Stinging Insect Rant

FormerHangie

FormerHangie

En-Route
Joined
Oct 28, 2013
Messages
3,965
Location
Roswell, GA
Display Name
Display name:
FormerHangie
I was just finishing up a project outside, and the last step was to spread some pine straw. There were two old bales of pine straw in front of the house that I had left over from last year. I grabbed the first one, no problem. I grabbed the second one, and things turned into chaos. At first I couldn't figure out what was happening, but after a few seconds it was apparent that I had disturbed a yellow jacket nest. I got out of there, far enough away that the couldn't call for reinforcements, and started killing them as quickly as I could. The got me good on the legs, flew up my shirt and stung my back and shoulders, and even got me on the beehind.

Stinging insects, I got no use for them.
 
FormerHangie said:
Stinging insects, I got no use for them.
Click to expand...
Roswell, huh? I had a trip to Atlanta once and went to visit my brother. He was still at work, so I decided to help him out by mowing his lawn. Ran over a yellow jacket nest and got stung on the thigh. Man did it burn. Nothing, but nothing could stop the pain except an ice cube. I flew home the next day holding ice cubes on my pant leg over the sting spot. That was 25 years ago and I still can find the scar if I look for it. Musta been a rambling wreck from Georgia Tech what got me. :)
 
eman1200 said:
you sure that wasn't a bum-ble bee?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
bum..........ble bee..............
Click to expand...
Aaaand dad joke of the week goes to eman.

I always said that flying AND poison was too much power for one creature.
 
I bought a bee suit to work around bees, 'cuz a sting can cause issues for more than a week (and I've had seven or eight at a time in the past). Now I have to become a beekeeper.
 
Skeeters.

Skeeters in interior Alaska.

Skeeters in interior Alaska during last half of spring and start of summer.

Relief came in one of two solutions.

Forest fire.

Winter.

How to recognize a tourist in Alaska.

Brand new LL Bean ''bush'' clothes, with ''bush'' hat.

Full body skeeter net.

4d8b4af8e5d1cdcbd48fc0ed7fcfccdc.gif
 
dtuuri said:
Roswell, huh? I had a trip to Atlanta once and went to visit my brother. He was still at work, so I decided to help him out by mowing his lawn. Ran over a yellow jacket nest and got stung on the thigh. Man did it burn. Nothing, but nothing could stop the pain except an ice cube. I flew home the next day holding ice cubes on my pant leg over the sting spot. That was 25 years ago and I still can find the scar if I look for it. Musta been a rambling wreck from Georgia Tech what got me. :)
Click to expand...
That doesn't sound like a yellow jacket. More likely a hornet's nest.. they REALLY hurt. Yellow jackets usually aren't much worse than a deerfly bite in terms of pain, in my experience. A mad hornet is a force of nature...
 
I used to - I repeat USED TO - sleep in the buff. That was until a night about 25 years ago I was stung twice on the upper inside of my thigh (not far from my "business") by a scorpion in the bed. I went from sound asleep to standing beside the bed in a milli-second, yelling to my wife that I'd been stung. She turned on the lights, searched the sheets, and finally found it. It felt like being hit by a lit cigarette, and the pain lingered for hours. An interesting side-effect the next morning was that my tongue felt sort of numb, like a mild shot of novocaine.
 
I've been hit by a couple of red wasps in the calf that I had apparently gotten close to a nest they were building on the eave of the house. Hurt like a mother and scrambled across the yard. 5 minutes later I had emptied two full cans of wasp-hornet killer on every gap that even looked like a wasp could make a home. Calf swelled up a little bit for a day or two. I still hate red wasps with a passion. I normally leave the blue mud daubers alone as they're not usually aggressive.
 
ETres said:
... An interesting side-effect the next morning was that my tongue felt sort of numb, like a mild shot of novocaine.
Click to expand...

I was on a golf course once and got zapped by O N E fireant. one. I had a pretty bad reaction, and one of the things I remember was my ears going tingly/numb. that was weird. and the weird thing is, I've been bitten by a bunch of fireants a few other times. other than the typical nasty welts and itching for the next week or so, I didn't have the reaction I had when that one bugger got me. those guys suck bad.
 
SoonerAviator said:
I normally leave the blue mud daubers alone as they're not usually aggressive.
Click to expand...

Although I'm not fond of their mud nests, I like having mud daubers living in my garage because they kill any black widows that dare try to make it their home, too. I discovered this when we had our house remodeled and had to leave our garage doors open much more than usual. I started finding paralyzed black widows on the garage floor, at least one per day for a while. We also had an uptick in mud dauber nests. I finally made the connection, googled it, and discovered it was true. I'd MUCH rather have mud daubers than back widows - I hate those things!
 
MuseChaser said:
That doesn't sound like a yellow jacket. More likely a hornet's nest..
Click to expand...
Hornets nest in the trees, this nest was underground. I know my yellow jackets. They're smart, too. Have sentries, even. I put up a shop vac to suck 'em up when they returned home behind my siding next to my front door. After awhile, a bunch of yellow and black heads peeped out the hole trying to find out where everybody went. They saw the shop vac, walked down a corner board and started flying up and down the vertical hose, inspecting it. Then they went horizontally down the siding to the next corner board and drilled in there!
 
How about insects that bite? I don't like them either.

This was waiting for me by the hangar door this morning...

682B34E7-48C5-453F-9830-5E88074D75EE.jpeg
 

Attachments

  • F79F6155-C8E7-4916-85A1-EA73864A53A3.jpeg
    F79F6155-C8E7-4916-85A1-EA73864A53A3.jpeg
    160.8 KB · Views: 9
Zeldman said:
Skeeters.

Skeeters in interior Alaska.

Skeeters in interior Alaska during last half of spring and start of summer.

Relief came in one of two solutions.

Forest fire.

Winter.

How to recognize a tourist in Alaska.

Brand new LL Bean ''bush'' clothes, with ''bush'' hat.

Full body skeeter net.

4d8b4af8e5d1cdcbd48fc0ed7fcfccdc.gif
Click to expand...

Singing "There's a Skeeter on my....... " errrr, nevermind.
 
I have a simple policy, one wasp, one can of wasp spray. One black widow, one can of spider spray(except that time I found 2 at once, they got a half can each). Growing up in the country gave me one useful skill, the ability to identify a black widow web by feel before seeing the spider, and slowly backing away to find the flame thrower.
 
I was cutting some thick vines with a chainsaw years ago. Felt a sting on my face and thought it was just a wood chip. Felt a few more and then it started to hurt, a lot... Realized I had kicked up a hornets nest. Dropped the saw and ran. Think I had 20+ stings since it took so long to figure it out. The noise of the saw masked the buzzing and I expected things to be bouncing off.

Think we can all agree that stinging and biting insects suck (except for bumble bees that pollinate things and make honey).
 
chartbundle said:
I have a simple policy, one wasp, one can of wasp spray. One black widow, one can of spider spray(except that time I found 2 at once, they got a half can each). Growing up in the country gave me one useful skill, the ability to identify a black widow web by feel before seeing the spider, and slowly backing away to find the flame thrower.
Click to expand...

I was wondering whose house this was....:lol::lol:

5d38802d36e03c503b77f02b
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Fishflys (or, Mayflies if you prefer), no sting, no bite. (not my picture)

iu
Click to expand...

Locals on the shore of Lake Erie used to refer to those bugs as "Canadian Soldiers" (an invading army, for sure). I went to a church camp there one summer, and they were everywhere. I saw an old photo
of an infestation where the ground was covered deep enough to plow (like snow).

Dave
 
Yellow jackets are *******s with wings.
Kenny Phillips said:
I bought a bee suit to work around bees, 'cuz a sting can cause issues for more than a week (and I've had seven or eight at a time in the past). Now I have to become a beekeeper.
Click to expand...
Oddly, I don't get stung much as a beekeeper and more often than not it's because I got impatient with the bees. Most of the time I don't even put the gloves on.
 
MuseChaser said:
That doesn't sound like a yellow jacket. More likely a hornet's nest.. they REALLY hurt. Yellow jackets usually aren't much worse than a deerfly bite in terms of pain, in my experience. A mad hornet is a force of nature...
Click to expand...

I was walking out of my garage door last year and wham! out of nowhere a yellow jacket got my leg. No nests nearby, no bare ground even.. I recon I just walked into the thing. Wow that thing hurt way more than a bee.
 
G-Man said:
What could you wear that would stop a scorpion? Chainmail?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know, underwear won't stop a scorpion sting, but it packages things up nicely, thus reducing vulnerable body parts from dangling about and providing additional target areas.
 
Over the years I have been bitten and stung by multiple varieties of insects, nailed by jellyfish (even a Man O- War one time), and burned by various noxious plants. The worst "natural" pain and ill effects I have ever experienced was getting stabbed by a Crown of Thorns starfish. Those things are no joke. Especially when you have already exceeded deco stop time and cannot leave the water right away.
 
EdFred said:
Just wait until spiders evolve wings.
Click to expand...

Spiders are capable of flight... They spin long singular threads that catch the wind and it pulls them along like a sail. When they want to climb they let out more thread, descend they pull it back in. They're pretty amazing creatures.
 
labbadabba said:
Spiders are capable of flight... They spin long singular threads that catch the wind and it pulls them along like a sail. When they want to climb they let out more thread, descend they pull it back in. They're pretty amazing creatures.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I'm talking like dragonflies flight!
 
I am highly allergic to bees and fire ants, so much so I carry Epipens in my flight bag. Last time I got stung resulted in a trip to the ER and it was no fun. I look real carefully at self service pumps to make sure there are no nests about. My wife takes care of removing bee nests in the summer time while I hide inside.
 
So I bought a can of hornet and wasp killer and nuked their sorry butts. One day later the sting is gone, but I itch all over.
 
FormerHangie said:
So I bought a can of hornet and wasp killer and nuked their sorry butts. One day later the sting is gone, but I itch all over.
Click to expand...
I like the Spectracide Pro brand where it's just a white can with red and black lettering. Usually find it at Home Depot or Lowes next to the regular Spectracide wasp spray. Stuff is potent and they drop almost instantly when contacted by it. It leaves a bit of a residue so it can kill and deter wasps for a few weeks.
 
SoonerAviator said:
I like the Spectracide Pro brand where it's just a white can with red and black lettering. Usually find it at Home Depot or Lowes next to the regular Spectracide wasp spray. Stuff is potent and they drop almost instantly when contacted by it. It leaves a bit of a residue so it can kill and deter wasps for a few weeks.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I got. At some point I have to go out and disturb the nest to see if I got them all. Long sleeves, long pants, goggles, and the cuffs taped closed will be the order of the day.
 
dtuuri said:
Roswell, huh? I had a trip to Atlanta once and went to visit my brother. He was still at work, so I decided to help him out by mowing his lawn. Ran over a yellow jacket nest and got stung on the thigh. Man did it burn. Nothing, but nothing could stop the pain except an ice cube. I flew home the next day holding ice cubes on my pant leg over the sting spot. That was 25 years ago and I still can find the scar if I look for it. Musta been a rambling wreck from Georgia Tech what got me. :)
Click to expand...

I have found that parking a running lawn mower over the nest hole generates a satisfying clink-clink sound as they swarm out of the nest and into the whirling blades of death...
 
eman1200 said:
I was on a golf course once and got zapped by O N E fireant. one. I had a pretty bad reaction, and one of the things I remember was my ears going tingly/numb. that was weird. and the weird thing is, I've been bitten by a bunch of fireants a few other times. other than the typical nasty welts and itching for the next week or so, I didn't have the reaction I had when that one bugger got me. those guys suck bad.
Click to expand...

I was inspecting a roof with a drone in NC after Hurricane Florence and ended up standing directly on top of a red ant pile while I did it. At first I didn't feel anything, but as they started biting the bejesus out of my left leg I actually de-pantsed myself without even thinking about it as I almost threw the controls to my co-worker.
 
overdrive148 said:
I was inspecting a roof with a drone in NC after Hurricane Florence and ended up standing directly on top of a red ant pile while I did it. At first I didn't feel anything, but as they started biting the bejesus out of my left leg I actually de-pantsed myself without even thinking about it as I almost threw the controls to my co-worker.
Click to expand...

Real world ants in the pants
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top