Some of my biggest fears are bees and wasps: the sound they make, the way they fly around, basically everything about them. Unfortunately, I had some of them as unwanted guests at my house.

Last week, I noticed two large piles of dirt in the crack of my driveway. I thought they were large ant piles, but I didn’t see any ants. I covered it up and flattened the piles. A day later the piles were back, heaping full of dirt again and still I saw no ants. The next morning I took out the garbage and decided I was going to get rid of these piles of dirt again. There I was, walking to the piles and pulling my garbage can to the curb when all of a sudden this big, black, loud flying object came from the hole in the dirt and started flying around me. I gracefully pulled my garbage can and ran to the curb before running back to the house, still listening to this thing flying around with a large buzzing noise.

I asked people at work about what the insects might be, because they were unwanted guests. After some discussion, we decided that they are ground-digger wasps. My first thought was how do I get rid of them? Plan one: Wear a winter jacket, snowmobile suit, boots and gloves and go in with some wasp killer. Plan two: Do some research and find out the best way to get rid of these guests.

I found out these kinds of wasps hunt for cicada during the day so they don’t spend time in their nests, or the dirt piles as I called them. The best way to get rid of them is to wait until after 11 p.m. when they are back, take three cups of ammonia and pour them down the nests. This is going to be the best option. So Friday night I poured the ammonia and waited until morning. So far we have no wasps, and I call this a success.