Wasps!

dean1484 said:

David S. Wallens said:

Stampie said:

David S. Wallens said:

In reply to Stampie :

Not sure I could easily pee on the back of my elbow. 

Sounds like you need someone to take one for the team.

Sadly, it stopped hurting once the pain went away. 

Is that like when my dad told me that if my thumb hurts stop hitting it with a hammer?  

My original version:
"Do you know why it hurts? To remind you not to do it again."

These things are really common here, one of the reasons I carry a can of liquid wrench or CRC (GRM sponsor FTW) when I go to the junkyard. You don't get the range of the wasp spray, but it's just as effective.

I can't imagine how many times I've been stung. Even got one in my shirt once. 

dean1484 said:

My dog will eat them out of the air as well.  She will also spend all day or even multiple days stalking a spider on the ceiling.  I have purposefully left spiders on the ceiling for her.  The level of concentration on her part is hilarious. 

 

Speaking of wasps were any of you smart kids like we were and thought throwing rocks at the nests or trying and hit them with sticks was a fun way to spend an afternoon??  Ya we were not very smart kids.. . . .   ;-)

When I was 7 or 8 I learned not to poke sticks in holes in the yard, ground bees are dicks. 

When I was 13 I learned to shake my pants out if they were on the clothesline. I got stung probably a dozen times before I finally got them yanked off. 

I've nuked a dozen nests around the house or in the boat this year. 

The little pricks get no mercy from me. 

Update: Both bites got a bit itchy today. One felt kinda warm, too. Benadryl gel knocked down the itch. 

Just noticed some wasps doing something–building a nest?–near the old one....

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Shotgun 

I used to put a flaming rag on the end of a long stick and set their nests on fire.   

Flaming wasps would fall out of the sky to the ground with their wings burned off. 

This did not put a damper on their aggression or will to sting me to death if I stayed around.       

I stopped doing this when I almost set the barn on fire.   I was about 12 so had no sense.

For order of sting pain magnitude I would say the mud daubbers were the least painful, then the paper wasps, and finally the Yellow Jacket was by far the worst.

I berkeleying hate yellow jackets.   I got stung 20 or so times when I was 4 or 5. My dad was trimming the hedges around the house and was using a rake to loosen the clippings and get them on the ground.  

4 year old me: “Dad’s whacking the bushes with a rake, I should do that!”   Too bad I picked the spot with a nest, I still have a pretty vivid memory of the world going by horizontally.  (Dad grabbed me around the waist and ran while wiping handfuls of yellow jackets off me.)  He wiped me down with some ammonia, maybe gave me a coke or something to distract me and kept an ey on me for a bit.  It turns out his Dad was allergic to bee stings, fortunately no issues here but the pricks get no quarter from me to this day.   Bring it ya bastids!  LOL. 

Quite a few years back I was mowing my lawn... nothing different than a weekend prior.... mowed the back yard no problem.  ( it has a Mulberry producing tree. )  So I mow to the front yard. I'm mowing away and I get under the Crab Apple tree. I'm in short and a tee. All of a sudden I start getting zapped by bees! Not just one or two but more than I can count. Then I noticed that it was not just Yellow Jackets it was some other smaller one too. That one was just black all stinging me.  I brushed them off while briskly walking to the front door. More than likely cursing the whole time about them.  Told the Wife that I just got stung by a this load of bees!  My skin felt tinglie and itchy. I did the first thing that came to mind... man I need a shower..  so  I jumped in a cool shower. Started trying wash it off......  so this did not help?? Lol.  So my lips and tongue feel like they are swelling.  I put some clothes on and tell the Wife that I'm going to the hospital.  I drove to the ER. Luckily it was a couple blocks from me.  I get there. They look at me.  Show me to a room. A Doctor comes in an asks me about why I here. While looking me over.                                        Then says " You drove here!?!"                     I said yes why?                                               He said " This should have killed you! What did you do before you mowed?"         I said I slammed a energy drink (A NOS They taste good)                                               He then said  " That most likely save you." He gave me a shot of something in the arm. Most likely an Antihistamine. And told me to wait. So I did. After a bit I started feeling better. The Doctor came back ask me how I felt. I said a lot better.                     So when I arrived back at home I counted the sting sites. I counted over 200 and those didn't include the ones I could not see. I did not use the mirror in the bathroom.  After that episode I walked around those trees and LOOKED for Wasp nests and entertained myself with different ways to kill them BEFORE mowing.               I did end up cutting down that Crab Apple tree before I sold that house. I did want the future home owner to go through that.

The band Wasp came to mind when I first saw this post, so it is funny that someone posted a picture of them. That bands name is a acronym, right?

White face hornets are the worst. They are also known as bails face hornets. 

How timely, I just nuked an in ground yellow jacket nest last night. No sign of the bastards this morning, but I'm armed and ready.

I also have the fond memory of poking sticks in holes in the backyard of my grandparents house. I think I was 4? My older brother only got tagged a couple times but I was the sacrifice as we ran around the house to front door.