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[whisted]

[It is almost Horatio's birthday. Generally speaking, that doesn't mean much. Birthdays have always been an odd mixed bag--meaningless until the next one was twelve, and now simply a grim reminder that there were still years of fear to go. What's been... nice? comforting? reassuring? about the idea now is that it will feel like the flip of a switch.

A month ago, Horatio had been certain he wouldn't live to see his next birthday. Now--if, admittedly, in the oddity of a pocket of space-time that only half-counted--he would.

And generally speaking, that's a good thing. More specifically speaking, it's made Horatio's panic jump from zero to sixty upon his first encounter with something that felt too much like home to continue the good 'going to make it' feeling. So, instead of finishing up his master plan to get himself an apple tree today, Horatio is shutting himself up in his house and texting out to the rest of Starhue.]

Does anyone know how to get rid of hornets?
Quickly and efficiently and without getting stung.
They might not be hornets but they sounded like hornets.
Quite a few, although I did not count them.
-HH

[If anyone actually drops by, unlike most days, Horatio will absolutely not be out in his fields or scrambling through his trees. Visitors will have to let themselves up to his door and bang on it to get him to unbarricade himself from the relatively bee-free safety of his house.

The outside chance that they're absolutely just nice, normal honeybees hasn't actually entered his mind, but that's panic for you.]

Comments

[Text]

[liorafae]

Oh, do you need to get rid of hornets? I can eat them for you.

[whisted]

Eat?

That cannot be good for you.

[liorafae]

They're just fine for me. I can't really digest anything else...

[whisted]

Other than hornets?

[liorafae]

Ah...I meant other than insects in general.

[whisted]

Ah.

Are you sure about hornets?

Audio

[h41ku]

It's easy to kill. / I kill bugs all the damn time. / Tell me your local.

[whisted]

[Give him a tick to fire off his farm's coordinates, focused as best as he can on the small copse where the definitely actually just sweet innocent honeybees horror hive seems to have taken up roost.

There's a rush of static through the audio, which is almost certainly a very human sigh of relief.] You're sure?

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[h41ku]

My gun shoots fire. / Don't worry about it, K? / It's an easy fix.

[Zer0 gets there after a while, looking around for the bugs..... and is super disappointed when he sees how tiny they are.]

What the freakin' crap. / This isn't a good challenge. / Why are they so small?

[whisted]

[So they're not Varkids. They still might be tracker jackers, and as someone who could be incredibly prone to their toxins?

Horatio is very much going to stay inside the house and keep talking through the jPad.]

They don't need to be big. They just need to be-- a lot.

[h41ku]

... Fine.

[He scans the grounds of the farm, eventually locating the source of the buzzing. They're bumble bees, yeah, but Zer0 also doesn't know the difference between hornets and bees. In his world, everything is a threat.]

Time to go to work.

[He gets out his fire elemental pistol and aims for the hive.]

[whisted]

[That's a horrifying sound to come rushing across the speaker. Time to peek out the window...

...and see what looks a bit like a skinny off-colour Peacekeeper fire-blasting his trees to destroy some hornets.

So that's something.]

--thank you.

[shotinhead]

How big? Fire for the small ones, guns for the big ones.

[whisted]

Small? Definitely too small to shoot.

Is smoking enough? Or does it need to be actual fire on the actual insects?

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[anappleaday]

[ oh, dear. ]

Fire, water, or poison can all work, though there's no real way to completely guarantee against getting stung. Do you want me to come over to handle them?

[whisted]

I don't want you to get stung either.

How big a fire?

[anappleaday]

Let me rephrase, then: none of those are a guarantee against you getting stung, but I can certainly guarantee that I wouldn't be. I'm all but immune to venom, anyway.

You would need whatever is big enough to burn out the nest. If they've taken residence in a tree or in your eves, though, it would be very easy for that to get out of hand.

[whisted]

[...neat. Almost neat enough to make affirmative asking easy.

But not actually.]

I'd still hate to put you out.

Water, then?

[anappleaday]

It wouldn't be any trouble. I like being useful.

If you've got a high-pressure hose, yes. The goal in general is to kill the queen to prevent them from breeding; ideally, the water tears the nest apart and drowns it. Everything but poison is going to result in very angry workers, though, so it's best to stay clear until those wander off and die.

[whisted]

Will poison hurt the tree?

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[alloutoflove]

Peppermint or cedar!!
Alternately, they do sell chemicals for that but the other options smell nicer Σ(ノ°▽°)ノ
Try to deal with them early in the morning or in the evening! That's usually when they're the least active.
Also wear gloves. Bees don't like smoke?? Maybe hornets don't either.

[whisted]

Peppermint? Really?

Is morning or evening better?

[alloutoflove]

Mm! ₍₍ ◝(●˙꒳˙●)◜ ₎₎
and they have the benefit of smelling good, like I said!!

But I don't think the time matters, just as long as it is earlier or later. The important thing is to get them while they're asleep!
If hornets sleep... I think they do?? （´△｀○）

[whisted]

[Once the panic subsides, he's going to have... so many questions about the adorable smilies errant punctuation.

Right now, he's just breathing.]

Is there any chance Pierre sells it? Or that anyone's growing it?

Semi-dormant would probably be good enough.

Thanks, by the way.

[alloutoflove]

Honestly? I think Pierre sells *everything* in that shop of his Σ(･o･;)
it's just a matter of knowing where to find it

[ This is her being mild about the emojis, even. It's probably a good thing there's no equivalent of LINE here. yet. ]

No problem though ( •̀ᄇ• ́)ﻭ✧
I had to deal with stuff like this where I came from
not for a few years but... wasps are wasps. Hornets are hornets.
They don't really change.
(thank goodness!!)