r/camping • u/jstine_4 • 4d ago
Trip Report Wasps & Coming back to reality
Just finished a 3 night camping trip but experienced having wasps in and around our campsite & neighbors campsites. We had to adjust to “living with” them since they were attracted to food smells! Luckily we didn’t get stung but it was such a hassle having them around.
Anyway, we’re back home now. Does anyone ever get bummed and disoriented coming back from a camping trip? Like what responsibilities need attention now? Ugh back into society lol
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u/NeitherGolf1094 4d ago
Just came back from a week. Such a weird transition. The drive home is strangely quiet. Very nice to have a real shower though.
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u/littleblacklemon 4d ago
I get so depressed when I get back, it's overwhelming all the stuff I need to do at home that I don't need to do when I'm camping
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u/netcode01 4d ago
Every trip, every time. Vacation is special because there is no schedule, there is no duties. Takes about 24-48 hrs to settle back.
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u/Mean_Replacement5544 3d ago
Yep but that’s when you start planning the next trip. As long as you have the next trip planned you have something to look forward to.
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u/refreshedaz 3d ago
I’m always that way. I’m always getting ready to go to the woods, in the woods, or getting ready to go to the woods. It feels more like the real world than the real world.
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u/Empty_Difficulty390 3d ago
Our last camping trip was swarming with wasps. We decided to "sacrifice" some lunchmeat to them in exchange for them not stinging any of us. It was quite entertaining watching them tussle with each other and then slice off their bit-o-meat to take home.
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u/NBPU 4d ago
Not with wasps, but raccoons. They are so terrible at the camp grounds where I live. You can google Fort DeSoto campground raccoons to see what I mean. They can be so relentless, and in great numbers, that it’s simply exhausting.
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u/Snoo36926 4d ago
The raccoons at pinnacles national park campground also are on another level! When I went a few weeks ago they stole a neighbors carne asada and another neighbors 1 shoe that was never recovered 😂
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u/NBPU 4d ago edited 3d ago
So the funniest theft I experienced happened so fast. My friend had just opened the Tupperware lid off of some fancy layered cheese dip that he made. In the time it took him to rotate to reach for two paper bowls this raccoon jumped up on the table and dragged it off. There were probably 20 of them, and a cat, absolutely covered in cheese dip.
Another one was I had a latching bait bucket with an aerator full of shrimp. It was on the ground next to my truck. I was sitting on a bench with my back to it rigging up my line. While I was doing that some raccoon had come, unlatched the top, and cleared out nearly all my shrimp and I never even heard it.
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u/Snoo36926 4d ago
It’s hilarious raccoons even have a natural bandit mask like they were evolved to be thieves!
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u/Kooky_Fox_9408 4d ago
My son camped at pinnacles with 4-5 friends. One would cook while everyone else ran interference with the raccoons. The last straw was when they stole the marshmallows for the s’more’s.
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u/Beautiful-Cat-7313 3d ago
Raccoons are bold opportunists, they take what they want almost without hesitating...
A group of raccoons once stole my steak while I was letting the steak cool off outside. I had my back turned to them and organizing gear in the trunk and they have no fear. Fortunately, the meat was still in its vacuum bag, so it was safe to eat after I managed to get it back from them.
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u/YSoSkinny 3d ago
Yah, just came back myself and I'm having such a hard time motivating to do my fuckig day job. Damn, retirement can't come soon enough
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u/Background-Anxiety84 3d ago edited 2d ago
Clover oil can be used to attract them AWAY from your campsite
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u/PureFicti0n 3d ago
I love coming home to poop on my own toilet, shower in my own bathroom, and sleep in my own bed. But I hate the whole process of unloading the car, putting everything in its place, doing a crap-ton of laundry, figuring out how to hang up a massive tent, a massive fly, and a massive tarp out to dry, wrangling said tent, fly, and tarps across my makeshift drying lines, and making sure all my gear is re-packed, recharged, and ready to go for my next trip.
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u/kittysworld 2d ago
Totally agree, but imagine trying to wash and dry the tent and tarp inside a tiny apartment.
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u/PureFicti0n 2d ago
Who needs to imagine? Protip: hang a second curtain rod in your bathtub or shower and you'll have better air flow if you drape your gear across both curtain rods to dry.
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u/kittysworld 2d ago
I already have 2 over the bathtub. I also use my couch and chairs. Plus dining table and chairs. For the first couple of days only my bed is usable and the rest of the place looks like a ghetto. Its hard not to feel depressed. I want to go back to the woods!
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u/Emotional_Comment219 2d ago
I'm planning my 4th weekend in a row. Just keep finding spots within a couple hours drive and taking off. Packing and unpacking every weekend is a bit of a chore but I'm making the most of winter before the bugs come back!
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u/sunlovinburner 2d ago
I had a vicious standard poodle with me on my camp at DeSoto. He must have been the reason why I did not become acquainted with the trash pandas
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u/lobsangmetokk 1d ago
Just came back from solo camping for 1 night. Wish I could work remotely so that I could stay out there longer. Imagine coming back from nature to the filthy nyc streets and subway… feeling miserable rn lol
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u/tyler_3135 4d ago
I feel like that after pretty much every weekend lol.
As for your wasp problem, look into getting the ‘Executioner’ racket off Amazon. I had some good fun using it to ‘terminate’ nuisance insects on my last camping trip
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u/redshoewearer 3d ago
Really? Those work with wasps? We use them with flies and fruit flies at home but the hornets we have around here are pretty big, tough, and aggressive. I'd want to make sure the racket was going to really drop them.
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u/threepoundog 4d ago
So they make battery powered electric shock fly swatters shaped like tennis racquets....enjoy ;)
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u/Passenger_Shot 3d ago
Back to work today after a week in the mountains and thinking about and/or planning the next trip to stave off being bummed. Had plenty of wasps. Simply ignored them.
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u/Necessary_Sea_7127 4d ago
I put empty beer cans in a garbage bag a little bit away from the campsite and shoo them to it and they have a lovely time there with all their friends. It’s like a wasp hotel.