Sun Porch of

[rowyn]

When my house was originally built, it had a basement but no interior staircase, only an exterior door. At some point before I bought the house 15 years ago, amateurs added an extension, pretty much for the sole purpose of enclosing a stairwell to the basement. It has electric lights but no outlets and no heat. The shingles from the original exterior are still in place on the inner wall of the extension. There's some space in addition to the stairs, but it's pretty much an overgrown hall. On the main floor, in the space behind the stairwell that was billed as a "sun porch", we put the cat's litter boxes and a bunch of miscellaneous junk we don't have any other place for and never use.

Several days ago, I came home to find an enormous pool of liquid in the middle of the floor in the cat's area, surrounded by litter boxes. It looked like water and had no odor I could detect. It looked like more liquid than one cat could reasonably contain. The ceiling and all walls were dry. The puddle did not extend to the walls.

???

I cleaned it up. Maybe Lut or I had sleep-walked, spilled a glass of water there, put the glass away, and left the puddle. I got nothin'.

The puddle has not returned since.

Today, I went to clean the litter boxes. A dying wasp was on the floor among the litter boxes. I stepped on it to finish off the dying process.

Then I noticed another dying wasp.

And a wasp corpse. And another wasp corpse. And

WHY DID A SMALL NEST OF WASPS COME INTO MY HOUSE TO DIE

Poll #19745 WHAT THE HECK

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

View Respondents

WHY

View Answers

There is a natural spring in the middle of the floor with an invisible trapdoor. The wasps built a nest down there. The cold snap drove them to the main floor but not fast enough to save them.
0 (0.0%)

The wasps brought the water in tiny buckets and then took a really really long time drowning. Also, they hid while you cleaned it up.
5 (35.7%)

Like Lut, the house has cancer. Wasps and puddles are its tumors.
1 (7.1%)

Remember the Basement of Doom? It's spreading.
4 (28.6%)

Ghosts
2 (14.3%)

Demons
0 (0.0%)

House actually build atop the Hellmouth
2 (14.3%)

WHAT

View Answers

Have you considered cleaning the litter box more often?
0 (0.0%)

Or just, you know, cleaning in general. Maybe the wasps are nesting in all that stuff you don't use.
1 (7.7%)

Maybe the house needs chemo.
0 (0.0%)

Do nothing and the ghosts will let you be. And kill the wasps for you. You don't want HEALTHY wasps next time, do you???
4 (30.8%)

Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
8 (61.5%)

Comments

[archangelbeth]

We have wasps sometimes come into the master bathroom through the humidity-removal-fan. I've seen them do it, making a "D:" face. Then I trap them in a cup, slide paper under it, and release them outside. I would like to say that's because I respect all living things when I can, but really it's because the other solution is to squish them and that's just too gross and has most of the same problems of trying to catch them without getting stung.

[rowyn]

ahhhhhhhhh

I want the wasps to continue to be mostly dead by the time I find them if this happens again but EVEN BETTER DO NOT HAPPEN AGAIN.

D:

[archangelbeth]

FINGERS CROSSED!

[xyzzysqrl]

I would guess... Something above (or given the state of the ceiling, below, although perhaps the ceiling just dried out faster) that doesn't normally leak reached capacity and gave out, and the leaking process went through a wasp nest out of sight on the way.

It's a really basic guess, though.

[rowyn]

Ceilings/walls leaking enough to get that much water on the floor stay wet and show damage, though. I can totally buy the wasps getting in through a gap in the wall or the windows, but water getting through that way would leave more of a trail. O_o

[catofalltrades]

I am enjoying that regardless of why we think this is happening, a majority favor nuking from orbit. XD

[rowyn]

Well.

It IS the only way to be sure.

c_c

[makovette]

THIS :D

Mako