Invasive Species and Yellow-jacket stings


Thursday, July 25, 2019

Today was devoted to service.  The Volcanoes National Park is in some trouble as it was closed for most of the year after the huge eruption in 2018, and this allowed invasive species to flourish.  We were given our jobs by volunteers from the local organization which supports the park.  Our job was to work on the eradication of ginger—not the kind we eat, but one which spreads rapidly in the rain forest.  It has a large and beautiful flower, and proliferates with incredible vigor.

Because pulling the plant up by the roots is very damaging to the forest floor, the preferred method of control is to cut the stems one to two feet above the base.  The next crew which comes in will put one drop of poison on each cut stem which will destroy the plant with minimal damage to the rest of the forest.  We were issued loppers and gloves:



We hiked down and down and down into the caldera:



Finally, we reached the spot we were to work on and got started:


 After about an hour and a half, we stumbled on a yellow-jacket nest, and they swarmed out.  Joyce got two stings, one, unpleasant on an arm, and the other, terribly painful, inside her ear.  A little first aid wasn’t much help, and so Joyce and Victor hiked back up to the Visitors Center and didn’t finish our task.  Ben, however, really got to work and compensated for us.

When the group was done with its work, we had lunch, and then with the afternoon free, went back to the hotel where Ben joined the other grandchildren in the pool for the afternoon.  Joyce, with cortisone cream, Tylenol and rest, recovered well, and we then had a lovely dinner at a local restaurant.  Tomorrow we’re off to black sand beaches and the Kona coast.

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