Maintenance, We Have a Problem, Part Two

In case you didn't read about it, I have a wasp problem around my portable.

My portable, which has been there since I first showed up at The School 14 years ago and I suspect was there long before then, has a wooden ramp that takes you up to the front door.  We do have a back door, with steps, but it's pretty much for emergencies only.

And under my nice wooden ramp you will find wasp nests.  So, every single time you walk on the ramp, the vibrations aggravate the wasps who then fly up to mess with whomever is walking up to my room.

This is not good.

I put in formal work requests beginning in late July, and another a few weeks ago, and then another last week.

Nothing much happened.  Occasionally a custodian would come out, spray at a wasp or two, and that was it.  It really didn't do much except aggravate the wasps even more.  It was only a matter of time before someone, hopefully not me, got stung.

Well that happened yesterday.  I had two girls get stung walking up the ramp.  One got stung twice.  And of course, what ensues was near hysteria on the part of my kids.  (Yesterday was busy, we had eight customers.)  They absolutely refused to walk down that ramp.  No way, no how.  They were not going near any stinging insect.

Part of me doesn't blame them.  The other part of me, however, is constantly amazed at how freaked out kids, especially some of these boys, are over bugs.  Honestly, the squealing, squirming and hysterical flapping does not help, but they can't seem to get over that.  I'd hate to take most of these kids on a camping trip.  Proof, once again, that kids don't spend enough time outside, dealing with nature.

But I digress.

In any case, Coach Cool, who is the guy who does most of the discipline issues (and is a good friend from way back) was walking down the hall when I brought the kids in for a restroom break (after much hysterics about walking down the ramp.)  I basically unloaded on him about the stings and trips to the nurse, and how it needed to be taken care of NOW before someone with allergies got bit.

Five minutes later, the Lead Custodian is out there SATURATING the ramp with spray and informing me that yes, he'd crawled under the ramp and spotted the nests (FINALLY!) and he informed the Central Office Bug Get Rid of Guy (we have a guy who does nothing but kill bugs throughout the district...really) that he needed to get out here NOW and get rid of these wasps.

So today...was better.  Only a few.  Not near the cloud of wasps we used to get.  But we'll see.  I want to make sure none of them show up.