Most importantly, I'm okay. Nothing bad happened, it was just a little scary at the time. Now that you have the happy ending, I'll tell you the rest of it.

I went out this afternoon to put gasoline in the car. I haven't been driving a whole lot, and my car gets pretty good mileage, so it had been awhile since I had needed to do that. Enough of a while for a mud dauber (stinging insect) to decide that the area around the gas cap in my car was an excellent place to set up housekeeping.

I had no idea I was providing shelter for a small nest. I found out upon opening the access to remove the cap. I saw something dark, and brushed at it, thinking it was a leaf. The dark thing turned out to be the mud dauber, which I realized as it started flying away from its nest.

My next move was to get the nest out of the gas cap area, so that if the one who had just gone to check out the parking lot had any ideas about returning, he'd be out of luck. I was wearing sandals, so I took off my left shoe and batted the nest out onto the pavement. I used the shoe so any spare daubers wouldn't have easy access to my hand. Once the nest was on the pavement and I had my shoe back on, I kicked the nest away from me.

All this time, the dauber was just waking up. I will give it credit for not being too angry over the interrupted naptime. Instead of flying toward me, the bug just wandered around on the pavement for a bit, taking in the new sights and sounds. He eventually did take to the air again. I kept careful watch on him, because I didn't want any more surprises for the day.

As I stood by the car, pumping gas and keeping watch for the dauber, I didn't have to get out of the way but one time. The dauber apparently decided exploring the area was more important than showing annoyance at me. I tried not to make any sudden moves, because I didn't want to upset the atmosphere --- and I mean that!

See, I've never been stung, by a mud dauber or any other stinging insect. I don't want to break that record, so I do my best to avoid things with stingers for butts. If complete avoidance doesn't work, I go to great lengths to avoid annoying them.

I had used my credit card to pay for the gas. When I was through pumping it, I got back in the car and drove away. No harm, no foul, and I was quite proud of myself. After all, I hadn't screamed once.