STUNG by a hornet/yellow jacket!

Sigman

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Gee, it's been "at least" 26 years (my wife says I've never been stung as long as she has known me!) since I've been stung.

Today, I took my boys (young men) to the driving range (golf), felt something tickling around the top of my shirt. "Swiped" with my left hand, and immediately felt an "iron hot stinging" on the cuticle of my left pinky finger.

I look down and see the stinger & guts (yes typically a sign of a honeybee) AND a hornet/yellow jacket's back half on the ground writhing.

Therefore, I assumed I'd been stung by a hornet/yellow jacket. I can't really describe the pain and yes, sort of "lost control" with my language!

I'm telling you, I've been stung by honey bees earlier in life, but NEVER have I EVER felt the hot/stinging pain that I've felt today! It's approximately 6 hours later and my pinky finger is still stinging and ON FIRE!!

I put some "Sting Eze" on it and ice - "seems to help" - but I can't wait till the pain goes away.

Nature's defense is absolutely AMAZING! BTW, alergic reactions run in the family, but I've never had one, "yet"!

Stilllll hurting......
 

FlashlightOCD

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I have a prescription strength topical steroid ointment and I've found that if I apply it immediately after a sting it does wonders to minimize the pain/swelling.

You might want to purchase the stongest OTC cortisone cream/ointment you can find and keep it around for such emergencies.

Living in Florida I have to deal with fireants, and my yard is infested with them. The pain they inflict does not result from a bite as many people think, they actually have stingers like a wasp.
 

Topper

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I almost feel your pain. Down here the big red wasps is the ones to look out for. They will indeed go out of the way to sting you if you get close. I have dug up the home of yellow jackets it was about one foot wide three feet long and maybe three inches thick. They were not happy I was not happy but thats life and death; they stung my 75 year old Grandmother (on my fathers side)so I killed them all, dug up the home and I have no problem with that, I feel good about that. My Grandmother has past but I still hate yellow
jackets.
Topper
 

Stingray

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I accidently discovered a yellow jacket's nest in the outside vent that goes to my oven not long ago. That was my first sting since I was a child. And I got a double sting too, then they chased me around the yard. They hurt a lot more than I remember, and they don't go away for a long time. It felt like I was stabbed with a hot needle. You might need a doctors appointment if you are allergic. Keep some benadryl handy.
 

Icebreak

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Maybe it was a yellow jacket but you swatted it hard enough to bust it up?

Or maybe it was a bee but that cuticle area has a more dense population of nerve endings than say, a meaty shoulder.

Doesn't sound like one bit of fun either way.

----------

- Jeff
 

LifeNRA

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My 7 year old was stung by a yellow jacket a month ago and it left its stinger in him also. This is the first time I had ever seen a yellow jacket leave its stinger behind like a honey bee. I know it was a yellow jacket because I saw it stinging him and it flew away before I could swat it. It did not fly but a few feet though and I stomped it.

I was stung 43 times by yellow jackets one time as a child of 8-9 years old. My brother who was with me was stung 27 times.
 

James S

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I killed a HUGE mud dauber in the kids bathroom yesterday. I have no idea where it came from or how a 2.5" long bug got into the house. Had to cut my sons bath short when I heard something large buzzing around up in the light fixture.

There is a very large regular wasp nest up in the corner of the edge of the house, but it's up so high that I can't get to it. the mud dauber didn't come from there but some of the others that get into the house periodically can probably be blamed on that. I need to find a way to get those guys knocked down somehow...
 

turbodog

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[ QUOTE ]
James S said:

There is a very large regular wasp nest up in the corner of the edge of the house, but it's up so high that I can't get to it. the mud dauber didn't come from there but some of the others that get into the house periodically can probably be blamed on that. I need to find a way to get those guys knocked down somehow...

[/ QUOTE ]

Garden pump-up sprayer with gasoline in it.

Instant death to wasps.

Once saw a wasp nest in an old barn that was over 3 FEET in diameter. Being a stupid young kid (at the time), my cousin and I threw a brick at it. Not a good idea.
 

raggie33

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sig ya will hate it around here there every where hundreds of em but they never sting me i donmt think i ever been stung buy one which is weird i walk barefoot a lot
 

IsaacHayes

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I've had the big white/black hornets here swarming before, red wasps, and those pesky woodbees (look like bumble bees) that chase you away from your deck (territorial).

Only been stung by a yellow jacket on the finger. It mainly itched more than hurt. I had a mosquito sized welp. I was in High School and eating a sandwich outside and it landed on it and wouldn't fly away. I shooed it away and it didn't move and I ended up hitting it with my hand and it stung me. Those things are stubborn!!
 

The_LED_Museum

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When I was 12, I accidentally stepped on a bee in a gutter on a street in north central California and got stung.
My foot swelled to ~2x its normal size, so I'm pretty certain I'm allergic to honeybee venom. :/
 

nethiker

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Have not been stung in a long time, but as I recall, if you have some meat tenderizer and make a paste to put over the sting right away, the enzymes are suppose to break down the poison and help with the pain. Sorry to hear about your sting, glad you arn't allergic.
 

FlashlightOCD

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[ QUOTE ]
James S said:
I killed a HUGE mud dauber in the kids bathroom yesterday. I have no idea where it came from or how a 2.5" long bug got into the house.

[/ QUOTE ]

If it was truly a mud dauber they are pretty timid, they look intimidating but they will only sting if you are a direct threat [like pinching them]. Unlike other wasps/hornets which are territorial and will go after you just for getting close to their nest, mud daubers will general only sting prey [food].

I wouldn't want one in the house, but I leave them alone outside, they will prey on other nasty insects.

[ QUOTE ]
IsaacHayes said:
... and those pesky woodbees (look like bumble bees) that chase you away from your deck (territorial)...


[/ QUOTE ]

Woodbees [Borers] will deystroy wood so you want to get rid of them if you can. The males are very aggressive and will get right in your face, but oddly they do not have a stinger [all buzz no bite]. The female is only aggressive to nest intruders and she is equiped with a stinger.
 

LifeNRA

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Dirt dauber's sting spiders and fill there nest with them so that their young feed on them when they hatch. The spiders are not killed, just paralyzed.
 

James S

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yea, but they are of no use in the bathroom /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif And I wasn't quite up to a catch and release... So I smushed it.

When I was about 8 or so I stepped on a wasp of some kind in the house, didn't swell up much but I sat with my toe under the freezing cold running water for an hour while I wailed about it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Hurt like nothing I'd ever been through before. Then when I was maybe 14 I had a bee or something get blown up my shorts while riding my bike. It wasn't as bad as you think /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Stung me under my thigh and while it hurt, it was by no means debilitating like the wasp I stepped on, so I assume it was just a honeybee or something.

I'd rather not spray gasoline all over the side of my house to try to get rid of them /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif that sounds like something that would end up on americas funnies home videos or at least the local police fire blotter in the paper... And they are up 2 stories and across another roof and I haven't see any sprayer that can reach as far as they are. I CAN get right up to them if I climb out my sons window, and then scale the second floor roof pitch on my hands and knees to get to the dormer roof over my sons window and then hang around the corner over the master bath gable... But that puts me rather closer to them than I'd like to be when spraying and also with no easy route of escape when they came after me...
 

turbodog

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[ QUOTE ]
James S said:
yea, but they are of no use in the bathroom /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif And I wasn't quite up to a catch and release... So I smushed it.

When I was about 8 or so I stepped on a wasp of some kind in the house, didn't swell up much but I sat with my toe under the freezing cold running water for an hour while I wailed about it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Hurt like nothing I'd ever been through before. Then when I was maybe 14 I had a bee or something get blown up my shorts while riding my bike. It wasn't as bad as you think /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Stung me under my thigh and while it hurt, it was by no means debilitating like the wasp I stepped on, so I assume it was just a honeybee or something.

I'd rather not spray gasoline all over the side of my house to try to get rid of them /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif that sounds like something that would end up on americas funnies home videos or at least the local police fire blotter in the paper... And they are up 2 stories and across another roof and I haven't see any sprayer that can reach as far as they are. I CAN get right up to them if I climb out my sons window, and then scale the second floor roof pitch on my hands and knees to get to the dormer roof over my sons window and then hang around the corner over the master bath gable... But that puts me rather closer to them than I'd like to be when spraying and also with no easy route of escape when they came after me...

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh come on, live a little.

If you get them good with the gas, they die instantly.

Maybe a shop vac with a looooooong tube on it, like a couple of 20' sections of pvc pipe. Suck em up, then spray some wasp killer into the vac. That should get rid of 90% of them. The rest you can battle hand to hand.
 

3rd_shift

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Definitely man versus nature in this thread. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/xyxgun.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I was stung by one of the big red ones 11 years ago while using a gas hedge trimmer on a row of hedges at an apartment complex.
I was a landscape crew leader at the time.
It was definitely an attention getter. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif
I heard the sound first *pop!* and then the sudden burning pain.
I almost dropped the hedge trimmer.
The little (censored) got me on my right hand just below where my index finger and mid finger's joints are.
A very hard, swollen area formed about the size of a half dollar there in just a few minutes.
Then an hour later it was my whole hand looking and feeling swollen for a few days.
I ended up letting one of my workers finish with the hedge trimmer that day while I toured and supervised the crew with a bag of ice on my hand.

Another time was 21 years ago when I got stung by a huge cicada killer that was actually on a tree trunk.
I was trying to shoo it away from my 91 year old great Grandmother's (Mom's side) front yard.
It got me on my right thumb when I got too close.
 

big_guy

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A treatment I discovered quite by accident that works great for most people is to disolve an aspirin in water and put the paste on the "wound".

In my early teens, I was stung on the hand by a red wasp. Mom or Dad weren't home from work yet and I couldn't find anything that worked for stings. Being familier with aspirin as a mild pain reliever, I took a couple. Knowing it takes a while for them to kick in and doubting they would help much, I remember wondering what would happen if I put one ON instead of IN! LOL I got almost immediate relief and have used aspirin on others who have been stung. I've never heard of anyone else using aspirin on the sting but it works!

Arlen
 
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