Anything that flies and bites and/or stings dies if it lives in the back yard, thanks to the near flock of sparrows that live on the deck overhang and my unholy accuracy with a pump bottle of special sauce i’ve got mixed up.
They’re free to live their lives in peace under the shutter in the front of the house though. We have an understanding, I can get the mail without being stung, and they can simply exist. The second one of 'em pipes up and buzzes me though, the truce is over, and they are toast.
Yep - those are the little bastards that wanna eat me. My stinging bug knowledge is limited at best, but these things scared me enough to do some research. They’re omnivores, so you’ll find them frequently around trash cans at McDonald’s and Dairy Queen, and they ARE aggressive. And they don’t do that “one last resort sting and fall over dead” thing, either. Nope, if they find you to be tasty or if they’re just in a pissy mood, they will sting the shit outta you. One kind nests in the ground, so it’s really easy to wander onto a nest, too. My poor doggie stepped on a nest last summer and was <eddie izzard> COVERED IN BEES!!! </eddie izzard> (well, hornets, but that’s not as much fun to say) and she was stung several times.
The spray stuff I keep handy smells like pure kerosene and shoots a long-range, concentrated stream. I’m becoming a sharpshooter with that stuff.
Call me a wimp or wuss, but I value my safety and my peace of mind, so I will react strongly when it is threatened or violated. I am deathly afraid of bees, wasps, yellowjackets, hornets, whatever you want to call them, so if I see one I will run for cover and seek shelter.
My paralyzing fear of these horrid creatures began on the first day of school in the fourth grade. Over the preceding summer some yellowjackets had built a nest in a group of trees on the playground. Several of us went into this group of trees and our presence agitated the yellowjackets. Moments later we were surrounded by an angry swarm of these bastards. Few sounds evoke a greater sense of terror and unease in me than the buzzing of hundreds of wasps/hornets flying around. As we all fled we were stung and chased away. I only sustained two stings (one on the arm and the other on my chest) but others didn’t do as well (one girl was stung at least five times, IIRC). There were at least a dozen of us all crying and sobbing as we were treated by the school nurse.
Because of my extreme phobia of these nasty spawns of Satan I have managed to avoid getting stung since that incident. A couple years ago I had a close call. I got home from work and I got out of my car. It was a short walk to my front door, about ten feet. Completely unprovoked, a hornet or yellowjacket (is there a difference? I don’t really care as they all pose the same threat to me) came flying right towards my face. My primal defense mode kicked in and I swatted at it before it could land on me and embed its venomous stinger into my skin. It got a start at stinging my hand as I struck back, but there was only a minor welt and a small dot on my palm. It still hurt like hell in spite of not being a full sting for about ten or fifteen minutes.
My immense hatred for these unwelcome beings shall never cease.
Amen brother, amen. My special passionate hatred is for fire ants, but yellow jackets are going to be the very next against the wall when I’m king. The last time I was stung by a flying insect was some years ago, but it was a yellow jacket that flew up under my t-shirt without my noticing.
dwc1970, there IS a difference between hornets and yellowjackets. Hornets are quite large (ones I’ve seen are usually about one inch in length), and they are a dull orange color with blackish wings. Do not confuse them with mud-daubers, which AFAIK are harmless.
Yellow-jackets are smaller (about 0.5"), and have transparent/white wings. Their abdomens are black and white striped and look shiny. This is the biggest difference between honeybees and yellowjackets - honeybees have fuzzy bodies while yellowjackets are shiny. Kill yellowjackets without mercy, but please be nice to the honeybees.*
*I think africanized (or “killer”) bees are fuzzy as well, so if you live in the extreme southern/southwestern US where these occur, use caution around fuzzy bees as well. I think you will find out quickly if it is a killer bee or a honeybee though - if it leaves you alone and happily continues to suckle at your flowers, it is a honeybee. If you are instead rapidly surrounded by dozens or hundreds of angry similar looking insects, then they are killer bees and you should run like hell. Maybe some industrious poster will find a nice picture illustrating the specifc regions in the US where killer bees occur - I know they’re currently fairly limited.
Let’s not forget hover flies, which look like bees and wasps but aren’t. They just happen to be very good at camoflage. As their name suggests, they do a lot of hovering… over your hamburgers and your pop and you. They bite rather than sting, and they do that probably because all those salts and oils on your skin smell so good to them. They don’t seem to realize that our flesh is a bit too tough for them and they should probably stick with the hamburger. I have a high threshold of pain so, to me, their bite hurts, but not all that bad and the pain goes away quickly.
Yes, I like hover flies too. I think they’re interesting little critters.
NONONONONONO!! Too many stinging bugs! I am not letting any bee-like bug get close enough to me to identify it, OK? If it’s close enough for me to tell whether it’s a dull orange or just a dark yellow, it’s close enough to sting me, and that’s just too damn close.
I am hereby placing all non-stinging bugs on warning: if you buzz by me, prepare to be mistaken for a stinging bug, and whacked into oblivion. With accompanying shrieks to serenade you on your way to hell.
This site provides a small, but viewable map of the U.S. that shows where killer bees have been found and where they might spread (and unfortunately I live in one of the potential zones for their spread). I’m just glad we at least don’t have fire ants around here.
Thanks for the clarification between hornets and yellowjackets. The one I mentioned in my post was a yellowjacket. I should have mentioned that when I swatted it, it was on the ground fighting for its life, so I stomped it out of its misery and then got in the house, since I know that killing a yellowjacket will emit a scent to attract others to the scene (could any other insect be so evil?!)
I, personally, embrace my own wussiness when it comes to all stinging things. When I was about 4 years old, I got attacked by a nest of yellow jackets. I was playing at my cousins’ house, outside with the other kids, and there was a nest under their backyard deck. I beleive I got about 20 stings in all (quite a lot on a four year old, or anybody really), before my mother heard the screaming and came running out to save me. I don’t remember much about it except pain and absolute terror, though I’m not allergic which is good. I’ve been stung a total of once since then, by a wasp.
I used to be deathly afraid of bees / wasps, etc, but I’m getting better. Bumble bees are ok, even kind of cute. I still freeze around wasps and yellow jackets though, they just seem more intent on attacking people…
MORE!!
I absolutely LOATHE all those things that fly and sting! Bees, wasps, and every other flying, stinging little bastard needs to suck gallons of Raid and die! What bothers me is the whole swimming pool thing. While it is all still and calm, no bees or wasps want to take a drink from it. As soon as I decide to swim, they come down to buzz over my head and sip away on the now turbulent waters.
WT-flyin-F!?!
Don’t they care that waves are dangerous? Or is it that they want to swoop down and sting me on the face when I come up from a dive? Makes me not want to swim anymore… fuckers!
And WTF is with that big… black… LOUD… LARGE flying thing?? It wants to come up close and check me out whenever I go outside. WHY, WHY, Why? I hate you… big… black… LOUD… LARGE flying thing. Leave me alone.
No, these big, black, loud, and large things ARE bugs. I just don’t know what kind or if they sting but they sound like big bees. I mean B-I-G! And they hover near you, all friendly-like, buzzing loudly. I hate those things!
My assistant manager discovered one in our art store once, late in the afternoon. No customers were around, thank God. She started freaking out and whimpering, while the guy clerk and I tried hitting it with brooms. She locked herself in the office until we could deal with it but (yeah, always a but) it wanted to follow her. The office was up a few steps from the main floor with an open roof (I never understood why the office walls didn’t reach to the real ceiling but, oh well) and she watched in pure horror as the big, black, loud, large flying thing bumped up against the office window, gaining altitude and finally… over the wall it went. I have never, EVER seen a human being move so fast in all my life as my asst. manager did that day. It was superhuman speed! I’m talking putting Superman to severe and UTTER shame.
She ran out of the office like her ass was on fire, screaming her lil’, blonde head off in the process. My co-worker and I had never laughed so hard; tears… so many tears. I teased her relentlessly for the rest of my time working with this company but that was before one of those stupid bugs wanted to check ME out.
I now know exactly how she felt. It’s simple, really.
Big, black, loud, large flying bug coming at me = lots of flailing arms and screaming. Much screaming.
I just wanted to add to what DrDeth said. You can make traps that the bees, wasps, hornets…whatever, can’t get out of pretty simply. Just take the 2 liter bottle and cut the top off horizontally a few inches down from the mouth of the bottle. Take the end that you’d just cut off and secure it upside down in the remaining bottle. The insects will fly up to get out, but will stay inside until they drown.
-K
They’re big enough that you can get a good wack with the fly swatter whilst in mid air!
I had one wanting to check out the living room. Knowing HWMBO is not fond of these docile creatures, I swatted at it…missed…but it flew back outside. Not content to try to find the entrance to the nest that was covered up in aluminum coil last summer, he flies back it…THWACK! Game set match as I see the grass russling some 15 feet from where the bee was.
I think whether you get stung or not is just a matter of having bug-mojo. Some folks have it, some don’t. I have the bug-mojo; I’ve held a bee in my hand to get it away from some screaming, non-bug-mojo people, and I didn’t get stung. If there are mosquitos around, I’m usually not the preferred target.
AFA standing still, I remember a time when I was…oh…something like 10 maybe a bit younger. I was a church camp and some of us popped into an outhouse to relieve ourselves. Someone decided to kick the pile of shreaded paper on the floor…well…can you say bumblebee nest? Cranky is right, they are docile until provoked and I know how I feel when someone kicks me.
So there I am, winky out in mid stream and I get stung right on the …finger! Hurt like hell, but I guess it could be worse! :eek:
Urgh, horseflies. When I was a wee lass, my family and some friends went to a lake resort, where we indulged in some horseback riding. We were ambling along single file when the horse I was on leapt into the air, came down facing 90 degrees away from where he started, and shot into the thick woods beside the trail, with me clinging to his mane and plaintively calling for help. A horsefly had landed on his rump and chomped down. My sister’s jerk boyfriend, between spurts of moronic laughter, later told me, “Yeah, I saw it land, but I didn’t say anything 'cause I wanted to see what would happen! Hur hur hur!”
I hate sweat bees, too. Little tiny bastards that land on you to sip your sweat, and you don’t know they’re there until you accidentally squish one and it stings the hell out of you.
