Vespula germanica, also known as the German yellowjacket. It helps if you read a little about wasps, bees and their habits. It will help you to understand how best not to have a close encounter. Yellow jackets are perhaps the most aggressive of the wasp species in your territory and their behaviour differs depending on the seasons. My son is a farmer and he was just relating to me his run-in with these critters a few days ago when he bush-hogged over a ground nest. There were on him, his equipment, and he got away lucky. He said he returned to the site later when it was light and literally thousands of them were huddled above ground around the disturbed hole. He and I are both allergic to stings of the bees and wasps, and how badly we react seems to be related to which species nails us. Both of us carry epi pens. I am a horticulturist, so I am also continually at risk for stings. I have only been stung a couple times in the last five years, however, because I am more careful of where I thrust unprotected skin surfaces. I also avoid rotting fruit and have to keep it policed up in the orchards. Fall is the most dangerous times because the yellow jackets are out scrounging for sugars now. I am very tidy with rubbish cans, food scraps in compost, and leery of timber retaining walls where I often find them nested. I do, however, work in close proximity with a feral honeybee colony right next to our house, and gardened all summer under a hornet nest. My allergy seemed to appear from numerous stings when growing fall crysanth crops where they'd often be found on the foliage and I'd stick my hands into it inadvertently. Also when picking grapes. Both cases involved sugars on the leaves. From the ripe fruit in grapes and honeydew from aphids on mums. I had to be taken by squad after one bite. I seem to be (knock on wood) growing less sensitive to them now and immediately take benedryl liquid after a sting but have not had to use my epi pen since it was rx'ed. I am very thankful because I can't NOT be around bees and wasps. Yes, you should see an allergist.

A dab of bleach on a cotton swab - presto! Gone.

The first time I was ever stung, I was 3 years old and sat on a bee when I was sitting down on the grass next to the garden to pick peas. I ran in SCREAMING, and (when they finally figured out what was wrong) my parents put the baking soda paste on itand it did nothing. I think that bee sting is my first "real" memoryÂthatÂs not from pictures! So baking soda didnÂt work for me, but I definitely want to agree with what David said about ammonia. Years ago I bought an expensive little applicator thingie called Afterbite. It worked for mosquito and ant bites, but I used it up very quickly and since I didnÂt want to spend a bunch more for another one, I tried to figure out what was in it. There was no list of ingredients, and the only thing that I could clearly smell was ammonia, so the next time I got a mosquito bite I saturated a folded up little square of paper towel with ammonia and plastered it over the mosquito bite. NO ITCHING! It really works. Try it, youÂll like it! As a kid I cut the grass barefoot and stepped on multiple bees every summer. Baking soda didnÂt work, so I started running the garden hose cold water over my foot each time, and in 15 minutes the "sting" would go awayÂand IÂd finish the grass! Then, for 10 years or so, I never got stungÂturned into a shoe-wearing city girl! Then one fine day when I happened to go outside barefoot I stepped on a beeÂor somethingÂnever did see it. I ran in and stuck my foot in the sink and ran cold water over it, but it felt very strangeÂdifferent than it had when I was a kid. By the next morning my entire leg was swollen up, all the way up to my hip, and it ITCHED FROM THE INSIDE OUT! We went to an emergency room and they said I was allergic to bees and gave me a tetanus shot and antihistaminesÂwhich did absolutely nothing for the itching. It took nearly a week for it to go away, and my foot was so swollen up that I couldnÂt put anything but the loosest sandals on. After that I got and carried a bee sting kit with me for years, but the next time I got stung I was working at the first garden center here in Denver, and when it happened I sat down with my bee sting kit and waited to start going into anaphylactic shock! One of the other girls got me some ice which I put on it immediately, and I never did have any trouble with breathing, so I didnÂt stick the needle in myself! ThatÂs when I discovered that if I got ice on it IMMEDIATELY, the venom absorbed slowly enough that I didnÂt get all swollen up, and I didnÂt itch! I kept the ice on it for almost 24 hoursÂI was afraid to take it off. Ever since then IÂve used the ice method whenever I get stung. I worried for years that since I hadnÂt been at all allergic for 20-some years, that the allergy I had developed that caused the swelling and itching could suddenly worsen to an anaphylactic reaction type allergy, but IÂve had a doctor tell me that that rarely happens. I donÂt carry a bee sting kit anymore, but I do still worry a little bit when I get stung, and I get ice on it right away. All that being said, itÂs been years now since IÂve been stung, which is pretty amazing considering how many bees IÂm around out in the yard, especially around the veggies. ItÂs pretty amazing how if you just leave them along, they leave you alone. I think youÂre pretty unlikely to get stung unless you accidentally squoosh them somehowÂlike swatting at them, or grabbing themÂlike you accidentally did, Bonnie, or getting them inside your clothes somehow, like you did, Alice (thatÂs how I got stung at the garden centerÂit got inside my sleeve). But one other thing I want to mention. DonÂt assume that just because a bee is dead, it canÂt sting! That might sound ridiculous, but another time, years agoÂand before I had discovered the ice methodÂI sat down on the carpet by the slider and put my hand down on the carpet and got stung. When I looked, there was the back half of a DEAD bee stuck to my hand. Apparently I put my hand on it just the right way that it "self injected!" That time I guess I figured that since it was dead it wouldnÂt be a problem, but the next day my hand and arm, up to my elbow, were all swollen and itching! Whoda thunk a dead bee could sting??? So I know better now, and even when I see a dead bee laying somewhere, I pick it up and dispose of it VERY carefully! IÂve never even tried the ammonia method on bees, David. Just never thought of it! But next time I get stungÂand IÂm sure there will be a next timeÂIÂm gonna put an ammonia patch under the ice and see how much difference it makes. IÂm still gonna use the ice, since IÂm allergic, but maybe the ammonia will "fix it" faster! Skybird

One of my favorite stories my dear departed Grandpa used to tell was about fishing up on the Two Hearted River. He had got a ways back in the woods fishing the river when it was "business" time. He got back off the river a bit and his drawers down when he got hit a few times right in the backside. Later in the camper Grandma had to pull some stingers out for him. He said it was amazing how fast a person can run with pants around their ankles.... he was probably about 75 years old at the time. My way favorite home remedy for insect stings is Absorbine Jr. Really a rather nasty brew of menthol, acetone, and stuff like wormwood oil. When I want to smell like a guy I dab on Absorbine Jr. and Old Spice... makes gals say I smell like their Grandfather. Almost INSTANTLY kills the sting from bees, wasps, and mosquitos. I suspect one of the chemicals in it disassembles the venom at a molecular level. Pretty much ends the sting and swelling when applied. Sometimes a strong hornet sting will need a second dose the next day to keep it from itching. Probably not the best stuff for people sensitive as the solvent portion would spread the venom deep in the flesh. I always have a bottle as I use it on my ankles when tight socks make them itch. My worst sting was a swig from a Pepsi bottle. I thought for a moment I had eaten a spider but it stung me on the lip as I spit it out. Talk about a bee stung lip look. : ) lyra