After I wrote that I had been viciously attacked by yellow jackets while innocently spraying their secret hideout with some toxic spray, a number of readers have advised me there are several ways to get rid of those pesky critters.

They suggested things like putting a sheet of Bounce on the ground or wearing some in your shirt pocket. Yellow jackets and hornets hate it and would rather swim the English Channel than chase you with Bounce on you. I tried this. But the buzz from the survivors swarming around my head was "nice try sucker."

Someone else suggested I buy a sirloin steak and hang it by a string over a pan of water. Yellow jackets are meat eaters and will gorge themselves till they are too full to fly. Then they fall into the water and drown. At the price of sirloin I would rather eat the steak and fall into the water myself.

Since the first incident, I have avoided irritating the flying demons but I know where they live and walk by their underground lair every morning on my way to get the paper. I am sure they either have a sentry or can hear my footsteps.

It could be my own fault. I have a set of chimes and every morning I ring the chimes to say hello to the world. This may be an alarm clock. As I tippytoe past their hole in the ground each day, three or four come out to investigate and one or two even do a flyby of my nose just to warn me they have not forgotten their fallen comrades from last week's sortie when I got stung four times on my warty bare legs

I can't keep living this way, waiting for them to gang up on me. Notwithstanding all the advice I have had from readers, my plan for fighting these marauders is simple. First, I will wear long pants. Yellow jackets prefer guys in Bermuda shorts. I will thwart the most determined ones by tucking my pant legs into my socks. I will wear gloves, a towel around my neck and a Graucho Marx mask. The mask is a must to protect me from retaliation by relatives who may have my picture pasted on the wall of their hive.

The nest where they lurk lies beside a railroad tie that has been there for 26 years. It must be uprooted and lord knows how many thousand furious meat-eaters bearing weapons of man's destruction will come bursting out when I uproot their underground hideout. It is going to be interesting.

I do not go into this battle lightly. I was talking about this to Hank Bakken who was a flyer himself. In WWII while stationed in France. He understands hornets and wasps. When he ate lunch near the airfield the yellow jackets swarmed over his field rations and he had to hide his food under paper plates.

Of course, I could hire some other expert in the bug field (Hank declined my offer of a job) but I have a personal score to settle. Last time when they got me on my bare leg it throbbed all night. I should have won a purple leg medal.

Then I got this letter I got From a Pro I contacted who has a classified ad in the West Seattle Herald (see category 448).

"Sorry to hear that you were stung. Its too bad in a way, they really don't want to do that, I would imagine that you got tangled up with them accidentally. Most of the time when people have problems (stings) with the social wasps it is by accident. There really isn't any rocket science here, just stay out of their way and leave them alone.

"Yellow jackets are a species of wasp the true scientists (not experts) have classified as being social. There is something the workers are about - they have an assignment - which doesn't include just peeling off from they're mission and chasing something around for awhile and then getting back on the 'beam.' It won't 'work' that way.

"Great to hear you're doing an article about yellow jackets. I know you can go on-line and get all kinds of info about these creatures. Some good some bad. What are any of the extension agents going to do? What's Cisco going to do? What's Ann L. going to do? They have no practical working knowledge of these wasps. They will refer to the 'experts' who are most likely standing on protocol and continue to perpetuate a lot of BS and ignorance about these wasps. Its great to demonize. It makes a story and it's safe.

"Recently there was an article about how to prepare oneself to go camping, (the) Getaway section in the P-I. Whoever wrote the article was quoting a North Cascades park ranger something to the effect that 'gittin' tangled up with them yellow jackets was much worse than tangling with a bear.' He was referencing an experience he had when he stepped on top of or into a nest. Gee, no kidding? Had he fallen into a bears den with a couple of cubs and mamma he would probably not be around. At least he survived the wasp encounter.

"Jerry, thanks again for responding and your interest. Regards and cordially, Doug.

"P.S. What I do with the venom is collect it properly and preserve it properly by freezing the yellow jackets immediately with dry ice. Ultimately the lab extracts the venom individually by hand-still in a frozen state. The venom is used for immunotherapy."

Jerry is out trying to make friends with the busy yellow jackets, meanwhile, you can write to him at publisher@robinsonnews.com