We had a small species of yellowjacket wasps build their paper nest inside my garden seat on the edge of the pond. We’d turned it over yesterday, to try to remove them.
Today, seeing no wasps, I handed my coffee cup to Jane, reached in, grabbed the small nest and removed it.
My eyesight is not what it once was, and it was dark in there.
Yep. There were wasps. Only one nailed me. Two Benedryl, Benedryl spray, and two Sudafed and the pain stopped and the swelling’s nearly gone.
Brilliant, eh?
I feel sorry for the wasps, I really do, but when they appropriate my pondside seat, I’m territorial.
For some of our overseas readers ‘hold my beer’ is an internet meme for a ridiculously stupid and show-off action by a rural fellow who’s had too much to drink. He says to his friend, “Hold my beer,” and then, drunk as a lord, does something life-threatening.
aka “Hey, Buford, watch this!!”
Owie-owie-owie. You are doing more damage to yourself lately; please stop 🙂
We have paper wasps that build small nests all over the carport and back porch. The only time I have ever gotten into a dispute with them was when I was repainting the trim, and was stung 2x; they barely moved even when I was using the drill to strip loose paint. We seem to have reached detente, although DH wants them all gone.
There might have been a seriously funny/mean moment If your spousal had followed the sidekick’s actions; as I seem to recall she despises coffee!
Hey! Don’t know about her, but I resemble that remark! 😉 Maybe a splash of Kahlua over vanilla or chocolate ice cream, back in the years when I wasn’t so very lactose intolerant, but that’s about all it’s good for.
I recall a time I walked up to an ice cream counter, noticing they had Green Tea ice cream on the board, and ordered a large one. The server asked, “You’re sure? You know what it is?”
Wow, my sympathy.
Actors use traumatic experiences as reference for their creative arts. Though it’s probably not a really new experience if you’re that prepared.
Ouch! Have you considered that perhaps mornings are a Bad Thing? I mean, mornings are clearly needed to get to the rest of the day, but perhaps one should not engage with them more than absolutely necessary.
Best use I’ve seen of that meme: “What do you want on your tombstone?” “Hold my beer and watch this!”
*snicker* Oh, yeah.
I completely agree about mornings. I’m a night owl. I think I’ve discovered the only solution to keep my biological clock from wobbling all around the clock is to acquiesce to being a night person. I eventually, perforce, got to where I could function in the mornings, even be civil before a shower and breakfast, but not altogether willingly so. The best solution for this seemed to be if I woke up in the wee hours when my farmer ancestors likely got up to milk the cows, before the rooster crowed.
i have not considered changing my name to Vlad, but I have been seeing a lot more references to Russian, Romanian, Gypsy, and Eastern European things lately online. (Including in fonts and graphic arts.)
Gee, maybe the fish were so frightened by the advent of The Pond Monster that they enlisted the wasps to go and get it? (yes, this is how my brain works when I’m writing – I am trying NOT to envision the whole conversation between fish and wasps)
Seriously, tho, glad it was only 1 wasp, and hope you feel better soon.
Hmmm… story title! Conversations Near the Fish-Feeder?
To be honest, I don’t let yellowjackets establish anything in my territory, especially nests.
Bald-faced hornets are nasty-tempered creatures that will attack with little provocation, and when they do, they exude a pheromone that calls the other members of the hive to come join in the sting-fest. If you kill one of them by slapping it or swatting it, it also exudes the same pheromone, which is why people don’t get away with much around these little nasties.
If they were say, cicada killer wasps, that would be one thing, even though cicadas are harmless, or tarantula-killers (but you’re not in the desert). But hornets and yellowjackets serve no useful purpose that I have found (as a beekeeper, that is), other than they raid beehives, sting people repeatedly, and generally cause lots of hate and discontent toward honey bees, because people who get stung automatically assume it was a honey bee. If they get stung more than once by the same insect, it can’t possibly be a honey bee worker.
also, the Sudafed is a decongestant, not an antihistamine like the Benadryl. I think you could have gotten away without taking the Sudafed, unless something else cropped up that caused you to “clog up”.
Meat tenderizer on the sting helps, the papain helps break down the proteins in the venom, baking soda as a paste would help, too. But I think the ice did the best trick, it at least numbed the area and brought the swelling down. The Benadryl will help you against any possible reaction caused by the histamine-triggers in the venom.
Is the fresh papaya better than the papain in the tenderizer?
Tommie, I’ve read where people use fresh papaya juice to tenderize meat, so I think either way, in fact, the juice would be probably penetrate better than any paste you’d make of the dried tenderizer.
Eeeya. Glad only one got you, and that the pills helped. My closest encounter with wasps involved a youthful walk along a forest path with a friend. She trod on the nest and they rose up just as I was walking over it. cue the shrieks and sudden leaping into a run. She got hit once, and I got hit … twenty-one times. Good thing I’m not allergic to them or I’d never have made it out of the woods. Curious thing is that those twenty-one stings weren’t as bad as the one yellow-jacket between the toes. Eeeee, gonna stop thinking about this now…
Brother was mowing the lawn one summer (hand mower) and ran over a yellowjacket nest. Of course they erupted like a volcano and chased him to the house. A neighbor was visiting, and the poor guy waited politely before breaking into the neighbor’s longwinded dissertation and asking for help — a couple of the &%*&!! had gotten into his shirt and were stinging him while he waited!
The proper cure for a yellowjacket nest is wait until dusk, a cup of gasoline, and a lit match. If you’re lucky, a raccoon will stop by later and clean out the remains.
Match unnecessary, and considering the time of year, most likely undesirable. Just pour the cup of gasoline into an old fashioned coke, or Bordeaux wine bottle, upend it into the hole, stuff it in good, and leave it for a couple days. That will kill the whole nest underground, without setting fire to the neighborhood. It’s not considered “green”, but I know it works and that’s the primary consideration.
Whie faced Hornets (same as Bald Faced?) are bad news. I kept getting them in my house and eventually found that they were building right over the front door. So I got uo before dawn to nail them with the super delux spray. Even so, one was emerging as I sprayed. Got him with the head sticking out. I left the nest/wasp combo there for several years, in hopes that the wasp head would function as a protective gargoyle!
My mothers immediate first aid for stings was household ammonia. Works quite well.
A couple times while I was a volunteer at the TVARS Rhododendron Garden at Jenkins Estate we had big, one soccerball-sized, round hornets’ nests. One habit of theirs I found useful is if I came near they’d fly right into me, hit me most likely on my clothes somewhere without stinging, and if I recognized the sign and retreated, I’d be fine. They wanted about a 5-yard no-trespass zone around the nest.
They gave a sensible warning, and I heeded it! 😉
Pence, there is a commercial product out there called “After Bite”, which is a pen like applicator that has common household ammonia. I used to use it when I’d get hit working my hives, but then I found out that the stings would take longer and longer to heal, and eventually, the skin around the sting area would start to turn black, as though it were stained. Nonetheless, I stopped using the After Bite.
Paul, that is a typical warning sign that honey bees use, too. Whenever a beekeeper is working the hives, and the bees fly into the veil or into the keeper’s chest, they’re telling him to go away. Days like that are unpredictable, even if on two separate days, the weather, light, etc., are almost identical, it’s the mood of the bees which determines the action. I found out, too, that you do NOT have anything which contains bananas or banana oils around a honey bee hive – that mimics the alarm pheromone that will just about guarantee the hive coming out in a rather large group to tell you in no uncertain terms to stay away.
They don’t like leather or wool, either. (Perfumes are a bad idea, too.)
We had a hive in the back yard, and some days you’d get one bee who didn’t want anyone within 50 feet and would chase you back inside. They didn’t usually sting, even when my father had the hive open (he didn’t wear gloves).
Any critter that wants to live in and around my house must play nice or get the heave-ho.
Also, for myself, I draw the line at over four legs. Mammals and possibly birds, OK. No objection to aquariums. Anything else, open to discussion, if I had a roommate.
I am really very live and let live with nearly any “critters.” I figure they have as much right to be here as I do. But if they want to cohabit, they need to play nice. I can get territorial once in a while too. 🙂
Heck, most animals, mammals at least, like me fine, even love me. Generally, the feeling’s mutual.
Hmm, if only I could find a Significant Other of the human male variety like that….)
But no wasps, hornets, ants, roaches, or assorted other creepy-crawlies, thanks.
I know there are people who like tarantulas, for instance. Fine for them. I am not sure how I’d handle that. At a distance, OK. I’m live and let live enough for that.
Ouch!
I hope you dealt with the nest. There might be eggs ready to hatch, a nice new generation of stingers.
We had, many years ago, a storage shed in back of our house, with a door that fit too tightly, so we let it hang open half an inch one summer. Late in the summer, my husband went out to see if he had left some gardening tool in the shed. A minute later, through the kitchen window I got a glimpse of him running across the lawn to the front door at about a hundred miles an hour. Thus was in his pre-heart-issues, pre-diet days; he was hefty. I had never seen him move so fast.
Yep, the wasps had staked a claim inside the shed.
We got a bug bomb and took it out in the cool dead of night, stuck it into the shed, and slammed the door shut. The next day we sprayed the nest until it dripped, allowed the kids to view at a distance (nature lesson?), and crushed it and threw it away.
The “wasp & hornet” aerosol cans work well. 🙂 Even with that short little nozzle, they have enough propellant to shoot up to 8′-10′ from off on the side. The other thing is, what is used in the insecticide will immediately immobilize them, “dropping them like flies” 🙂 , whereas your run of the mill insecticide won’t noticably affect them. 🙁
the active ingredient in most “wasp and hornet” sprays is a nerve toxin. What I would do after spraying the nest and getting the adults away would be to scrape the nest away with a garden hoe or shovel, get it somewhere that I could safely turn the propane torch on it, and let it shrivel up. That way, I don’t poison any birds that might think the larvae are good eating.
Well, I can report I’m fine, but drugged out of my mind. Two Benedryl was way too much. We’ve had a day. We’re supposed to pick up the new car tomorrow, and *we’ve lost the Subaru car title.*
I’ve never done such a stupid thing in my life. I deal in paper and paperwork. I don’t mislay things. What I think happened: back in 2008 we had a credit card that was supposed to be on autopay paying only the minimum. When we found out the actual accumlated bill we had a litter of kittens…and got a bank loan to pay it off asap, which, let me tell you, is a whole lot better interest rate! Since then we’ve been way careful, and have started the Car Fund, which automatically deducts from our accounts each month, which is how we have our new car…the fund has been running for years.
Well, we have no collateral but the car, and we used the Subaru, which means taking the title to the bank. A) We’re not totally sure the bank returned it. B) If they returned it, it’s not with the loan papers (long since paid off) because we found them.
We have this awful feeling it’s in one of the year-boxes of tax receipts. But we’ve searched them, too.
So…
I’m buzzzzzzzed (pardon pun) on Benedryl (the Sudafed is to keep me awake, but it’s not working well) and I’m not doing well. I’ve repeatedly lost the new car papers, which I do have. And it is possible to replace a lost title: we’ve got that underway.
Meanwhile my new computer is being a pain, since the pointstick toggle is too short, and every time you try to move it, you hit a string of, yes, bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbs. It’s like having your stick shift knob 1/4 inch below your floorboard, as Dell insists, for your convenience, so you won’t hit it. Huh? Of course I want to hit it…it’s what it’s there for, you blithering idiots….
Don’t do anything with the bbbbbbbbbbbbs. I’m too buzzed to cope.
The computer repairman is coming tomorrow with a new pointstick toggle cap–for THIS, they send the guy with the pocket protector. I talked to the Guy. He understands. Dell should pay him, so I’ve invited him out to put on a new toggle cap, which flips on and off with your fingernail.
And we may get our new car tomorrow.
We’re out of eggs. We have no breakfast and I’m too looped for polite company. Amazon disregarded our cancellation of an auto order for Terra Sweet Potato chips, so a massive box of those arrived, but they’re not on our diet, so we gave two packets to Joan, who’d picked up our mail for us.
Jane says we should go to the breakfast place tomorrow and eat something disgustingly off our diet.
She says I’m not to cook tonight.
The hand is fine: can’t even see the sting. Just a red spot. The Benedryl worked, but I am not of this earth today, and I’m not sure about the century either.
You ARE permitted to laugh. I’ll be sane tomorrow. I think. At least we’ll have breakfast.
I’m afraid this definitely qualifies as a day to have never gotten out of bed: were I typing this the same day that you wrote it, I would say “Go back to bed. Do not get up. You will not pass ‘Go’ today no matter how hard you try.” Hmm… in your time zone (compared to the East Coast) it is “getting up time” for the day after your Benadryl & Bombed day. Do tread gently on life today too. At the least there is probably a cat lying on the floor right where you hop out of bed and put your feet.
My first rule: Insects will not aproach me, on penalty of death.
We had paper wasps in Texas whose favorite nesting location was in Arthur’s east gable, right over the door. My father would go out at night (or very early in the morning) and spray them. (He’d kept bees for some years, and knew the routine.) The nest generally stayed up – we didn’t mind that.
We also would occasionally find an elegant little mud vase in the garage, where some solitary wasp had found a location it liked.
And then there were the cicada-killer wasps, which are the B52s of the wasp world. (Supposedly relatively harmless, but very large.) They build underground tunnels for their nests; said tunnels are about half an inch in diameter. Fortunately they’re also solitaries.
I get a kick out of the paper wasps… they like the worn out old red-stained siding on the barn, so quite often the nests have strange red streaks in with the grey and white. I’ve found on average a nest a year around here, in a good year I find THEM before they find ME. In a bad year, I run fast!
I can even tolerate the white-faced (bald faced?) nasty black hornets that show up every now and then. If they’re in a bad spot, a can of 15ft away spray killer and I’m done with em. Otherwise, eh, dodge em.
Yellow jackets, on the other hand, are evil personified. Of course, that association could be because as a child I found a nest the hard way…. Nothing like standing on the nest, then getting a dozen stings because they’ve gotten up your pants! ZAP!
ISTR bee stings are something of a folk remedy for a very bad disease, MS?
Rheumatoid arthritis, at least according to Sherlock Holmes 🙂
I’m so paranoid about wasps, which paranoia you have just reinforced. There’s a nest of them somewhere my husband’s rental kitchen window, of which he has been duly informed. From inside. By shouting. Doubt he’ll fix it.
Well, I can say the sovereign recipe is: ONE Benedryl tablet, TWO Sudafed, and a dose of topical Benedryl spray. When I went in to deal with the sting, the hand was swelling and the fingers were tingling.
Within half an hour both pain and swelling were gone, and today there is just a small red spot.
Do not take 2 Benedryl during the daytime.
Perhaps you should try fexofenidine. It’s a non-drowsy antihistamine.
Fexofendine is the generic Allegra. I take it myself.
I tried accessing your site yesterday, and my feed reader couldn’t find it. Said something was the matter with it and it was down. Don’t know what the problem was. Consequently, I missed all the tumult and shouting. By now, you should have the new car?
We have been having a terrible influx lately of flying ants (and just plain big ants). Zorro, although vaguely interested, is useless when it comes to catching them. I’ve caulked up the likely points of ingress, and otherwise am resorting to chemical warfare and a rubber slipper.
My cat’s not interested in flying ants either. I think maybe they don’t taste as good as the flies and spiders.
Here the chemical warfare has begun on ‘Odorous House Ants.’ I’ve sprayed several locations, the dang things were trying to infest MY ALARM CLOCK of all things, and I know they’re in the walls. I’ve got bait out in several locations and it looks like its starting to work, thank goodness! I hate using the spray, although I’ve found one that at least doesn’t smell too horrid! Its still leaving a chemical film the cats can get into, bleh.
One other thing about honey bees, they’re programmed to go for dark spots, which look like eyes, nostrils, and mouths to them. Being that for most creatures, those three areas are somewhat tender, the bees gravitate toward them to sting.
Research, informally done, by a beekeeper indicated that honey bees will also try to sting in areas where there is a sharp contrast between dark and light, such as a black watchband or bracelet contrasting against lighter-toned skin. They’ll leave the stinger in, which contains the poison sac, muscles that cause the two barbs of the stinger to go further into the skin while pumping the venom, and also a courtesy pheromone for the other bees that says, “Sting HERE!”. That’s why you get stung more than once in the same spot, but by different bees. Wasps and hornets, and bumblebees, all have smooth stingers, so can sting multiple times. I tell kids that when a person gets stung, it’s only painful for a little while, whereas it’s fatal for the bee.
One need only observe that all apiary suits are white. 😉