How does your body react to yellow jacket stings?

[General Lee]

I know there is some threads regarding yellow jackets, but I'm wondering how a "typical" non allergic person's body reacts to a yellow jacket sting. Several years ago, one stung me on the elbow, sting didn't really hurt but the next day my elbow swelled close to the size of a softball with redness. It took a few days for the swelling to subside.

Yesterday, I got stung by a yellow jacket near the wrist. Same reaction as before, sting didn't hurt much but today redness is spreading and swelling increased about a 4'' x 6'' area and it itches. When a wasp stung a few years ago that Bassst hurt like **** but I didn't get any reaction from it. I'm starting to wonder if I'm becoming allergic to the stings at least on a mild level and should talk to my doctor about an epi-pen. I did not suffer any trouble breathing,nausea, rapid heart beat, etc. But they say it could be that next sting that sends you into a anaphalactic (SP) shock.

So for those farmers out there that have been stung probably a lot more than I have, what is considered an "average" or normal reaction to a yellow jacket sting?

 

[jinman]

I see nobody else has responded. I'm no expert, but I'll try to be as helpful as possible. We have paper wasps that look like mini-yellow jackets. We always called them yellow jackets even though I suspect the one's I hear about on TBN are far more potent. Ours are good at making nests about the size of your fist up in the eaves of your house or under decks, anywhere they can shade the nest and be partially hidden. They also seem to like the decorative globes around outside lights. The ones we have will produce a painful sting that goes away generally in a half-hour or so, leaving a welt about 1-1/2 inches in diameter that swells locally. That area rarely lasts more than a few hours on me and by the next day, only the center sting point is visible. Other folks have different and more severe reactions. Here a link to a few search hits I found with photos of stings.

Photo 1

MedicineNet article

WebMD

Mayo Clinic

 

[Western]

leaving a welt about 1-1/2 inches in diameter that swells locally. That area rarely lasts more than a few hours on me and by the next day, only the center sting point is visible.

Pretty much the same for me, a little sore sometimes the next day. Bumble bees seem a bit more painful to me.

 

[schoolsout]

Yea, not sure I've ever been stung by a true yellow jacket, but plenty of bee/wasp stings that do what jinman describes...

when I was younger, momma used to bust up one of her cigs to get the tobacco out, wet it and rub/pack it on the sting. Not sure if it really worked or not, though.

 

[Baranx4]

On a immediate fresh sting rub a cut onion on it. It helps with the localized pain. I've gotten stung to many times over the years on the farm and had to take benadryl only once when I got hit in the lower leg to many times that it started swelling up to where I couldn't wear a shoe.

I don't think your doctor will give you an eppi pen for a just in case scenerio but in the ER the usual allergic reaction route is benadryl, solumedrol, and pepcid.

 

[scesnick]

There is also this stuff called "After Bite" that works unbelieveably well. I have two small kids and they scream to high heaven when they are stung ( and rightfully so) One swipe with after bite and they quit crying and the pain is instantly gone.
Works on all bee stings.

 

[grsthegreat]

When i get stung, i get only a slight swelling that goes away in a day or so. My wife gets the big, red swelling ....fluid retention major. Supposedly its not Anaphylactic shock level, but it sure looks bad. And boy, are the yellow devils bad this year.
Their one of gods creatures that serve NO purpose that i can find.

 

[brin]

Yep we have the same nests Jim is talking about and I have about the same reaction he described...the worse pain from a sting I have ever had was one day sitting in my shop in moccasins without socks and it felt like someone drove a red hot spike into the top arch of my foot...I immediately looked down and killed a scorpion...my foot swelled up with a Knot the size of a golf ball and hurt all day well into the night...I had to take a few Advil..very painful

 

[MossflowerWoods]

There is also this stuff called "After Bite" that works unbeliveably well. I have two small kids and they scream to high heaven when they are stung ( and rightfully so) One swipe with after bite and the quit crying and the pain is instantly gone.
Works on all bee stings.

I LOVE Afterbite! It really works for me.

PS - It is just ammonia BTW... It neutralizes the chemicals in the sting I believe.

I LOVE it...

David

 

[schoolsout]

buddy got stung by a velvet ant (cow killer) the other day....nasty swelling

 

[MossflowerWoods]

ISo for those farmers out there that have been stung probably a lot more than I have, what is considered an "average" or normal reaction to a yellow jacket sting?

General Lee sah!

My reaction is not typical, but might be closer to yours.

ANY bug bite, be it a tick, skeeter, or sting of some kind, my reaction is typically no big deal right away, but over time, the swelling, ITCHING, and often a little oozing DRIVE ME CRAZY!

For me often skeeters are the worst. I feel nothing, and then the next day, and for the next week pure torture. If a tick actually attaches it is the same.

Recently I got bit by chiggers for the first time, all around one ankle and it was the WORST. In fact it still has red marks and occasional itchyness and it is like 4 WEEKS since I got bit.

For some reason it was much worse when I was bi-coastal (I lived in VA and worked in CA 3.5 days a week).

I have an amazing variety of stinging critters, from wingless ground wasps, to some 2.5" long asian hornet monster... I'm skeert of getting a bad sting because I fear I've become allergic somehow.

This is an interesting thread...
Thanks for asking this question.
David

 

[MossflowerWoods]

buddy got stung by a velvet ant (cow killer) the other day....nasty swelling

Velvet ant?, red bugger, right I believe it is a flightless wasp variety.

Why's it called a cow killer? Does it really kill cows? :shocked:

David

 

[grsthegreat]

Makes me glad i line in North Idaho....no poisonous snakes, no venomous spiders to speak of ( I hear there are brown recluse spiders in Spokane Wash 20 miles away though), no gators or scorpions or chiggers or black widows.

Also no ticks, no fleas. The bears and moose leave us alone.

WE DO GET NO-SEUM BUGS, MOSQUITOES AND YELLOW JACKETS THOUGH. If it wasn't for these, this would be heaven.

 

[schoolsout]

General Lee sah!



Recently I got bit by chiggers for the first time, all around one ankle and it was the WORST. In fact it still has red marks and occasional itchyness and it is like 4 WEEKS since I got bit.


David

Wait until you get some in an area I don't feel comfortable talking about on this site...

 

[schoolsout]

Velvet ant?, red bugger, right I believe it is a flightless wasp variety.

Why's it called a cow killer? Does it really kill cows? :shocked:

David

Yea, it is a female type of wasp, I think...

legend has it they can kill cows...not sure if that is true, though. It's what I've always called them growing up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutillidae


I tried stepping on one several times, even twisting my foot, and it wouldn't die (on dirt, not concrete)...I let it go after that.

 

[JDgreen227]

Got stung 3 times by yellow jackets last month, all were about 4 inches down from elbow, on inner arm. The stings actually didn't bother me that much pain wise, and they felt about the same as getting a flu shot. The burning went away within a few hours, but the ITCHING lasted about ten days. Drove me nuts. Next time I will try some type of treatment right after being stung, this was the first time I can recall having such intense itching as a reaction.

 

[Highbeam]

To the OP, you need the epi pen. Your reaction is already an allergic one and the risk is this.... you're brushmowing and all the sudden you get stung 5 times in the neck. That cute little 4x6 inch square of swelling from one little bee is not just the surface it acts deep. Those 5 stings will swell your throat shut and you can die. The epi pen won't stop it but it will buy you time to get to get help where they can administer more drugs and insert the tube so that you can breathe.

Allergic reactions get worse with each exposure. So the first sting is no big deal, the next (a month later maybe) you swell more, and so on until you get the whole body reaction. Now some sting locations cause worse reactions since your blood can really scoot the venom around the body before the histamines can start killing it. Your face is a great example of this. Stung on the arm = no big deal, stung on the head and right away your feet and beltline start itching.

I keep the epipens in the truck.

 

[LD1]

I think you definatally need to seek a doctors advise on the epi-pen.

I have been stung by hornets, wasps, bumble bees, yellow-jackets, and honey bees.

I dont really have any difference in reactions. All of them create that little 1/4" of so diameter bump with the little dark impression in the middle where they actually stung you and thats it. Hurts like **** for about 20 minutes. After that, especially if I am occupied, I dont even remember being stung. Pain is gone. And by next day, the bump is usually gone too.

But of the above, in order of pain, I rate
1 hornets
2 bumble bees
3 honeybees
4 yellow jackets
5 wasps

But the wasps can sting multiple times VERY quicky. I once (when I was younger) was running around outside in shorts and a pair of rubber gum-boots. A wasp got down there and stung me on the shin 5 times in an area the size of a half dollar before I could get the boot off.:confused2:

 

[MossflowerWoods]

Yea, it is a female type of wasp, I think...

legend has it they can kill cows...not sure if that is true, though. It's what I've always called them growing up.

Mutillidae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


I tried stepping on one several times, even twisting my foot, and it wouldn't die (on dirt, not concrete)...I let it go after that.

That's the one. Had her on the wrap around patio last fall...

She did get away...

Ew!

David

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

We had pompass grass in the front yard for sometime. I was mowing and my arm brushed against it. I'm pretty sure it was a yellow jacket that got me. It was like I had been burned with an iron. By next morning my whole upper arm was double the size. I went into the docs office, ran into him in the hall thankfully and he got me in. They had to give me a shot in it, OH MY GOD, and steriods and antibiotics, I had developed cellulitus in it, it was ugly and the pain was horrible. I used to have an epi pin then the docs here decided I didn't need one.

I had another reaction to a sting a couple weeks after and steriods again. That's when I gained back half the weight I had kept off for 7 years. I've been fighting those 20 pounds for the last 3 years, I'm back into treadmilling, the exercycle, and using my WeiderPro to try and get it off. It's the hardest to lose but I will do it.

And I took hubbies tractor and got rid of that **** pompass grass, that stuff harbored things like that. I thought I would never get it up. I chopped it off and then had to put chains on it in sections to pull it out, that stuff is almost impossible to get out.