Wasp stung.
We got a nest. Probably under the deck(happens).
I’ve been stung numerous times over the years. I’m initially in pain. But a little lidocaine and all’s well.
So what is the purpose of such a criminally insane flying meany head in nature?
Even snakes have a legit purpose.
But a wasp?
(I hate to question Ma Nature, but girl, please…)
Hope your pain subsides!
Firstly there may not be any purpose to Nature (it’s just a continuous effort to survive.)
Secondly a painful sting discourages predators…
A wasp’s purpose is to make more wasps. Being a flying pain-inducing meany-head supports that purpose, by chasing away animals (like certain Becks) who might threaten their nests full of the new wasps that represent the outcome of that goal.
A couple of months ago, I needed wood to keep my house warm during an extended sub-freezing stretch. The heat pump just can’t keep up.
I was fossicking around in the wood pile, hadn’t been out there for awhile. All of a sudden, I felt the familiar YOWWWWIEE!! pain near both eyes. I didn’t see it, but I had stuck my face right next to a nest the little suckers had built into a tarp that was wadded up on top of some stacked wood.
Two of them chased me back into my house. One got stuck in my hair and I was able to grab and crush him. The other was loose in my mud room. I dispatched him with insect spray. I kept the carcass to learn what manner of wasp had attacked.
They landed 3 stings total, all around my eyes. Everything swelled up and it looked like I’d tangled with a prize fighter for a few days.
They were yellow jackets. Man, I hate 'em. Sorry you had an encounter!
Hey! This is a family forum!
Yeller jackets ain’t nuthin. I got stung by one of them killer wasps a few years back. Now, that was an ouchie!
Maybe 20 years ago, I found a yellow jacket nest inside a small hole in our stucco wall. One of the bastards stung me. Very much worse than a bee sting. Went and got some instant cement and filled the hole with them inside. That’ll teach them.
I’ve got to agree! I’ve been stung by all sorts of wasps, chiefly ground wasps because I can’t seem to stop stepping in their nests. These yellow jacket stings, though fewer in number, were much more painful.
The only wasp I’ve successfully avoided are bald faced hornets. I’ve heard they are the worst of all, so… yay, me?
TIL that “fossicking” is a real verb. In my capacity as a pedantic canine, I hang my head and tail in shame for not having known that!
I love learning new words, too. 
Glad you found one here.
I was stung on the tip of my left middle finger by a yellow jacket one morning and the pain was indescribably bad. I kept it on ice all day and finally had to go to the ER in the evening to get a numbing shot. The next morning the numbing had worn off and it still hurt but was bearable.
In the worst place to get stung category, I give you inside the upper thigh. I was cleaning up some trash that had blown into the yard and stepped over a small azalea bush. Wasp stung me through my jeans. The next morning the swollen area was the size of a dinner plate. It hurt like hell to walk. The doctor told me she had never seen anyone stung in that part of the body. It was my first wasp experience and apparently my body over-reacted.
This was a rather harsh sting on my palm. Where I dumbly grabbed the handrail going up. See what I mean. Evil. He was laying in wait for me.
The jerk.
These were our normal red wasps. We’ve all been stung so we keep the lidocaine handy.
It’s a normal thing we deal with in early Spring. When they have just emerged the venom must be harsher. Cause this burnt and stung for a bit.
Luckily now I have a Intrathecal pain pump installed….
.
I’m kidding. I would never. Anyway the meds are so scant it wouldn’t help at all.
That’s awful. I hope it didn’t take too long to heal! When I get ground wasp stings (probably 30 total, though at several different times), each sting site swells to about the size of a cup saucer. Usually lower legs and thighs.
You’ve gotten an early warning that you could suffer an anaphylactic shock response next time you get stung – which I hope you never do! I hope your doc also gave you a prescription for an Epi pen, and if they didn’t, I’d ask for one.
My experinace with bald face hornets is that they are bad assed enough to know that people don’t fuck with them, so they pretty much keep to themselves until some fool starts throwing rocks at their nest. Then they unleash Hell on earth.
Yeah, they have my R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
I had a pest control guy who said that they are the worst of the worst. When I discovered a large nest in a tree above my driveway about a decade ago, he came out to take care of it and literally jumped back as he inspected it from 30 feet away. Very nervous. He told me he’d only get rid of it after dark.
He explained how they go for the warmest, most tender parts of your body: Neck, inner elbows, behind the knees, etc. Then they bite, hang on and flop back and forth to sting you repeatedly. The bites become infected because they are meat eaters. He said they will chase you further and faster than any other type of wasp, too.
A couple of years ago, I was mowing late in the season just around my house. I don’t mow any other part of my property after mid-July just to avoid wasp encounters. I was finishing up around a flower bed that has an ornamental tree in it – and suddenly came within a foot of planting my face into a bald faced hornets’ nest hanging from a branch on that little tree. Couldn’t see it for the foliage until I was that close.
You’ve never seen anyone screech backwards on a ride-on mower faster than I did that day. I tore out as fast as I could to the nearest entrance into my house. Amazingly, they didn’t come after me.
I later saw that the entrance to the nest was on the opposing side of where my face nearly touched it. I figure that was the only thing that saved me. I still shudder to remember it!
I have been stung a few times by bald faced hornets when I was bush-hogging overgrown properties. For me, their sting has a hard pop, but the pain fades fairly quickly. That may have been because I was on a moving tractor and not hanging around to threaten the nest, but I don’t know. But those mother-loving bastidge yellow jackets, that’s a whole ‘nuther story. Those things hurt and just keep on hurting!
“Ever been bit by a dead bee….”
They’re predators on other insects, thereby keeping the population levels of those others under control. They also do some pollinating, though less than bees.
What is the purpose of humans in nature? We do a lot more damage than wasps do.
Well someone has to be top of the food chain. I rather it be some upright walking mammals than venomous insects.
As long as I can whack and spray and, of course, avoid I hold the upper ground. Pffft. A stinkin’ sting ain’t stopping me.
(Seriously, @thorny_locust I hear what you’re saying, just riffing)
Thanks.
(and there’s no top of the food chain. It goes around in a circle.)