Hornet Sting Treatment

[berninbush]

I will never do the baking soda paste again. My son had two infected bee sites from using it (I thought that was best but it wasn't) requiring oral antibiotic treatment. Instant removal of the sitnger and using ice and antiseptic solution on the wound is the best. And Tylenol for pain - it can really hurt.

As the last several posts have pointed out, there are differences between various species of stinging bugs... bees, wasps, hornets, and fire ants. Baking soda does work beautifully on fire ant bites, but had no discernible effect on wasp stings for me.

I also know it's true that bees leave a stinger in the wound (and die shortly after they sting you) while wasps don't. Thus, treatment for bee sting involves removing the stinger, while wasps are different. I guess the bottom line is to try to identify what got you and find the appropriate treatment accordingly.

[Two Speed]

. . . We have mostly Yellowjackets. Not too many Hornets. . .

Same around here, much more likely to run into yellow jackets than hornets. Not that I'm complaining. Based on my limited experience with hornets I believe they pack more of a wallop than yellow jackets.

[leeki pole]

As Peyton Manning said, "just rub some dirt on it."
Chewing tobacco is good too. Rednecks rule.

[weary]

Best thing for bee/wasp/hornet stings is to take smoking tobacco , from a cigarette or rolling tobacco pouch and place good amount in your mouth and chew it slightly till is gets good and slobbery .Place the spit soaked slobbery mass of tobacco over the offending sting and hold it there for about 20-30 minutes. I know it sounds odd but it works.

workboot

My technique is to just wait 20-30 minutes and the sting pretty much goes away.

Weary

[adventurousmtnlvr]

NOT going to multi-quote this one but as I list on my previous post (see site) the stingers are NOT the same on various types (I'm allergic so "I" do pay attention to these things). For someone saying baking soda didn't work on bees, I'll agree ... it's for hornets and wasps. You do NOT take the stingers out the SAME either as some have barbs on them (see below on how). I agree with the person who says yellow jackets live in the ground (killed over 1000 in my yard just 2 weeks ago). Wasp normal make nests unless it's a Cow Killer. And some types of bees die after a sting, others do not. For ME from experience the tobacco thing did not work, for another person baking soda didn't ... I end up in the hospital frankly on steroids, injections, benedryl etc. so frankly everyone is different so different things will work. I believe that most were trying to be helpful and frankly I'm thrilled to hear the bleach thing if for nothing else to kill the potential infection (that was new for me) ... thanks

From the site I provided earlier:

Wasps and bees sting to defend themselves or their colony. Stinging involves the injection of a protein venom that causes pain and other reactions.
Wasps and bumble bees can sting more than once because they are able to pull out their stinger without injury to themselves. If you are stung by a wasp or bumble bee, the stinger is not left in your skin.
Honey bees have barbs on their stinger which remain hooked in the skin. The stinger, which is connected to the digestive system of the bee, is torn out of the abdomen as the bee attempts to fly away. As a result, the bee soon dies. If you are stung by a honey bee, scratch out the stinger (with its attached venom gland) with your fingernail as soon as possible. Do not try to pull out the stinger between two fingers. Doing so only forces more venom into your skin, causing greater irritation.

[JERMM]

Same around here, much more likely to run into yellow jackets than hornets. Not that I'm complaining. Based on my limited experience with hornets I believe they pack more of a wallop than yellow jackets.

well yeah, you just live up the road from Georgia Tech, Yellow Jackets are everywhere.

The degree of "wallop" from a hornet sting is much worser than a yellow jacket I received seven stings last Aug from hornets, hurt like %#!&%#!&%#!&%#!&%#!&%#! I don't have a remedy for pain, but was given something for it in the ER, I'm allergic and require medical attention anyway they gave me two dosed by IV for pain.

I suggest you contact your doctor or pharmacist for a remedy to use in the field to relieve the pain.

Be careful with bleach it can cause a chemical burn.

[NICKTHEGREEK]

[quote=Appalachian Tater;687426]Chewing a cigarette is a bad idea as nicotine is a potent poison when orally ingested.

That's why so many folks use Mail Pouch tobacco to commit immediate suicide.
Come on, starting out with something like that statement doesn't lend much cred to the rest of your post. It's true nicotine is a poison but your wording is very misleading.

[MOWGLI]

My technique is to just wait 20-30 minutes and the sting pretty much goes away.

Weary

Last year, I got stung by a yellow jacket, and had the most hellacious itching I've ever experienced for about 3-4 days afterwards. It was CRAZY!

PS: I'll add that I get popped every year a number of times - since I do a lot of trail work. That itching episode seemed to be a one time thing.

[NICKTHEGREEK]

Newsflash a insect sting isnt an "open wound" unless you consider a puncture hole the size of a small hypodermic needle an "open wound" . Nor does the tobacco method I mentioned actually call for orally ingesting tobacco. If it was such a potent poison then tobacco chewers would be falling dead in droves from tobacco juice ingestation. The tobacco method works...........you dont have to use it if you dont like/want to.....but it does work..........

[quote=NICKTHEGREEK;687890]

Chewing a cigarette is a bad idea as nicotine is a potent poison when orally ingested.

That's why so many folks use Mail Pouch tobacco to commit immediate suicide.
Come on, starting out with something like that statement doesn't lend much cred to the rest of your post. It's true nicotine is a poison but your wording is very misleading.

Didn't see workboot's post, amend mine to Yeah, what he said.

[leeki pole]

Same around here, much more likely to run into yellow jackets than hornets. Not that I'm complaining. Based on my limited experience with hornets I believe they pack more of a wallop than yellow jackets.

Them dern red wasps pack a heck of a wallop. One got me on the nose while I was fixing a gutter on the house. I looked like Jimmy Durante for a day or so. So I went down to the dollar store and bought two cans of that long range wasp and hornet spray. Lined 27 of those suckers up. Mess with me, I get payback. Ha!

[Nearly Normal]

Paper wasp nest is roundish, flat and open. The wasp are seen on the nest surface. The wasp are brown and black. I've seen nest as big as a pie pan. Not to be fooled with.

Guinny wasp are a small version of the same type of wasp. Yellowish or grayish in color. Same type nest.

Yellow Jackets live in the ground, when disturbed they are very aggressive and will follow or chase you. Yellow, bee sized.
They love open drinks and food, especially meat. They will both sting and bite.
Always check your drink at a picnic, I've seen people stung in the mouth and it's not pretty. In warm weather you can't dress fish or a deer for the durn things.

Hornets live inside a paper oblong sphere. They enter and exit at a hole in the bottom. I've seen nest as big as a 5 gallon bucket, usually hanging in a tree. They are very aggressive if messed with. In early winter you can shoot or cut down the nest for a keep sake. They overwinter somehow in the ground.

All of these wasp make and reproduce on or in a paper nest. All can sting repeatedly.

I have been stung by all except hornets.
I did see a 10 year old boy stung by a hornet on the eye lid and he did fall as if shot.

I have never had an allergic reaction but being stung does cause me to see red and makes me angry for a few minutes.

[atraildreamer]

For those of us that are allergic ME ME ME. I carry 2 epipens on the trail. As far as immediate relief I find that the bleach method works quite well yet have not found a way to carry it on the trail securely.

Take an empty nasal spray bottle. Pull off the top and remove the plastic tube inside the bottle. Clean and fill the bottle with bleach. You now have a secure, unbreakable dropper bottle that can be used to dispense the bleach a drop at a time for stings, water purification, etc. Be sure to label the bottle so you don't try to squirt it up your nose!

You could also use an empty eyedrop bottle (smaller and lighter), but rest assured, some idiot will try to use it in their eyes!

[weary]

A couple of weeks ago I was cutting down some invasive multifloral roses, when I got too close to a "paper" wasp nest. I got about six stings on my legs and arms. It hurt for a few minutes.

I bought a couple of cans of wasp spray and zapped them a few evenings later about dusk. Dusk is important. You want them all to be in the nest, not outside defending the nest.

One can probably would have been enough, but I wanted to be sure I killed them all. The spray tore the nest totally apart. I sort of expected to be stung again as I attacked the nest, but the spray killed them all before they could defend themselves.

It was a small nest, about 6 by 8 inches. I'm not sure what my strategy would have been had the nest been the size of a 10-quart pail or larger, which I see occasionally.

Weary

[Two Speed]

. . . I'm not sure what my strategy would have been had the nest been the size of a 10-quart pail or larger . . .

I'm thinking "wait for colder weather."

[SurferNerd]

Funny this topic is here, I got stung by one walking out my front door to work this morning. On my left forearm, dam I hate them things.

[Hoop]

Last year, I got stung by a yellow jacket, and had the most hellacious itching I've ever experienced for about 3-4 days afterwards. It was CRAZY!

PS: I'll add that I get popped every year a number of times - since I do a lot of trail work. That itching episode seemed to be a one time thing.

If that was the last time you were stung and the reaction was unusual, then you could have developed a sensitivity to yellow jackets. It's what happened to me, and the doc in the ER said it can and does happen that way. I had no idea I was allergic until it happened. One year you can handle a sting then the next year you're carrying an Epipen.

[NICKTHEGREEK]

The Navy didn't name two pre-WW-2 Aircraft carriers Wasp and Hornet because they made tasty honey. These are 2 bees that you learn to leave alone one way or the other.

[Wags]

yellow jackets do not leave their stingers in, which is why a single one of them can give you multiple stings. bees are the ones who leave in their stingers. wasps/hornets/yellow jackets don't

i too use the baking soda paste

[weary]

If rewarded with sugary water, wasps can be trained in minutes to follow specific smells. The olfactory sensors in their antennae can sense chemicals in the air in concentrations as tiny as a few parts per billion. Wasps could be cost-effective helpers in searching for explosives, toxic chemicals, and even fungi on crops.

Weary


"ATHENS, Ga. -- Wasps are not man's best friend -- probably their worst. But when it comes to sniffing out trouble, scientists believe they may be better than dogs.

They ward off intruders, track down criminals, find bombs and detect toxic chemicals, but dogs could soon be replaced by wasps. They have the same sensitive odor detection as dogs and are now being trained to sniff out trouble.

"The advantages of a wasp over a dog is you can produce them by the thousands. They are real inexpensive, and you can train them in a matter of minutes," Joe Lewis, a research entomologist at University of Georgia in Athens, tells DBIS.

He and Biological and agricultural engineer Glen Rains are doing just that. Olfactory sensors on the wasps' antennae can smell chemicals in concentrations as tiny as a few parts per billion in the air.

"So far, they've been able to detect, to some level, any chemical that we've trained them to," Rains tells DBIS.

Training is simple and quick. The wasps are fed sugar water. At the same time they're introduced to a smell for 10 seconds. The process is repeated two more times.

Lewis says, "We can train a wasp within a matter of 10 to 15 minutes."

For example, a set of wasps is trained to detect the smell of coffee. When they are put into a simple container, a tiny web camera watches their actions. When the smell of orange is pumped into the pipe, nothing. But when it's coffee, the wasps crowd around the smell.

So far, Rains and Lewis have not found anything the wasps cannot be trained to detect. They can be trained to detect everything from drugs to human remains to fungi on crops. They could one day even be able to detect deadly diseases like cancer.

BACKGROUND: Scientists from the University of Georgia and the USDA Agricultural Research Service are training wasps to detect the telltale odors of concealed explosives, drugs and human remains, and possibly one day certain diseases like cancer. They are now investigating whether it is possible to train mosquitoes as living odor detectors as well, and plan to eventually study other insects with excellent sniffing ability, like honeybees and moths.

HOW IT WORKS: The Georgia scientists have built a device they call the Wasp Hound: an odor-detection device that costs around $60. It is made of a small PVC tube containing five wasps that can be trained to detect any target odor within minutes. The device has a fan at the top, which draws odors into the tube through a filter. If the wasps catch a whiff of whatever they've been trained to smell, they crowd around a hole in the filter. A web cam inside the tube is attached to a computer, which alerts the operator to the wasps' reaction with a beep or a flashing light. The Wasp Hound could be used by farmers to monitor crops for diseases and pests; to check for explosives in airport security applications; to help doctors monitor diseases, or even by defense forces searching for buried land mines.

ADVANTAGES: Unlike dogs and the electronic sensors more commonly used today, wasps are cheap and disposable. It costs pennies and takes minutes to train them: Feed them sugar water while introducing them to a target smell for 10 seconds; give them a 30-second break, repeat the process twice more, and they are completely trained to track that single scent.

ABOUT WASPS: Wasps have olfactory sensors on their antennae that they use to stay alive. For instance, one strain of wasp lays its eggs inside a specific variety of caterpillar. The insects are attracted to the caterpillars by chemicals released by plans as the caterpillars much on them -- a type of SOS signal from the plants. This is also how wasps attract mates. Wasps can sense chemicals in concentrations as tiny as a few parts per billion in the air ý the same range to which dogs and chemical sensors are sensitive. Some species can pick up scents at concentrations as low as one part in a thousand billion, which is a hundred thousand times weaker that the concentrations detectable by commercial "electronic noses.""

[pyroman53]

Thanks for all the responses. Great discussion. I think I'm worried about the darn ground dwellers, the Yellowjackets. I've been hit 2-3 times at the same time before and was cussin out the wrong critter.

So...other than some real pain and maybe some serious itching, as long as I am not allergic, if I get stung by Yellowjackets 8-10 times I should be OK?