Alternate Title: “Well, ya got trouble, with a capital ‘T’ and that rhymes with ‘B’ and that stands for ‘bees’.
which is why I went with the other one..
Despite the inviting water, the warm sun and the cool breeze, I’ve begrudgingly spent the last couple of days running from yellow jackets and sitting at the table below plotting my revenge. There’s a real yellow jacket problem on Catalina Island – and from my web-based research I’ve come to find that they are scavengers and spend their days on campsites and boats searching for food. From my real life experience I’ve come to find that you can’t swat at them because the little f@*#ers will attack you. Adam has really stepped up, playing role of my burly protector, which has resulted only in him getting stung in the back of the head.
I asked some locals their advice and they recommended Bounce dryer sheets – they said if you rub them on your skin and hang them around your cockpit, they will repel the yellow jackets. So I went to the General Store in Two Harbors and bought some Arm and Hammer dryer sheets because they didn’t have any Bounce. As instructed, I hung them everywhere like a crazed voodoo priestess. As it would turn out, the sheets had the exact opposite of their promised result – yellow jackets swarmed to the floral scent in the cockpit, specifically my fresh-out-of-the-dryer skin and bathing suit. And so I hid…and so did Dana.
After hiding for a while, I decided to not let bee-related fear run my life and ruin my cockpit time, so I went back to the drawing board. I’d read somewhere that yellow jackets are very territorial, and that if they enter an area with an existing yellow jacket nest they’ll leave the area alone – either that or fight till death. So a natural and fairly straight forward solution would be to make a fake hive out of a paper bag. So yesterday, as Adam was weaving two lines to make a homemade snubber for the anchor – I was working on my own important project.
Here’s hoping!
Adam and Molly Go 
I’m dying to know – did this work? What an ingenious plan!
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This test is so far inconclusive. On the one hand, I feel like there have been fewer bees since we have strung it up, but perhaps there would be the same amount of bees present if it wasn’t there. I feel like this is a Homer Simpson/rock that keeps bears away/specious reasoning dilemma. Plus the other day a yellow jacket landed right on it and hung out for a while- but then flew away…there in lies my dilemma.
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http://ecatalina.com/news/article/Spring-heats-up-sting-risk
This article mentions that they are attracted to sweet scents. That would explain their attraction to those dryer sheets. Keep all food and anything sweet put away when not in use. Also, instruct your husband not to wear deodorant and do not wear perfume in the future when visiting areas with high volumes of Yellow Jackets. Monitor all stings and their reactions when they happen. That about sums it up. Hope this helps.
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