What insect bit me?

[Half_Man_Half_Wit]

This is probably a long shot to settle definitively, but I’d like some opinions.

Two days ago, I felt a sharp sting on my right inner upper arm. It wasn’t terribly painful, but enough to make me jump up and do that little dance you do when you think you’ve got something in your clothes, but you’re out in public and thus can’t just throw them off. There was some buzzing in my shirt, but the perpetrator itself never emerged.

After I got home, I inspected the site, and found four or five small-ish welts (1cm diameter, I would say) with a red dot, like a puncture wound, in the center, which was about 1mm across (which both me and my wife thought rather large, with her joking that if that was made by the snout of something, it probably was an elephant—this works better in German).

I applied some Fenistil Gel to the area, and otherwise went on with business—there was no itching, and the pain was comparable to a sore muscle.

The next morning, I looked at the area again, to find that some of the bites had formed small blisters, and an area about 5x15 cm was red and somewhat swollen. The pain was still mostly comparable to a sore muscle. Today, there’s just a little bit of redness left, and it’s a bit tender to the touch.

I live in Germany, in Cologne, to be exact, and pretty much the only insects I know that have a defensive sting around here are bees and wasps. A bee, however, wouldn’t have stung more than once, and the reaction seems to mild for a wasp sting—last time I got stung by a wasp, my entire thigh got red and swelled up. Maybe I just didn’t experience as severe a reaction this time? Any other ideas?

[ZurBob]

Sounds like a yellowjacket. Aggressive little bastards about the size of a honeybee, capable of multiple stings.

[Darren_Garrison]

Do you have assassin bugs in Germany?

[quimper]

@Half_Man_Half_Wit

This is probably a long shot to settle definitively, but I’d like some opinions.

Two days ago, I felt a sharp sting on my right inner upper arm. It wasn’t terribly painful, but enough to make me jump up and do that little dance you do when you think you’ve got something in your clothes, but you’re out in public and thus can’t just throw them off. There was some buzzing in my shirt, but the perpetrator itself never emerged.

After I got home, I inspected the site, and found four or five small-ish welts (1cm diameter, I would say) with a red dot, like a puncture wound, in the center, which was about 1mm across (which both me and my wife thought rather large, with her joking that if that was made by the snout of something, it probably was an elephant—this works better in German).

I applied some Fenistil Gel to the area, and otherwise went on with business—there was no itching, and the pain was comparable to a sore muscle.

The next morning, I looked at the area again, to find that some of the bites had formed small blisters, and an area about 5x15 cm was red and somewhat swollen. The pain was still mostly comparable to a sore muscle. Today, there’s just a little bit of redness left, and it’s a bit tender to the touch.

I live in Germany, in Cologne, to be exact, and pretty much the only insects I know that have a defensive sting around here are bees and wasps. A bee, however, wouldn’t have stung more than once, and the reaction seems to mild for a wasp sting—last time I got stung by a wasp, my entire thigh got red and swelled up. Maybe I just didn’t experience as severe a reaction this time? Any other ideas?

Sounds like a deer fly or horse fly of some type. They like to saw a small chunk of flesh off and drink the blood. They also tend to orbit tall objects (like your head) at high speed before swooping in to bite your neck; a good way to avoid them is to have taller friends, put sticky tape on the back of your hat, or hold your hat above your head and guide their orbit into surrounding foilage.

[Half_Man_Half_Wit]

@ZurBob

Sounds like a yellowjacket. Aggressive little bastards about the size of a honeybee, capable of multiple stings.

What’s the difference between a yellowjacket and a wasp? Is the former a type of the latter?

@Darren_Garrison

Do you have assassin bugs in Germany?

Yes, but I don’t think there’d be any buzzing in that case, would there? Also, I think they mostly sting to draw blood, and this wasn’t a feeding session, but rather multiple quick stings, probably because the insect in question got trapped in my shirt beneath my arm (in which case, I can’t really blame it).

@quimper

Sounds like a deer fly or horse fly of some type. They like to saw a small chunk of flesh off and drink the blood. They also tend to orbit tall objects (like your head) at high speed before swooping in to bite your neck; a good way to avoid them is to have taller friends, put sticky tape on the back of your hat, or hold your hat above your head and guide their orbit into surrounding foilage.

I think there would have been some itching in that case, no? And again, this wasn’t really a feeding bite, more like a series of panicked defense stings…

[Darren_Garrison]

@Half_Man_Half_Wit

Yes, but I don’t think there’d be any buzzing in that case, would there? Also, I think they mostly sting to draw blood, and this wasn’t a feeding session, but rather multiple quick stings, probably because the insect in question got trapped in my shirt beneath my arm (in which case, I can’t really blame it).

I didn’t notice the buzzing part (though assassin bugs do fly.) They crossed my mind because they inject digestive enzymes into their victim and slurp the flesh smoothie back out again, which could account for the blistering around the wounds. It was just a WAG, though.

[jz78817]

@Half_Man_Half_Wit

What’s the difference between a yellowjacket and a wasp? Is the former a type of the latter?

“yellow jacket” refers to a family of wasps. they can be German Wasps, Eastern Yellowjackets, and bald-faced hornets can be colloquially referred to as yellowjackets.

and yes, they’re all assholes. Bees and solitary mud wasps (the dark-colored ones with the really skinny “waist”) just mind their own business. Yellowjackets get all up in your business and sting you just for existing.

[anomalous1]

Have to agree here, sounds similar to a yellowjacket sting I got once. multiple sores, no stinger but I definitely seen the little asshole stick to my shorts then fly away. I did nothing to provoke it except walk, and its odd enough that I live in Chicago (USA) and they are very rare to be seen in the city, even elsewhere. I had multiple red blotches by my knee and they turned into blisters that leaked a little. I’ll take a spider bite over that any day.

[TheSundial]

A spider bite? Hell no, I got bit on my face while sleeping and it was swollen for about six months.

[ZurBob]

@Half_Man_Half_Wit

What’s the difference between a yellowjacket and a wasp? Is the former a type of the latter?

Google/wiki: Yellowjacket, for the dope on the German yellowjacket vs wasp. they are all different, yet related.

[ZurBob]

Got nailed by (one) yellowjacket last week at work while walking down a sidewalk in an asphalt parking lot leading to our office building. No nature (vegetation/dirt) around for 200 yards… The son-of-a-bitch stung me right in the jugular. My companion checked me out and found no evidence of the culprit, so we proceeded on into the office. Once inside a few minutes later, he exclaimed: “Don’t move! it’s in your collar!”… The bastard nailed me two more times in the shoulder before I could get my shirt off and be rid of it.

This was a single yellowjacket and it was very painful. Over the years, I have on occasion blundered into entire colonies (nests) of them while doing yard work, and received multiple stings from many of them simultaneously. A literal pain in the arse!

I have a grudging respect for their tenacity, but don’t like it when directed toward me.