out of commission from a wasp sting

[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