Getting Awake FAST!

[Riley Smith]

So I'm just getting up and having the java on the patio. The rays of the rising sun stream through the live oak and the dragonflies are lit up like jewels flitting across the lawn. It's pretty pleasant and  one of my morning rituals. Even if it rains and there are no dragonflies.
 Just being got up, I'm still in sleepwear. Which is really no big deal because I can go to Walmart and see the same thing. And I'm at home and the neighbors are 100 yds away at the closest and they're not. Nobody cares if I wear my PJs out on the patio and all is well and good.
  I hadn't moved for a while. There were chickadees and cardinals at the feeder and the blue northern sky was so soothing, but you can't sit forever, and I got up to survey the days chores. I walked out into the driveway under the shade of the oak and admired my grass cutting skills from yesterday. Everyone could see me now
and it still isn't a big deal until.....ZAP!
 WHAT HAPPENED?
RED HOT POKER IN THE THIGH!!!!
WASP!!!!
I examined the place and looked for the culprit , folding the long legs of the short PJs back to make sure it hadn't gotten in them. OUCH! It was STILL getting worse and I'm trying to figure out what got me and where it was as I turned to go inside. I'm figuring cow ant the way it hurts. And THEN I felt it. And it promptly got me on the hind side.
 ZAP!
Let me tell you folks, the neighbors almost got a view instantly. They'd prolly want to put me in jail like that guy down the road that ran around in HIS yard nekked. I DID manage to get hid on the patio before I divested the demon in my britches. He grazed me again with that white hot poker as the PJs hit the concrete. I saw the little sucker fly away, although I didn't recognize what type of wasp it was.
 You never know what is going to happen in Life. Things can go so many different ways. I COULD be sitting nekked in the county lock up trying to explain all this.

[Spot]

Ouch Riley!
I got swarmed in the cabin of the boat last year by one nest while clearing another, I have felt you pain...There was a mad scramble to climb out the companionway and down the stepladder, maybe 3 stings; however, disrobing was not a part of my experience. I still do a walkaround and visual check though the portlights before I climb up and open the cabin.

[Wayne Howard]

I hate red wasps. Not dislike but actively HATE them!!! I was walking by Mni Ole and her trailer when one of the little bastards flew out of the trailer tongue and stung my on the back of my calf. I've still got a dimple where he hit me. But revenge is a dish best served cold. I waited until dark and then sprayed wasp spray into the trailer tongue from both ends. Problem solved!!

These days at our Central Texas location, I don't see as many but every one I see has an encounter with a metal fly swatter.

[Riley Smith]

I think the scallawag crawled up there while I was sitting still and then stung me when I moved. It really didn't look like a red wasp but I only got a glimpse, as I was hiding from prying eyes

[Frank B.]

LOL, come on Riley, It's Jackson County, Escatawpa no less.  They don't put you in jail for running around nekkid in your yard.  Might give you a citation for creating one of those sights that can't be unseen.

Got hit last fall by one of those wasps that live in ground tunnels.  For years I guess next generations would come and burrow down in the same place right outside my back door, and I thought we had a longstanding peaceful coexistence situation.  Stung me on the inside of my forearm, It swelled up twice its size. Never happened before.  I read that sometimes as you get older you're more sensitive.  Might have to start having an EpiPen handy.

[Ed]

Not sure what type, but I was on a ladder putting the spline back into our screen porch after Irma, and I was studiously staring into the groove when I noticed a crap load of hornets/wasps in a cavity.  They came boiling out into my face, I flew backwards off the ladder, and my darling wife got a great laugh as I stumbled across the backyard.  Numerous stings around my face, but I found out I wasn't allergic to wasps as much as bees.

[Captain Kidd]

As kids we had a good bit of clover in our yard. We occasionally stepped on honey bees. When I was about 10, we vacationed to see our cousins. They lived here in East Ridge at that time. We lived in VA. (funny that I live just a few miles from their old house 50+ years later). I got stung by a bumblebee. Made me really sick. My folks took me to the doctor. While waiting to see him I vomited all over the waiting room! What a mess but then I was ok. Went years without getting stung. Then one day I was hitching my MacGregor 26 to go sailing. Before I knew it, it was like someone hit my hand with a hammer!!! Turns out there was a wasp nest inside the trailer tongue. I never saw it. I've only been stung once since, but it sure ain't no fun!

[Doug SC]

I made a living as a commercial Beekeeper for 15 years. I can't count how many times I have been stung by honeybees. It has to be well over 1,000. For me it hurts at first but goes away. I have been stung by Bumble bees which are ground nesters, but don't recall them being significantly worse than a honeybee. Though each person reacts differently to the various toxins.

I have lived around fire ants most of my life and they have stung me more times than I would like. You have to be alert for their nest which when small aren't as noticeable. They leave a little pustule where the toxin kills cells. I had an interest in ants from a young age up through my college years. I would dig up various different species of ant colonies to find the queen, and move them into a glass observation container, or ant farm. Florida Harvester Ants have a sting that really hurts. As does a Cow Ant which is actually a wingless female wasp.

I don't find Red Wasps to be particularly aggressive. However, the Guinea wasp is very quick to sting. Yellow Jackets are also aggressive and nest in the ground. I haven't been stung by a Bald-Faced Hornet yet. I ran into a nest of Red Wasps when I bumped an overhanging branch while canoeing and was stung 3 times in rapid succession as I went over the side of the canoe into the water. That made me feel a little woozy, but I recovered quickly. They love to nest over water.

At the website for Atlas Obscura they have an article on Ranking the Pain of Sting Insects, From 'Spicy' to 'Shockingly Electric'. If anyone happens to be interested.

atlasobsucura.com

[Norm L.]

Frank, about 30 years ago I got stung by a wasp while cleaning up a small clump of bamboo. My arm puffed up like Popeye.
Since then I have been cautious and fleet. Since we moved in this house 5 years ago I've been stung three times. Obviously 30 years later I'm not as fleet. But these stings, at three separate times, were more minor annoyances after the first 10 minutes or so. I think it has to do with the background of the deliverer.

There are probably few trailer sailors who don't have a wasp on board story. Even with the Nimble in a slip they loved building in the folds of the main sail cover. A can of wasp spray was kept in the cabin.
None ever took up residence in a cabin which is great because you don't want to open up your boat and descend dressed and acting like a SWAT team exercise.

[Riley Smith]

It was only because I'd had experience with bees that the neighbor and passing motorists didn't see the moon! An insect attack brings on an immediate and automatic reaction in the body and floods the system with trace chemicals that almost instantly are detectible via breath and sweat. But you can negate that somewhat with experience. Those reactions release pheromones and chemical traces of our emotions and those chemical traces are detectable by bees and some insects. You can make things very bad if you lose it. The insects get a turbo boost from the chemicals and it's best not to go there if you can.  We have every stinging, biting, and annoying critter that crawls, flies, and walks in Mississippi. I recently got into the big black carpenter ants. I've never had one sting me, they are just big and annoying and you flick 'em away and go about your business. This one nailed me as I was pouring some potting soil where they decided to build a nest. It was a very bad sting and comparable to the one the other day on the thigh.