Another I got stung thread

jimmyj · Sep 7, 2010

Yesterday I was mowing some old trails through the woods and I must have hit a wasp nest. All of a sudden I felt the tell tale hot burn of wasp stings on my back and leg. Yeouch!

The old Allis Chalmers mower throws some pretty good smoke so I throttled up and high tailed it out of there but I got (I think) 5 stings altogether. I'm moderately allergic so my body is SO ITCHY and swelled up today. I hate bee and wasp stings! (Good news is my allergies get less as I get older, when I was a kid bee stings were very dangerous to me).

Anyhow, I guess I'll stay off that part of the trail until winter!

jcims · Sep 7, 2010

They hurt.

Just a thought...EpiPens are (last time I checked) about $150 for two from the local pharmacist, although you can buy them online for less. Maybe go halvsies with a neighbor or friend for a little cheap insurance. I had planned to get some with a bee hive that I had started, but it died off. Now that I'm going to be mowing off the beaten path, I think one's going to go into the tool box on the tractor and one at the house.

jimmyj · Sep 7, 2010

That is a good idea. Thanks.

picker77 · Sep 7, 2010

Those things really hurt for a while, for sure. Around here we have mostly yellowjackets. They are small but very aggressive, have a strong "pack attack" mentality, and pack a nasty punch. For some reason, they like to attach their nests to aluminum. Twice in the last couple of years I've been had by nests hidden under the steps of aluminum ladders stored outside when I grabbed the ladder to carry it. 8-10 stings around the legs each time. Believe me, for that first 30 yards I doubt even Usain Bolt could have kept up with me, and I'm old and usually slow.

The only other bad actor wasps around here have been whiteface hornets. They like to hide their grey paper-mache footballs in the low branches of our many red cedar trees. Unlike yellowjackets, who fly in an erratic pattern, whiteface hornets fly in a dead straight line like little bullets, and are extremely fast. They are mean as rattlesnakes, too, and will come after you in a heartbeat.

I keep a couple of cans of hornet spray handy, which does a great job of knocking yellowjackets and hornets down just about instantaneously.

EddieWalker · Sep 7, 2010

I was on my dozer, clearing an area, and got stung on the cheek by a bee. I didn't know I had driven over an underground bees nest until the sting. I looked back and there was hundreds of them hovering over an area of ground that I had just cleared.

I left the area alone for the rest of the day, then the next morning went back with a can of wasp sray and lighter fluid. Shockingly, neither had any effect on the nest. I have some diesel, but didn't want to bother with it.

Now I'm going to fill a coffee can full of diesel and dump it down the hole.

Eddie

texasjohn · Sep 7, 2010

I, too, got hit yesterday, one hit.

We have very docile paper wasps that will come after you only if you get REALLY close... like maybe 3 inches...

I was removing fence wire in 4 ft tall weeds, couldn't move without making all the weeds move. Had to remove 3 T post clips about 6 inches from wasp nest on a weed. Moved slow, first two went OK... last one, closest, one hit just as I got the clip unwound.

Not painful....kinda like a ham handed nurse giving a shot...itches today, no swelling then or now.

Storm56 · Sep 7, 2010

I was out clearing trails with a cousin on our property over the weekend when my cousin stepped on a yellow jacket nest. I got off free but he got nailed about 5 times around his lips and eye. A couple of hours later he looked like he went a few rounds with Mike Tyson. I went up that night and gave the nest a good dose of gas. Have to go back up and see if I got all of them.