Alackaday

   I thought today would be a good day to eradicate the hornet's nest, or so I deem it.I had scraped it off, sprayed it with bee-poison, and then, seeing a few stragglers, scraped more of the nest off the eave. I fully intended to totally get rid of all traces of the bees and their home. I opened the window, scraper in hand, and saw there are still 2 or maybe 3 bees in the nest; they are spinning in a circular pattern evidently engaged in rebuilding the nest. I left them alone----for now anyway.

   There are so many vendors now advertising to sanitize your home, from sterilizing your garbage receptacles to cleaning your dryer vents. I regularly use bleach and hose to clean the garbage cans.

   I used to clean the dryer duct from time to time, but realized I haven't done so in a long time. How hard can that be even now.  I seem to remember undoing the wire closure which connects to the dryer, and then shaking or using the vacuum attachment to clear the hose to the dryer vent. But now, the hose is no longer plastic and easy to maneuver. It is made of metal, now mandated for fires safety reasons. And, besides being connected directly to the dryer opening, an elbow-shaped attachment joins them. That figures, because the rigid metal is unlike plastic in terms of flexibility. 

   I moved the dryer away from the wall, to provide me room to work.Dryers are very lightweight, no problem to move. I succeeded in detaching the elbow part from the dryer, and after a while was able to detach that part from the duct  part. I straightened the metal duct and tried to shake out what I expected would be an accumulation of dryer lint. Nothing came out. I couldn't find any vacuum attachment that would fit inside the duct, so I reached in, and found it not full of fluffy lint, but instead soggy thicknesses stuck to the sides of the duct. I scraped off as far as I could reach, but that's only a small section of its length. Maybe a lint removal specialist is not a bad idea after all.