Yellowjackets got me last night

[Ridgewalker]

I got hit 10-12 times, mostly in the calves and on the tops of my feet but they also managed to get my
wrist and worst of all the top of my left ear. I have been taking Tylenol but I am still hurting pretty good.
Does anyone have any good remedies? I put after bite on them last night but it didn't do much.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Too late now, I think, but...and don't roll your eyes...if you will take a bit of juice from an onion, and place directly on the sting, as soon afterwards as you can, it will stop the pain instantly. Yeah, I thought it was an old wive's tale too. I was mowing my yard, mowed under our Rose of Sharon, that proceeded to drop a couple blooms in my lap. I brushed them off with my hand, unfortunately, one of them contained a bumble bee. My Dad, who was staying with us at the time, said "put some onion juice on that and it will stop hurting". I thought, "yeah, right", but I did what he said and the pain stopped instantly. It did not ****** the swelling as much as I could tell, but it sure helped the pain.

I also had the same thing happen years ago; my foot swelled so much I couldn't get my shoe on. Soaking my foot in strong, hot epsom salts water took the swelling down a lot.

 

[rekees4300]

Does anyone have any good remedies?

Those yellow devils must have a thing for ears? One got me last year on top of right ear. Ibuprofen worked for me to reduce the swelling. Afterbite is for mosquitoes, chiggers, and such...itching.

 

[MitchellB]

I'll have to try an onion next time (although hope I never get the chance to try it out). I've been stung and bitten by those mean nasty yellow monsters before and know your pain. However the last time they got me was when my wife disturbed an old log by the chicken fence we were working on last year that stirred up a nest of them. Those demon yellow jackets chased us more than 300 feet across the yard biting and stinging. Some of them even followed us into the house. I almost had to go to the emergency room, after the swelling began to make it difficult for me to breath. We eat some Benadryl tablets that helped some.

 

[Toyboy]

I've been told that putting meat tenderizer (like a paste) on the sting, it will stop the swelling and relieve the pain.

 

[profnohair]

I have always poured Ammonia on the sting and it takes away the pain immediately also. But I will sure try onion juice next time.

Profnohair

 

[Pilot]

I've been trapping the queens in the springtime for years and the yellow jacket population here has slowly declined. I used to catch about 50 queens in my trap and 25+ in the firewood over the winter. Hardly found any in the firewood last winter and only caught 25 queens this spring. So far this year, after the queens disappeared as they always do around July 1, I haven't seen a single yellow jacket. There have to be some out there, but I'm not seeing them yet. Others, who don't live close to me do see them. One other thing that has maybe helped is that we saw a skunk in our yard almost every evening for most of June; skunks dig up nests. So maybe it was more the skunk than my traps, but I expect it was a little of both.

 

[lockhaven]

Pilot, what is this trap you use?

 

[The kid]

I'd like to know more about your trap as well. -robert

 

[Pilot]

I posted fairly complete info on trapping yellow jackets here:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/170632-get-ready-trap-yellowjackets.html

Some folks reported trying the traps with no results. They need to move the trap to find the "sweet spot". As I said, I get 90% of the queens in one spot and I have tried various locations on my 10 acres, but that location one is always the best.

Unless you live in western Oregon or Washington, timing for your location will probably be different. The key is when you start to see the queens in the spring; watch for them when the high temps start getting to 70 or above. One year we did have a freak warm east wind day in April, about 80 degrees & I put out a trap and caught about 20-30 queens. Cooler the next day and didn't catch any more for close to a month, so temperature is an important clue to when to watch for them.