out of commission from a wasp sting

[s219]

In my continuing quest to accumulate more dumb injuries as I age, I'm temporarily one-handed since getting stung on the left wrist Friday morning. My left hand looks like an inflated rubber glove and is useless right now. I swear, this is as bad as the log splitter injury I had a few years ago since all my fingers are immobilized (hurts as bad too, but no pain pills this time). Like then, it makes me appreciate folks who learn to work with a handicap or permanent injury, because I am just not good at it (and I ran out of one-handed chores).

They say this sort of local reaction peaks around 48 hours after the sting, so hopefully I will be turning the corner soon. I've been stung many times before but this is the first time I've had such a reaction. I wonder if things like this change with age, or maybe previous insect bites have altered my body's histamine reaction.

I got the sting reaching under one of my trailers to make a measurement. Turns out there was a pretty good nest under there with 8-10 wasps (some huge). I am lucky I only got stung once!

 

[ovrszd]

I wonder if the severity is determined by where you get stung?? Maybe you were stung directly into a small vein or something like that??

I've never had as bad a reaction as you are suffering thru.

Those paper nest wasps are mean. And this time of year they have nests everywhere!!!

I've never been stung by mud dauber wasps. I've actually had them run into me carrying a load and not get stung. I sure don't like them in my shop though. One time I was going to use an air hose and couldn't get any pressure. Was a mud dauber nest in the coupler.....

 

[s219]

I have never been stung by a mud dauber, but they get into everything around here, a real nuisance.

 

[jaxs]

Hopefully you won't be stung in the future but if you are,put ice on the spot quick as possible. I've had countless stings over the years and getting ice on it quickly make's a remarkable difference. Applying an ice cube within a couple of minutes can reduce pain and swelling by 80%.

 

[the old grind]

Hopefully you won't be stung in the future but if you are,put ice on the spot quick as possible. I've had countless stings over the years and getting ice on it quickly make's a remarkable difference. Applying an ice cube within a couple of minutes can reduce pain and swelling by 80%.

This^^:thumbsup: I found this advice when dealing with spider bites. These were itching for hours before showing the slightest pink dot to pinpoint the locations within an inch. There was no pain involved, but true to expectations the eventual bump would itch for up to two weeks. Campho-Phenique wouldn't draw them down, Caladryl peel/rubs off, doesn't last.

We learn that Ice will delay/reduce the initial histamine response and swelling by a bunch, but is also a good remedy for lingering itch days later. (I always get that after wasp sting pain is gone.)

Hold your C&C, Bud Lite, Arnold Palmer, or whatever against a bite or local swelling to calm the lingering nuisance. I get hours of relief from just a few minutes. Can you get a rubber glove to fit over the swollen hand and take occasional few-minute dips in ice water?

 

[ruffdog]

Yes, ice it and take an antihistamine like Benadryl.

 

[Industrial Toys]

They always get you when you least expect it. Usually, you never even see them prior to the injury. I got stung once in the presence of a short lived GF and she just LAUGHED! Something both disturbing and kind of sexy about that.

 

[s219]

Yep I'm icing it as much as I can tolerate and taking benadryl & ibuprofen. It is odd to me that the initial pain wore off about 20 minutes after the sting, and all I had was a prick mark. I went about the rest of my day and even spread 2 yards of mulch in the afternoon. Was sore that night, but overnight my hand began blowing up and mid-day yesterday I knew something was going on. Been swelling since.

I checked Dr. Google and it all sounded like what they call a local reaction, but my wife didn't believe me so she asked a doc in her family and he confirmed. Apparently I just have to ride it out and watch for signs of infection or circulation issues.

 

[oldballs]

I've found paper wasps building especially in various tractor attachments. Some attachments are covered with a tarp, but they build under the tarp. In the tongue of my trailer is a favorite place. Thus on those attachments I have been spraying Fluid Film up/through/around/inside such pieces. It seems they do not like/can't build their nest on those surfaces.

BTW...I expect some royalties for this idea.

Cheers,
Mike

Another BTW.......if you are an old geezer, those anti-histamines might shut off your pee....that I know for sure.

 

[Diggin It]

I wonder if the severity is determined by where you get stung?? Maybe you were stung directly into a small vein or something like that??

I've never had as bad a reaction as you are suffering thru.

I've been close and it does matter where. The first few times I had almost no reaction at all. The last two got me a bit spooked due to the swelling and itching. I'm more than a bit concerned about getting one in the neck or upper chest area now.

I'm not sure the DDs even sting. Maybe they do. don't know. I reached for a door knob one day a few weeks ago and something was waiting for me. Got me on the hand, but it only bothered me for a few minutes. Never saw the bug though. The big red/rust ones are what has me worried as noted above.

 

[3930dave]

The Chemical Compositions of Insect Venoms | Compound Interest

Might have been the strain of wasp, ^ some are much worse than others. I don't want to see Bullet Ants either, they sound like bad news.

Some people change with age too..... a good friend of mine was never bothered much by hornet/wasp stings, but then about 15 years ago started reacting significantly.

If you don't normally for other reasons, try and keep some antihistamine readily available for potential future events.

Rgds, D.

 

[rangerfredbob]

I have the worst reaction to Yellow Jackets (the devil wasps... normal paper wasps aren't bad, these bastages are aggressive), sometimes they just get a little venom in, other times they get time to put a bunch in... I was mowing my back field with the tractor Friday evening, 3rd gear was taking too long so I tried 4th and it was working... anywho, 10mph with a 4000lb tractor with filled tires and a loader isn't the smoothest thing to do, got a yellow jacket on the left forearm and got me good, the wife is calling me popeye .

Stupid yellow jackets live underground and I apparently drove over a nest... a couple years ago I was blowing leaves in October and got to a nest and they were divebombing me, one stung me just above my left eye, went to the hospital (close to brain, have a history of large reactions to those things so I took the safe route) and a $500 bill later I was out with just a recommendation to take benedryl and got a perscription for steroids... Picked up some "Sting Kill" capsules yesterday, those help, other than that use Benedryl and time I believe...

 

[bunyip]

I carry an epipen when yellow jackets are out, few days in hospital if one finds me, others just hurt.

 

[YLee Kioti]

Hope you're on the mend by now....I feel your pain and a very recent on to boot. four yellow jacket stings on my right hand and that evening looked like the Pillsbury dough boy.

Mud daubers learned eat black widows and brown recluse and unless they are attacked are not aggressive. So I let them in the barn and let them feast!

Been spraying johnson grass and huasachi sprigs and heard a low dense hum......gulp....have about a1/8 acre of weeds with very small purple blooms. They were several wings and squadrons of huge black (bumble) bees with a yellow striped thorax. I was amazed and frozen.
Amazing how one can learn the land by just walking and listening....

now the red wasp.....I'll nail those suckahs every chance I get. never want one of their 'gifts'...

So with a four gallon back pack just slowly moved my way around making sure not to piss them off.
The bright side for me is the 100 plus degree weather....wife forced me indoors and no spraying.....made her feel good that she bossed me around....truth was I was already feeling the effects of the heat after five days of walking down the pasture spraying remedy.
Letting her think I took her advice --- priceless...

Get well soon and enjoy the time off...lol...

 

[/pine]

We have a very aggressive type of yellow jacket here that is about 3-4 times the size of a regular yellow jacket...I have heard them called oriental or asian yellow jackets...They actually chase the humming birds off the feeders etc...

I inadvertently put my hand down on one once and the sting was like pushing my palm down hard on a red hot charcoal briquette...

 

[teejk]

I carry an epipen when yellow jackets are out, few days in hospital if one finds me, others just hurt.

A friend of mine had been stung a lot in his line of work (HVAC guy) and only in the past few years did it bother him to the point where he would swell up just like the OP described. His doctor explained that we do not build immunity with each successive sting but rather just the opposite...the sensitivity increases. So he carries the epi-pen everywhere now also. He also says to use a credit card to scrape the site of the sting (to remove the stinger) as soon as possible. Those things are nasty and can build a nest in a day or two. In my first house the builder apparently mis-measured on the number of trusses needed for the garage so built one on site. The gussets were full of wasps so I waited until evening and sprayed them all. By morning there were probably 1,000 dead wasps on the floor. I've gotten nailed just opening the lid on the side burner of a gas grill (in fact on my last grill I had to search for a model that didn't have a side burner). The valve cover on my LP tank is all beat up because they will whack it with a stick before they open it. In my last house I opened the door of a shed to get the mower and was immediately attacked by several. Fortunately it was a very hot humid day and my hair was plastered to my head so they just bounced off.

 

[3gunr]

Couldnt get my weedeater running one time . finally found mud dobbers had plugged ug the exhaust hole. Got stung in the neck last yr by a big red wasp , burned like fire.

 

[coobie]

In my continuing quest to accumulate more dumb injuries as I age, I'm temporarily one-handed since getting stung on the left wrist Friday morning. My left hand looks like an inflated rubber glove and is useless right now. I swear, this is as bad as the log splitter injury I had a few years ago since all my fingers are immobilized (hurts as bad too, but no pain pills this time). Like then, it makes me appreciate folks who learn to work with a handicap or permanent injury, because I am just not good at it (and I ran out of one-handed chores).

They say this sort of local reaction peaks around 48 hours after the sting, so hopefully I will be turning the corner soon. I've been stung many times before but this is the first time I've had such a reaction. I wonder if things like this change with age, or maybe previous insect bites have altered my body's histamine reaction.

I got the sting reaching under one of my trailers to make a measurement. Turns out there was a pretty good nest under there with 8-10 wasps (some huge). I am lucky I only got stung once!

Sorry to hear this get well soon.

 

[Macinnis]

Be careful...my neighbor it stung like twice in a month. Second time...he wound up in the hospital. He now has to have an epi pen with him in case he gets stung again.

He said the doctor told him that because he was stung twice close together, his body didn’t have the antibody available to treat the second sting.

I had never heard of that before, kinda crazy.

 

[mcastles]

you are having a true allergic reaction and each time you get stung it will be worse. I am the same way. The best option is benadryl immediately followed by a long acting anti-histamine like Zyrtec in about 2 hr. Benadryl is very potent anti-histamine (will also put you to sleep) but is gone within about 4 hr. Allergic reactions can be very serious