Yellow Jacket Thrill

I have been noticing a good many yellow jackets for the past week. While working outdoors Sunday, I had a bug bumping around my head. It didn't dawn on me till he nailed me on the forehead. Man did that hurt. We found the area they were swarming around, yes we had disturbed it. We treated it and went in to cool down and let them leave. That evening, I went out to finish up. While raking, I felt a burning sensation, inner thigh. In front of God and everybody, I dropped my drawers. I didn't see anything so pulled them up, stood up a felt it under my shirt. At least these didn't hurt as hard as the head. Today there are still many swarming. We are too dry and humid and they are busy looking for moisture. I think moisture as I saw some cat ghak on the patio that they were covering up. Be careful out there....

Been there with the dropping trousers- ouch-pulled out venom sack.
May want to keep anti-histamine on hand
We are having way too many wasp etc. this season and will have to dispatch-they are nesting in the entrance way.-too easy to get into the house or the dogs' mouths.!!

The wasps here haven't been as troublesome but we get a spell of yellow jackets every summer. They nest in the ground and if I find the nest before they find me, so long YJ's!
Last summer, our lab would go the long way around rather than take the sidewalk beside the house. I didn't know why till I set a water jug in the flower bed by the house after dark. The next morning, the YJs were bumping off the jug. Man were they mad. I am not smart enough to be scared. I took a long plant hook and casually walked by snagging the water jug and removing it. Checked out the hole location and doctored it after dark. I guess every time Ralph, the lab went down the sidewalk, they bit him on the butt. I felt bad but had to laugh...

Poor Ralph!

I have never been stung by a bumblebee or wasp till last week. I was so insulted. I thought me and the bees had an agreement. Live and let live. I got it from the paper wasp. Apparently she didn't like me walking past the porch so many times in a row. I wasn't even on the sidewalk that runs almost under the eaves. I've hung clothes with the wasps eating fibers off the clothespins. Needless to say. Live and let live was a broken pact!

Hi BP Sympathy for the attack! The up side is you know you aren't allergic. I remember the first time I got stung. It was on the sole of my foot. I was home alone and scared of an allergic reaction. Went in, lay on the couch and waited to die, laying there, I said 'no one will know why I died' so I got up and wrote a note. After awhile I said 'Oh well" got up and put ice on it and threw away the note. Haven't liked those little devils ever since.

Laugh! I had a similar ''what if I die'' experience, only I was sawing a fairly large limb off the neighbors tree with a long tree pruner. It came down after I sawed a ways thru it, and smacked me in the head. I went in the house in case I went unconcious. Dumb!

Great for grins, afterwards. I had to laugh, sorry. Odd what goes thru the mind ~ or as DH says, 'what mind!'

Yes, afterwards. I laugh now. I guess if my Dad could survive falling out of the haymow and smacking his head on cement when he was a kid, I could take it too.

I've been run down by pickups while walking across the street, and I survived to tell the tale. But stinging/biting insects scare the heebie jeebies out of me. I know I'm allergic to mosquito bites. I know I'm allergic to spider bites. I don't know if I'm allergic to bees or wasps or not, but I don't want to take any chances. Last weekend I was watering my vegetables, and this wasp/bee/whatever kept buzzing around the watering can. Not me, the can. Twice I flung it away from me and ran for the house.

I have a number of wasps in my garden this year. How do you find where they are coming from? Usually, they make nests up in th eaves, but I've been checking and I don't see any visable nests. They certainly are not as friendly and accomodating as the bumble bees. I have a lot of those too and are they ever big; mutant bumble bees the size of a large grape.

Morning, Mostly the wasps/yellow jackets here are drawn to moisture. Especially when it has been this dry. We have so many varieties. Some have paper nests under eaves, one digs a funnel hole in the ground. Yellow jackets like to find an old stump underground, bees get in a hollow in a tree. Hornets build a magnificent paper nest. Folklore says the higher the hornets nest, the wetter the season. This year they should be on the ground. We have a 'dirt dobber' which looks waspy that builds tubes of mud on side on walls. There is another small wasp that fills in screw holes with some white material that drys hard. There is a huge bumble bee that bores his nest in wood. Enough of that can damage a structure over time. I have found most don't bother me till I bother them. The yellow jacket that stung me first was bumping off me to warn me away from their nest. I didn't listen and when he got tangled in my hair, I brushed at it with out thinking. Thats why he got me on the forehead. If they are threatening, stand still, if they are in an area you are in, just slowly back out. Don't run, swing or swat at them. If they are agressive, stand back and watch them. You will pick up a pattern of where they go or come from. Then, after dark, maybe you can eliminate the nest. They are just more of the Lords creatures. Just keep the Benadryl handy.... pod

Well, these 'Lords creatures' can live somewhere ELSE! :-)

I got stung 3x by YJ just last week (still have healing wounds). I was clearing the wooded area where we had decided to put our kids' new playset and I stepped in their nest.

I'm just glad that *I* was the one to 'find' it. Better me than the kids. I've had bee & wasp stings before and they hurt - but briefly for me. These YJ stings HURT for the rest of the day.

Needless to say, that colony R.I.P....

A long time ago, someone told me that dark colors tend to aggravate bees, so I tend to wear white or very light colored clothing out in the garden.

Odd how the area that was inflamed itches so much when healing. I do agree R.I.P. If they are in my territory, they are fair game!

Zoo, I agree! I won't kill any creature needlessly (oh, okay, except spiders), but I'm just as territorial as they are. This is MY yard!

beaker,
I wear white outside because it's COOLER, hang the bees ;-)

I'm usually a very live-and-let-live kind of person, and I have no problem shooing bees and wasps away if they're bugging me. And they're usually accomodating and move on. I just WILL NOT have a nest right where one of my kids can step on it. And this one was entirely too close to where the playset is going.

WH,
Poquoson means 'Great marsh'. And spiders eat mosquitos. Spiders are my friends ;-)

There's no need to expose kids to bee stings. I remember my brothers, Dad, Uncle and cousins riding in an old rambler in the pasture when everyone suddenly poured out of the car and ran. My brothers were all lumpy. Bumblebees!

I didn't know the yellow jackets stung. I was carring pop glasses to the trash at an outdoor b'day party and they just followed me, but never stung. I'm warned now.

I don't worry much about bumblebees, honey bees and most hornets....but those YJ's!!!! My grandmother used to throw mud on the sting.

I stepped on a bee, YJ?, three days ago, it still itches and burns. I guess when I removed the stinger, by grabbing it with thumb and forefinger, I pushed the venom into the bite. I've since read that a scraping sideways motion is better to remove the stinger. Also read that some beekeepers have to stop because after so many bites, they develop an allergy, because their antibodies build up and magnify the body's defense reaction. And that stings cause more deaths than spider bites or snake bites in the U.S. yearly. Be careful out there!

When I was a kid, I'd step on the honeybee too. Worst was in the apple orchard after it was mowed. Many bees. I held on to a tree with my foot up while my friend ran looking for mud! I'm sorry the bees lost their life tho.

If you can get a stinger out, that's a bee. And it dies after it stings you - one time only per bee. Hornets and wasps and yellow jackets don't leave their stingers behind. And they can sting you over and over and over, etc....The paper wasps (red, striped, hornets) are the aggressive ones, along with the yellow jackets that usually nest in holes in the ground. They'll go after you just because you're near their nest. Bees will defend their hive, but they need to perceive a threat first. And mud daubers, the slender waisted wasps, won't even defend their nest if you destroy it right in front of them. They only sting to protect themselves. So - I leave the bees alone; I leave the daubers and their nests (because they fill them up with cut worms to feed their babies when they hatch), but I consider the paper wasps fair game. I know they are considered beneficial (they take out caterpillars - good and bad - to feed their babies), but I have been stung too often reaching into a plant, and because they kill the butterfly caterpillars that I grow plants to attract - they must go...

I agree, wasps in the way have to go. Right now they should be looking for protein. They'll eat bugs off the car antenna.

Many, many years ago (I'm just feeling that right now), I was a five year old picking a beautiful, big, red hibiscus blossum when I was suddenly stung around my entire wrist over 20 times by yellow jackets. I was hospitalized for two days and have had a hate, hate relationship with them ever since. I'm terrified of the beasts. I'm certain they have a purpose on this good earth other than stinging the bedevil out of us happy gardeners' but I'm also certain I will go to my grave without knowing what that certain purpose might be.

That's pretty traumatic for a kid. The hospitol couldn't have been too much fun either.

That's horrible! My little guy stuck his finger in a "birdhouse" hole and got the surprise of his life, his poor little finger got stung, nothing as bad as that. Then Mom did a dumber thing. I brought a paper nest inside, cause I thought it look interesting, and put it on my shadow-box shelf. Good thing I noticed the hole, the wasp was just about ready to hatch and was making it's way out!

Whoa Prairiegirl, don't feel so bad. A friend tells the tale when younger (old enough to know better). On a cold winter day, he found a hornets paper nest. It was huge. He took it to a friends' home where there was a large gathering. After showing it, he laid it down and joined the party. Needless to say in the warm of the house, the hornets came alive. Not sure he had many friends left.....

OMG!

Well, this thing sat there all thru the winter, I guess tha wall isn't insulated very well, LOL. Springtime came, and Boy, was I surprised! I noticed the nest kinda shaking & buzzing, glad I had the presence of mind to get it out of the house immediately.

Brings Steven King to mind, in The Shining. I could have had a hornets nest to hang, but I turned it down. Just didn't quite trust it!

Really? That's my favorite author! LOL

I just got stung last weekend visiting my brother in WI. There was a paper wasp nest under a table. It hurt like the dickens and my arm was very swollen and hot for almost a week! My husband is deathly allergic so I am glad it wasn't him. He was in the hospital with his throat swelling shut with the last sting. Very scary!

Ouch! I used a paste of baking soda and water on mine, that took care of most of the itch and burning.

Ignore my whining then.

My wasp must have just nicked me. It burned when it happened, but I came in and put Raleigh salve and a bandaid on and it didn't hurt for too long. It didn't hardly get red.


(Raleigh is about the same as Watkins. We swear by it for pulling splinters that are hard to get out. The jar I have is really old. It lasts forever!)

Try vinegar on stings. It really helped me when a bumblebee caught in my underwear got me 8 times before I could get rid of it. It works on mosquito bites, too. Or just spray Windex on them. Both methods have worked for me.

Debra

I've heard of ammonia, but never thought to use either one!

Ammonia, interesting. We have bull nettles here. The old folks remedy is to pee on them. The ammonia kills the burn/itch.

fleurs, how did a bumblebee get caught in your underwear to begin with? You have to tell, or we'll all be imagining...

I did have a YJ fly up my skirt once in first grade. Got me on the thigh, and then again on the hand when I swatted at the pain. The school nurse told me it couldn't sting twice. I lost my confidence in school nurses at that point.

I went out early one morning a couple years back to weed before it got to be 95* again, and rather than start out with clean clothes, threw on the day before's.....sans undies, since it was already warm. Got way out in the back and was busy pulling weeds and a YJ flew up under my shorts. Tried to pinch it and only succeeded in making it angrier, finally gave up the pinch method and used the Podster routine.... yanked the shorts down to my ankles......hoping that my commuter neighbors weren't driving by on their way to work!!

We have way too many YJs this year, and I show them no mercy. The bumble bees don't bother me at all, they can be right near where I'm working and I just say hello and let them do whatever they like, but those YJs are not that neighborly. We have the paper wasps and mud daubers, too and they always try to build their nests on the front porch so we have to be watchful when they start.

Spiders are fine....except in the house.

I love the big yellow and black garden spiders. We rarely have them any more. One year my sister and I had to pick sweet corn. She went backing out of the row and just pointed. The web spanned the two rows. We didn't pick there, needless to say. Now I'm older and appreciate them!

Nothing like a bare butt story!!!

Spiders! Ick! Ick! Ick! Not only am I terrified of them, I'm allergic to them. I've gotten bit by spiders more than half a dozen times since moving into this house. Gives me allergy and asthma symptoms. I'm severely asthmatic, so it worries me.

I got an odd bite or something yesterday on my ankle. Usually I get big, round raised welts. But this time I got a red, raised welt that was kind of ropy and hard and irregular. It's spreading around my ankle/lower leg, but not up it.

Anything that affects my breathing has got to go.

Was just reading this thread. YJ's can sting in some unusual places. I was watering plants on my deck last summer. Had on a loose fitting top and shorts. Felt something sting me on the underside of my right arm, immediately followed by a burning sensation on shall I say a round rosy colored spot on the right side of my chest. Till this day the middle of the round rosy color spot refuses to "stand up". It is too afraid of being stung again. My DH thinks it is really funny. My arm swelled up from shoulder to elbow. Put baking soda and that helped. Someone later told me to put meat tenderizer.

Had a pot of mothers-in-law tongue by my back door several yrs. ago and had watered and walked in and out that door all summer long. One day poured in water and out swarmed YJs. They had taken most of the dirt and roots out of the pot and had built a 3 tiered next in there. My DH donned his bee suit and hat and gloves about sunset, picked the pot up and dropped it in a 5 gal. pail of water. 3 days later it took it out and would you believe some of those things were still alive. He dispatched what was left. This yr. we are just beginning to see the YJs. Have been seeing bald-faced hornets looking for food but have not found their nest yet. DH has looked around and under the house and outbuildings and dog pens, but no luck so far. As long as we don't accidentally found it. They are all beneficial creatures and I believe in live and let live until you attack me. Then it is everyone for themselves. Liz