Hi Paul & All,
   Interesting that they become more aggressive when the Queen is in
winter quarters. I was not aware of this, although I knew that only the
Queen overwintered, and may account for one instance where I was stung
many times but never found the nest.
   I have never applied anything to ease the discomfort of a yellow
jacket sting (when I was a farm kid we called them hornets and would
have got stung about 30 times a week during the haying season so I
suspect I acquired immunity).
   Black wasps are a very different matter and the chewing tobacco
cure was always welcome.
   On one occasion I was stung many times over a period of roughly
20-30 minutes. In brief; when driving along a crooked rocky narrow
woods road, from which it would have been impossible to back out of, the
way was blocked by a fair sized Poplar windfall. My Homelite chainsaw
took a very long time to start and when it did it was running wide open
on idle. So I knew the clutch had broken, jammed at full throttle and if
I turned it off it would not start again.
   When I used one arm to move the first chunk off of the road, while
holding the racing saw with the other, I disturbed a large wasp nest and
had no undershirt on so I was an easy target. There was no lasting
discomfort or itching.
   Years later I learned that insect repellents with significant
amounts of deet are very effective and gave it a good test by putting a
load of firewood on the truck in a cloud of angry Yellow Jackets (had
kicked a pine stump to make sure it was rotten and safe to back over and
it turned out to contain a nest). I was alone so could apply the
repellant only on neck, hat, chest and arms but not on my back and was
not stung.
   Yt, DW, Kentville
On 8/21/2020 10:06 PM, Paul Boyer wrote:
> I have been interested in insects for years, and have been photographing them
seriously for about a decade. Here is some information, and some results of experience.
>
> When I have been photographing wasps, I often wade into growths of Goldenrod which
they admire, and have never once been stung in such situations. They are more interested
in their natural food than in me.
>
> On the other hand, yellow-jackets are attracted to picnics, and I have seen stings
resulting from such encounters. I also know that at the end of the season, all
yellow-jackets die except the queen. At this point the workers become very defensive of
the hive, and will sting people within about 3 m. And once alerted, they will chase an
intruder for long distances. This the same behavior one sees with their relatives who
build above-ground, paper nests. The only problem is that we may not see a Yellow-jacket
nest, and may approach it unknowingly, as when mowing. Once they attack, the
Yellow-jackets are vicious at this stage, and the only hope is to run into a house or a
car, and stay there.
>
> But is is possible to control Yellow-Jackets. First, find the nest by following
them. The nest will be marked by a modest hole in the ground. The nest rule is: all the
inhabitants into the nest with the setting of the sun. That is, they are “reverse
vampires,†if you want to think of it that way. They are really punctual. I have
counted over 500 Yellow-jackets entering a single hive. And when the sun sinks, they are
all inside. Now spray insect spray into the entrance, and place a small pebble over the
entrance afterwards. That is the end of the hive.
>
> So what to do if stung? Everyone has a treatment. I have found that the best and
quickest treatment is to run to your kitchen and grab a box of baking soda and mix about a
tablespoon with enough water to make a mash, and paste it on the site of the sting. In
some cases, I have found that the sting-sensation disappears instantly. I have also tried
this treatment on a dog who was stung by playing with a nest of paper-wasps, and he
reacted just as I would from the resulting stings; and when treated with baking soda, he
looked upon me with an unmistakable expression of gratitude. So the treatment works for
man and dog.
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