I Dodged that Bullet ... er, Stinger

[RevivedAgain]

I slipped my sockless feet into a pair of loose fitting moccasins and went for a stroll around the property. I felt something squirming in my shoe at the bottom of my foot and slipped my shoe off to reveal a ... yeah, yellow jacket.

[Tall Timbers]

We get our share of yellow jackets up here. Once I was on the porch roof, precariously perched, with a gallon of log oil in one hand and a brush in the other. One of those critters thought I was too close to his home and proceeded to sting me multiple times on the face. I couldn't drop anything so had to take it... Though vengeance is the Lord's, I found the nest and helped the Lord out just a little... I've been stung by yellow jackets more times than I can count and have eradicated my share of nests too.

I think they eat mosquitos though, at least the ones up here, so there's some good to them.

[ByFaithIFly]

We get our share of yellow jackets up here. Once I was on the porch roof, precariously perched, with a gallon of log oil in one hand and a brush in the other. One of those critters thought I was too close to his home and proceeded to sting me multiple times on the face. I couldn't drop anything so had to take it... Though vengeance is the Lord's, I found the nest and helped the Lord out just a little... I've been stung by yellow jackets more times than I can count and have eradicated my share of nests too.

I think they eat mosquitos though, at least the ones up here, so there's some good to them.

Log oil????

[IamHis]

I am thinking the yellow jacket may have gotten stuffed up against
the moccasin in a way that he couldn't reach your foot to sting it,
cause they will sting at the slightest provocation, they are really
nasty little beasties. Glad you didn't get stung, it really hurts!

[RevivedAgain]

We get our share of yellow jackets up here. Once I was on the porch roof, precariously perched, with a gallon of log oil in one hand and a brush in the other. One of those critters thought I was too close to his home and proceeded to sting me multiple times on the face. I couldn't drop anything so had to take it... Though vengeance is the Lord's, I found the nest and helped the Lord out just a little... I've been stung by yellow jackets more times than I can count and have eradicated my share of nests too.

I think they eat mosquitos though, at least the ones up here, so there's some good to them.

Oh, that's awful, Tall Timbers. My husband was working on an old truck and got stung by several yellow jackets on the leg, but that's better than the face.

[RevivedAgain]

I am thinking the yellow jacket may have gotten stuffed up against
the moccasin in a way that he couldn't reach your foot to sting it,
cause they will sting at the slightest provocation, they are really
nasty little beasties. Glad you didn't get stung, it really hurts!

Thanks. I'm glad I didn't get stung, too. That was a close call.

[Tall Timbers]

Log oil????

Kind of like paint for a log home... helps preserve the logs.

[Acts5:41]

Wow, that's a miracle!

I've had a couple of red wasp stings, and a yellow jacket.

God forbid anyone gets stung, Lavender essential oil is really good for the pain. It's also good for minor burns, too.

[Tiger Lily]

Glad you were safe, Revived!

TT - Wow, that sounds especially brutal

Acts - meat tenderizer helped me the last time I got stung; apparently it neutralizes the venom or something

Those guys can get into attics, too. I kept hearing this scratching sound over my head. Also saw them going into a hole in one of the attic screens and a hole in the divisions between the siding. They had started getting into the living area of the house (counted 10 in one week). Found the affected area in the ceiling (paper-thin by the time I found it). They chew up the sheetrock and apparently use it to help build their nests. Had to have a pest control guy come out and stick a small tube in the ceiling area and spray. I asked him something about what if anything went wrong. Plan B? He said, "We run!" He sprayed from the outside, too. Also had to have a sheetrock guy come out and repair the ceiling. None of us got stung, PTL.

[Musician in His house]

Well, being from the South, we call the little buggers by the same names but we pronounce them differently.

Yellow jacket - Yaller (or yeller) jacket
Wasp - Wawst

They can be vengeful little critters. I haven't been stung in years, but I well remember how it hurts. I once had a wawst dive bomb me and hit me in the middle of my back when I was little. The thing that makes them worse than bees is that they can sting over and over again and it doesn't kill them (I've always wondered why). At this time of year, the wasp and hornet spray that you can use from waaaaaaay far away is my best friend. In fact, we have several nests under our eaves that I probably need to hit, even though there are some from years past and they haven't been a big problem. I even got a small starter wawst nest out of our mailbox a couple of weeks ago.

Anyone have dirt daubers? The nest looks like a Pan flute. I saw a dirt dauber nest today in the old chicken house DH uses for a "shop." Hadn't seen one in years, but I think it was a recent one, though I could be wrong.

[Zazzy]

Well, being from the South, we call the little buggers by the same names but we pronounce them differently.

Yellow jacket - Yaller (or yeller) jacket
Wasp - Wawst

They can be vengeful little critters. I haven't been stung in years, but I well remember how it hurts. I once had a wawst dive bomb me and hit me in the middle of my back when I was little. The thing that makes them worse than bees is that they can sting over and over again and it doesn't kill them (I've always wondered why). At this time of year, the wasp and hornet spray that you can use from waaaaaaay far away is my best friend. In fact, we have several nests under our eaves that I probably need to hit, even though there are some from years past and they haven't been a big problem. I even got a small starter wawst nest out of our mailbox a couple of weeks ago.

Anyone have dirt daubers? The nest looks like a Pan flute. I saw a dirt dauber nest today in the old chicken house DH uses for a "shop." Hadn't seen one in years, but I think it was a recent one, though I could be wrong.

We have dirt daubers all over the place here. My husband swore that they don't sting. Well, I learned this year that they do indeed sting, and that I an allergic to the dang things.

[pixelpusher]

...Though vengeance is the Lord's, I found the nest and helped the Lord out just a little...

That made me lol all over my lo mein... I reckon you did assist...

Goodness. I'll share a few encounters:

I was 9 or 10 years old, set my Mello Yello can down on the picnic table, came back to get a drink, received yellow jacket into mouth, beastie proceeded to sting me under my top lip. Awful, awful day for a kid. We were having so much fun prior to that too. I never set a soda down again w/o a cover or at least looking in there before drinking again.

We'd been frog gigging down at the pond in the woods. Summer, hot as hades, climbing the hill back to the house with my baggie of frog legs, sweating, tired, swatting skeeters. Suddenly my foot sank in the ground... right in a ground nest of the buggers. I took multiple stings that day, dropped my frog legs, dropped my gig, ran up the hill to the house. That was the first time my mom heard me cuss.

Leaning over the second story railing to catch a frisbee my cousin was throwing up to me. Didn't realize red wasps had a nest under the rail. They didn't appreciate my presence, and proceeded to sting me multiple times up my left arm and on the neck. I actually got physically ill from that episode, wasps are a bit more potent than yeller jackets.

After that, I pretty well learned to pay attention. I don't think I've been stung since.

Glad you got off easy, Zazzy!

[gradywhite]

My uncle was having a hard time zipping his wet suit up, due to a lump in the front.
When he pulled it back apart, he found a scorpion.
This was in the Cayman's.

[Musician in His house]

My granddaddy always felt the inside of his cap before he put it on prior to going outside. He kept his hat hanging up on a hook in a small room that was outside the house proper but still indoors next to the "well porch," and once, some kind of stingin' varmint found its way into his cap and stung him directly on the top of the head. If I remember the story correctly, he had a reaction of some sort.

He also checked his boots for such critters, just in case, and God help any snake that dared to cross his path, because he would go full-on berzerker-mode on it. HATED snakes. With a passion.

We think he might have had a bit of OCD as well -- he would go back 3 times -- always 3 times -- to check a door to make sure it was securely closed and latched. He would close a door, walk away for a piece, and then go back and check the handle. Walk away, go back -- 3 times. Every time.

Sometimes he would close his eyes during church. He always insisted that he wasn't sleeping, just saving his glasses. Still, that man could go to sleep sitting ramrod-straight up, back erect, eyes closed, and hands folded in his lap. Never seen anyone before or since that did that.

[tbrian40]

We have big 'ol hornets in the south and they don't play. The funny thing about these huge annoyances is as long as you don't swing at them, they'll leave you alone. When I was 12 I learned the hard way and that thing chased me around for about a block before it gave up. Horrifying!

[Tiger Lily]

My Mom had a huge nest under her eaves. Think it was wasp or hornet. Cost $90 to have a pro come get rid of it. The guy that sprayed the yellowjackets at the house I was renting charged over $100, I think (not to mention the sheetrock repair costs). These critters can be painful AND expensive. Looking forward to the absence of such nasty critters (or at least absence of attack mode) in Heaven. Oh.......and no home-maintenance bills!

[Tall Timbers]

My Mom had a huge nest under her eaves. Think it was wasp or hornet. Cost $90 to have a pro come get rid of it. The guy that sprayed the yellowjackets at the house I was renting charged over $100, I think (not to mention the sheetrock repair costs). These critters can be painful AND expensive. Looking forward to the absence of such nasty critters (or at least absence of attack mode) in Heaven. Oh.......and no home-maintenance bills!

I don't know if it works here, because we have near constant daylight during the wasp season, but when I lived in the lower 48, if you got up early in the morning, perhaps just before first light, the wasps would all be home and you could aim the wasp spray right into the nest and take out the whole colony easily enough. If you did it during the day, you'd have lots of surviving angry wasps wondering what happened to their home. Done early, it is fairly safe and can be done by do-it-yourselfers. Underground nests can be harder to pinpoint...

[ByFaithIFly]

Here's alittle reminder if your out in the woods fishing.Yellow-jackets love fish especially trout. To keep them away from your camp site.Hang a gutted trout over a large pan of water.They will over eat on the trout ,fall into the water and drown.You have to remember to check the water pan and skim off the dead bee's into a hole nearby.place the trap aleast 10-20 yards away.This really works.It's not a fishy story.

[Tall Timbers]

If you crush a wasp/yellowjacket, the carcass gives off some kind of chemical that will drive other nearby forces to go on the attack.

[Tiger Lily]

I don't know if it works here, because we have near constant daylight during the wasp season, but when I lived in the lower 48, if you got up early in the morning, perhaps just before first light, the wasps would all be home and you could aim the wasp spray right into the nest and take out the whole colony easily enough. If you did it during the day, you'd have lots of surviving angry wasps wondering what happened to their home. Done early, it is fairly safe and can be done by do-it-yourselfers. Underground nests can be harder to pinpoint...

LOL.......oh, TT! If you could have only seen this nest! Maybe about a foot in diameter and over a foot long. Looked a little like a gigantic gray, upside-down Hershey's kiss. I would have been afraid to try to tackle that even with those great aiming sprays, as I doubt it would have been able to get all up into the nest. That reminds me, the next time I visit my (elderly) Mom, I should walk around the house and check for more nests so we can hopefully get them while they are little this time. Oh, BTW, I understand it was a bald-faced hornet's nest. The nest was almost a work of art. Thanks for the time-of-day tip.

If you crush a wasp/yellowjacket, the carcass gives off some kind of chemical that will drive other nearby forces to go on the attack.