I located and removed a football-sized yellow jacket nest, which housed about 1,000 insects and larvae. Left alone, it would have easily doubled in size within the next few weeks, and there was a potential the yellow jackets would chew through the wall and enter the house. This was a complicated removal with some regrettable mistakes on my part, so after it was all said and done, I immediately and without being prompted by the customer told her I would not charge her anything. She got 5 hours of labor, a total of 600 dollars for free. We called and left a message the next day to apologize again and try to follow up, but did not receive a response. Instead, we received this review. After receiving the initial call at 9:15am on Monday 8/1, I came to the customer’s house the same day for a consultation. The customer thought she had honey bees living under her roof, but after a closer look I was able to determine that in fact they were yellow jackets, coming and going from the corner of the roofline at a pretty steady frequency, which suggested a decently sized nest. Upon inspection of the inside of the house, the location of a nest was in the wall or the ceiling above the staircase that leads into the basement. Because of the location, I knew it was going to be a challenge to reach. However, there was a clearly audible scratching and chewing noise coming from inside the wall, which was caused by the yellow jackets trying to make more room to expand the nest. At the time of the consult, I made one critical mistake: I misread the wall material for drywall, when in fact it was lathe and plaster. I asked the customer if she knew what the walls were made of, and she said part of the house was drywall, the other part was lathe and plaster. It looked like drywall to me, so that’s what I was prepared for at the time of the removal. We scheduled a removal for a window between 5:30pm and 6:00pm on Wednesday, 8/3. At 5:33pm the customer called the office wondering where I was. We were able to return the call at 5:46pm, letting the customer know that a previous job was running late. Once I arrived and before I got started, I explained my process to the customer. Since I don’t use any poison, I use a shop vac filled with a few inches of soapy water, which drowns the insects instantly. I sealed off the two passage ways off the stairs that did not have doors with plastic sheathing, in order to prevent wasps from flying into the rest of the house during the removal. It appears that the masking tape I used to attach the sheathing to the wall had come loose in a few spots, and some wasps made it past the barrier. Despite best efforts of chasing them down, it appears that I missed a few. For that I am truly sorry. I had a detailed conversation with the customer, explaining my process. Before any work begins, the customer is asked to sign a service agreement that clearly outlines all terms and conditions. In-wall removals do by definition require the cutting and opening of walls or ceilings, which does leave damages that need to be fixed. The homeowner agrees that it is his or her responsibility to fix the damages, and gives written authorization to do whatever is necessary to remove the stinging insects. I always try to work as tidy and clean as possible, but when cutting lathe and plaster, and maneuvering a tall ladder in a narrow stairway, things happen. In retrospect I would have put down extra drop cloth, had I known how precious the carpet was. The removal itself was extremely challenging. I drilled several small exploratory holes in the wall and ceiling to pinpoint the exact location of the nest. This is standard procedure, and the holes are very small and easy to patch / fix. The alternative is cutting fewer but larger access holes until the nest is found. Because the scratching and chewing noise was coming from the area where the ceiling met the wall, it was absolutely not clear where the nest would be. I remove just as many nests from ceilings as I do from walls, so both were a possibility. Because it was getting late, I suggested to the customer that we break for the evening, and I would return first thing in the morning. We agreed on 8am, though the customer said she was going to be up and home anyway, so “whenever” would be fine. We have a 2.5-year-old, so unfortunately the morning did not go as planned, and I was running late. We called the customer at 8am, letting her know that I was going to be there later than planned. After the removal of the nest and all its occupants, I plugged the access path the yellow jackets were using to get into the ceiling as well as the cavity left by the removed nest with expanding foam insulation, to lock them out and to insure a reoccurrence would be unlikely. I am not sure why the customer thinks that there would be water in the ceiling or walls. No water is ever sprayed into the walls or ceiling, it stays in the shop vac. I did have a very unfortunate accident while cleaning up after the job. The shop vac full of soapy water and dead wasps dropped, and spilled some of its contents on the wood floor of the entryway. I felt terrible about that mishap, and immediately started containment and vacuumed the mess back up. I was in the process of cleaning up when the customer returned home. I am sure the initial look of the scene must have been shocking. I offered to continue cleaning up and to wipe down any marks on the wall, but the customer became so upset it was clear she wanted me to leave. It is entirely possible that in the hurry I missed a pile of dead wasps. Because the customer was upset, and I genuinely felt bad for my mishap, I offered not to charge her anything for my services. This means she got 5 hours of labor, or 600 dollars, that she didn’t have to pay. This should go a long way toward professional carpet cleaning and the time she had to spend cleaning herself.