The Fan

This afternoon I'm sitting in my house, reading a book while I digest my dinner and the rain dries up to a drizzle outside as the storm subsides. I've been home for about an hour and a half at this point, and for some reason the cats (who are never a barometer of normal) have been hanging out in and around the kitchen since I fed them. They're not begging for treats or anything, just sitting there quietly.

After a while I realize that I can hear this strange clicking sound coming from that side of the house. I stop reading and I listen for a while, trying to figure out what sort of sound it was. Was it water dripping? I have some dishes over there in the sink that I filled with water to soak, maybe it's them? Is it spits of rain coming off the roof hitting the window? Do I have a leak?

Eventually I become concerned enough to stand up and head over there. Coco is just sitting on the table, staring at me. Dahlia is sitting on her stool, staring at me. Ember is crouched under the step stool in the kitchen. At first I wonder if Coco is sitting on some plastic wrapper, or if Ember is playing with bubble wrap (both have happened with similar results before). But neither are moving and the sound isn't coming from them. It isn't constant enough that I can just follow the sound, so I stand there a while, tilting my head back and forth, moving from spot to spot, trying to track it again. Finally I conclude it must be coming from the floor fan.

Now this fan is usually sitting on my back porch this time of year. I keep it out there for hot days when the girls want to lounge and I want A/C. I brought it in over the winter before a big storm event, and it was sitting in the garage for a bit. Then when the weather began to warm up, I brought it inside and had all the windows open with it blowing air around. So it's actually been in the house for a few months now, and I haven't had any problems with it.

I crouch down by the fan and bend an ear to it, listening and confirming that whatever this sound is, it's coming from somewhere on the fan. Could it be wiring shorting out? It's plugged in but it isn't on. I turn the fan on experimentally and let it run for a little while. The sound doesn't seem to change or worsen when it's running, and I actually can't even hear the clicking over the blades. I turn it off and listen again. Still clicking. I look all around the inside and can't seem to find anything that would explain it.

Now I don't know WHAT the clicking sound is, but I'm approximately 99.99% sure I don't want it in my house. So I turn the fan off and take it out to the garage. I set it on my trash can and try to look all around the inside again, but can't see much. Figuring a flashlight might help, I go inside to find one (that takes a bit) then have to find one that works (that takes a bit more) then have to put batteries in the one that works so it actually shines.

Flashlight finally in hand, I head back out again and approach the fan. I wait for a moment, head tilted to catch the faintest sound. The clicking is still there, only slightly audible and sporadic. I click on the light and shine it up inside the fan and finally see what I couldn't see inside it before.

Lining the inside of the fan, up around the edges of the plastic frame, are bunches of little clay wasp nests. They aren't very large, just two or three holes each. Much bigger than that and the blades would have knocked them loose. But there they are and there they've been, hidden all up inside that fan, inside my HOUSE, for months!

And now they're hatching.