I started work this morning, repairing some rotted wood before the primer is to be applied. But after about an hour, I was chased away by red wasps that have apparently built nests in cavities inside the wall. They began dive-bombing me and chased me off the ladder several times before I gave up. The only thing that saved me from multiple stings was my loose-fitting long sleeve T-shirt and my frizzy hair. I can handle visible nests but I don't even know where this nest is, and there are probably multiple nests.

The last thing I need is to fall off a ladder trying to escape a swarm of flying rattlesnakes. That happened to me years ago and resulted in a racked-up knee that had me laid up weeks. This part of the house was built in about 1915, so there are plenty of cracks for wasps to enter and exit.

I wonder how professional painters deal with this problem, which must be a common, since probably every old house in this part of the country (middle TN) is similarly infested. I asked a couple of local guys, but all they have ever worked on were modern, air-tight houses with vinyl siding, so the only painting they do is exterior trim and interior, and they said they have never had any problem with wasps.