The two selective hornet traps are still in place, and we have 5 and 10 corpses of Asian hornet queens in them. This is good as they haven't started on the big nests that produce hundreds of bee chomping progeny, so we like to think we have done our bit for the honey bee.
The selective traps are mostly doing what was intended and not getting much else trapped, well until last week that is. Now each trap also has a European hornet queen in it, and if the Asian ones are nasty close up, the European one is really scary. As we don't really want them around, eating us and what little fruit might grow this year, we are not too fussed about trying to release them either!
More scary than either type of hornet however, is an enraged Nibbles. This morning I took her for her annual vaccinations and M.O.T. and happened to mention that she seemed to have trouble with her left ear. That provoked one of those nice ear torches, then a brain scrape with a cotton bud - which produced a glob of the most disgusting black goo. The vet seemed really pleased and went off to look at it under a microscope, during which time I worried and Nibbles tried to see what was going on in the laboratory next door. Anyway, the vet came back to announce that it was just black yukky stuff, which needed to be rinsed out... Twice a day... With a cleaning serum and then drops and then dry the ear out... I tried to explain that Nibbles, who was looking cute and fluffy like this:
was in actual fact a Wild and Untamed Thing, who had taken 8 years to learn how to sit on a lap for longer than 20 seconds. The vet relented and now we only have to wash out the ear, put in drops and dry it out once a day - for 10 days! We may not survive!
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