Last year I was attacked by a swarm of wasps and stung many times (OK, it was my fault; I was trying to destroy their nest without the proper protective clothing).
It was horrible - collapse with hot sweats for 12 hours, then joint pain for a week, heaven knows how few more stings it would have taken to kill me.
Anyway; I noticed that for a couple of weeks afterwards, I kept getting pestered by wasps whatever I did, wherever I went (now when I say pestered, I mean that they would make determined attempts to land on my skin).
I honestly don’t think it was just that I noticed the wasps more because of the trauma of the attack.
It made me wonder if perhaps the wasp’s venom does more than just hurt - do you think it might somehow chemically mark you as an ‘enemy’??
“The possible adaptive significance of such a long lasting alarm signal is apparent when considering the functions of sting autotomy in social insects, the lack of sting autotomy in yellowjackets, and the nature of predators of social wasps and bees. Sting autotomy is the loss of the sting and venom sac after a stinging episode, such as occurs in the honey bee, Apis mellifera L. …It is hypothesized that this compound serves as a carrier to prolong the release of more volatile pheromone compounds and to mark an intruder to focus the defending bees. Although the southern yellowjacket does not exhibit sting autotomy, the deposition of a long lasting alarm pheromone during stinging attacks on vertebrate predators may similarly serve to chemically mark the animal. This would focus attacks on the intruder and also alert the colony if and when this predator approached the nest again.”
However, their studies were based on reactions to cork “predators” and they note that “caution must be exercised in interpreting how these results of alarm pheromone persistence from a wooden cork may relate to alarm pheromone on vertebrate skin, fur, or feathers.”
In addition and perhaps most importantly, their cork study had a time-lapse of 15 hours post attack. They did not continue beyond that point. (But note that the attack rate appears to remain high at the 15 hour point as compared with the 5-hour lapse-time post test.) Presumably you showered several times since the initial attack during those several week. Alarm pheromone would be (presumably) washed off during each showering. So, we’re left with a couple of scenarios (that I can think of off the top of my head):
Alarm pheromone is much more persistant than I’m thinking it would be, and the wasps continue to react to it,
Another process is involved (e.g., learning).
One way or another, I guess they pegged you for a predator.
Thanks brachyrhynchos for your answer; I thought there might be something to it.
I bathe or shower at least once a day, so any pheremone on the surface of the skin should have washed off after a few days, yet the attacks continued for a couple of weeks at least.
I think we can rule out any kind of cognitive process on the part of the wasps, as the individuals in the nest that attacked me were all killed (revenge is sweet) when I sprayed the nest and most of the subsequent attacks happened when I was quite a long way from home.
My pet theory is that there is some pheremonal component of the venom itself that remains in the victim’s system for a time and is released slowly through the sweat glands or something.
FTR; the wasps in question are the common wasp Vespula vulgaris which makes nests about the size of a (soccer)football and contain up to several thousand adults.
For those nature lovers out there who might be questioning my reasons for persecuting the poor invertebrates, have a look at this picture - the nest was underneath my daughter’s play-house.
I don’t know why I didn’t think of this, but an entomologist I work with asked if you wear the same clothes (a jacket, perhaps?) when outdoors. Perhaps pheromone was deposited on the clothing. He was surprised by the length of response.
We kept bees in the backyard when I was growing up. At first I thought my father had entered yet a higher level of dementia, but there’s something quite intriguing about a box of bees from Sears. Then I discovered that our bees never stung me. This seemed counter to all my experience, since I’d been stung in other situations. In the end, we did have to get rid of them because they did sting my sister. It seems to me now that perhaps something marked me as “non-threatening”.
Perhaps whatever substance that caused you to be a target has some counterpoint?
I was only wearing shorts and a T shirt (yes, I realise now how stupid that was*) and they went straight in the wash because I couldn’t convince myself that there wasn’t a wasp or two left in the folds after I tore them off as I ran away screaming.
*FTR I had sprayed the nest with ‘wasp nest destroyer’ a fortnight earlier and there had been no sign of activity after that; I (foolishly) assumed that the nest was completely dead, but when I went to move it, it broke apart and there were agreat many live wasps just waiting inside. Next time I’ll call the professionals I think.
Possible, I suppose, but more likely than a specific marker for ‘friend’ would be the idea of a marker for ‘not worth attacking’ (No disrespect to your good self intended)
Thing is, I was the guy who opened the top of their hive to do chores. I was guessing they’d need something more substantial than “not worth attacking” to identify a huge human beast pawing around in their honey reserves.
Actually, I’m withdrawing the idea. I think all they’d need is a friend-or-foe identification.
I guess what started me thinking down that line of thought is the mammal equivalent. Apparently young mammals all give off high levels of potassium. Adult mammals know to “go easy” on affronts from baby mammals, even frequently including other species. That’s why a baby human can get away with murder pulling a dog’s hair. But once they hit that potassium-less stage–watch out kid!
… that there might be another explanation for what i’ve experienced.
Here goes:
When a mammal is attacked, the body produces all kinds of chemicals like Adrenaline, for example.
It’s not inconcievable that evolution has selected wasps that are particularly good at homing in one some component of the mammalian fight/flight chemistry (this would make them more efficient at attacking an enemy.
So, after having been severely attacked by a wasp swarm, the mamml is predisposed to experience fear at the mere sight of a wasp, this fear produces the same glandular secretions as would be produced during an actual attack, and the wasp homes in on this because it is merely programmed to do so.
