away from the orchard to give the rabbits peace.
This is the 2016 lawn nugget I saved from my dogs mouth. He had been released back into the wild long ago.
As the sun set I was putting up the poultry when I see my husband running down to the house again. Pale sweaty and anxious and yelling. I can still hear the mower and do not understand why he is not on it. Out of breath he says hornets got him bad. He is in pain and the mower is still running, but is parked. So into the house we go to see his stings. Neck, belly, shoulder and feet all got hit. I found tiny thorns in the center or each swelling. He said oh that is a thorn bush I hit. But the pain would not stop. So I took the "thorn" to my microscope and it is a venom filled stinger from hornets. Underground hornets. He has several stuck in and around his body. I removed them with tweezers and tape and sent him to the showers. Two days later and the pain stopped but the swellings all bruised up. I found a flattened hornet in his shoe while cleaning up afterward. It was very small the size of a quarter.
This has been a very angry hornet time of the year this month. Several others we know got stung this past weekend around here as well. One of the challenges of living with nature.
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