So there Karla was, on a ladder, sticking her hand into a large hole in the ceiling of our home theater when she started screaming. She didn’t just scream, she also danced. She danced the dance people of all persuasions employ when being stung by an insect. Luckily she had the presence of mind to get down off the ladder before flailing wildly. We made a bee line (sorry) for the door and shut in the offending beasts, later identified as yellow jackets.

How did we get here? Well, it seemed too good to be true. We had left our house unoccupied and unattended to for 5 months while gallivanting around Alaska, and we returned to find no problems. Outside of a few weeds, it looked pretty much as we had left it. All was fine for about a day. Then I walked into the home theater.

I couldn’t help but notice a large, black inverted cone hanging from the ceiling, pretty much like an upside down volcano. Out of the very tip came a constant drip of water. I walked over to investigate and squished into soaking wet carpet. Uh oh. I quickly turned off water to the entire house (I guess they didn’t believe in shut off valves to various parts of the home in the 1960’s) and began to asses the damage.

I learned from prior water intrusion experience in another home that getting the water out of the ceiling ASAP is crucial. A quick poke into the cone with a broom handle aligned with a strategically located storage tub yielded a few gallons of water. I cut out the wet drywall exposing a 2’ x 2’ hole in the ceiling, and was happy to see the water damage was mainly contained to that area by a leaking pipe directly above. Thanks to a wet/dry vac I quickly pulled another gallon or two of water out of the carpet.

I’m now very grateful I decided to bring along our large dehumidifier when moving from the humid East Coast out to dry Colorado, where there is close to zero reason to own such a device. I set that puppy up to suck out remaining moisture in the carpet, scheduled a plumber to fix the pipe and thought we were home free outside of some drywall repair.

Wet insulation removed from the ceiling hole.

Karla made the helpful suggestion that we should remove the wet insulation from the ceiling so the dehumidifier can focus on removing water from items that won’t be thrown away. Good point, and up the ladder she went. Unbeknownst to us, that wet insulation was the only barrier between her and a nest full of yellow jackets, later estimated to be upwards of 10,000!

The offending yellow jacket nest

Closing the door on the hoard of upset stinging insects solved the immediate problem, but forced us to push off the plumber until we solved the infestation issue. As it turns out yellow jackets were a problem this summer in Colorado, and every exterminator we called was 1) not surprised and 2) busy. We finally found one that came out the next evening to find and remove the nest. I’m giving a huge shout out to Nathan at Presto X for entering into heated battle for almost 3 hours, and not leaving until every last yellow jacket was dead and removed. The room had to be at least 80 degrees from being shut and the dehumidifier running for 24 hours, and Nathan was dressed head to toe in protective gear. He emerged at 10 PM at night dripping with sweat and covered in a combination of insect parts, wet insulation and insecticide. That was the best $300 we’ve ever spent 🙂

The nest had been built between the pipe and the floor joist

The next morning the plumber showed up and fixed the leaking pipe in 30 minutes, which also cost $300. Do plumbers need to worry that new homes are switching over to CPVC and PEX where anyone can make a join, vs. copper which requires some amount of skill?

So how did the yellow jackets get into the house into the first place? There was a tiny hole under the exterior spigot that allowed entry, and they proceeded to build a nest the size of a basketball. Our apple tree in the front yard provided plenty of nearby food. Unfortunately this nest was built around the water pipe to the spigot, and over time it put pressure on the pipe. Maybe there was a weakness already present in the pipe, the plumber couldn’t say. But it caused a pinhole leak that caused all the problems. A little Great Stuff on the inside and silicone caulk on the outside and we’re no longer a winter housing option for yellow jackets.

We are left with just a ceiling hole

So that’s where we stand now: the yellow jackets and nest are gone, the pipe is fixed, the carpet is dry and the hole around the exterior spigot that allowed entry in the first place is plugged. Karla and I have basic experience fixing small drywall holes, but we’re not tackling something this big. So the next call will be to a handyman and soon we’ll back to watching Game of Thrones in HD glory on a 110” screen.