Gee, thanks guys! I appreciate all your replies. At this point, I realize that this has become a phobia for me & that as organica pointed out, chances are that I probably won't be stung again. But I can't remember a year when it was as bad as it is right now here. Of course, we live out in the country & this comes along with all the beautiful views & clean air. It's just something we have to put up with, or go back to the concrete jungle. Still, with global warming & the increase of CO2 in our atmosphere, this may just be another symptom of our sick planet. I know the poison ivy around here has gone NUTS this year due to this & probably the fireblight on my 2 pear trees, too. But I'm still looking for things that I can do to tip the balance in my favor. This is what I've found so far: probably nothing can be "done" to change anything until the first freeze, so going out at sunset, as fishymamas (love that name!) suggested is what I have been doing. Also, if you put out traps in the spring (which you can make yourself with plastic soda bottles), you may get the queen & avoid a major nest being built nearby & giving you problems later in the summer. I might try that one. Lilacs in may (& others): if you have a known sensitivity to bug bites, you may want to consult your doctor for a presciption for an Epi-Pen, an self-injectable dose of epinephrine to keep in your refrigerator just in case you have a major allegeric meltdown from a sting & can't get help in time. It just might save your life. Hottomato: I actually do have some Avon Skin So Soft -- the old kind -- but I didn't think to use it because I had read that it really didn't have any ingredients to repel pests. Also, you're not supposed to wear any sweet-smelling perfume because that's a turn-on to these creatures as well. But reading the labels on the DEET & Picardin products say that they repel mostly mosquitos, ticks, fleas, deer flies -- nothing about wasps, hornets, yellow jackets or bees. So there you are. I still think going out at sunset is my best bet. Finally, Ruthieg & gonefishin, I've seen those big banana-colored spiders in our family gardens for most of my life & I just tend to steer clear of them & peacefully co-exist (can't we all just get along??). Of course, spiders, wasps, hornets, etc. -- all these critters are doing us a favor by eating mosquitos & other tiny pests, so we owe them our gratitude rather than our fear. I know that rationally, but it's still going to be a while before I venture outdoors unafraid. Anyway, thanks for ALL of your comments & ideas & moral support. I appreciate it! Laurene

I disturbed a ground wasp nest yesterday morning and got bit right around the achilles tendon. Felt like a searing hot poker, and it continued to burn and pain all day, finally subsiding about 10 last night. I had to ice my foot/ankle/leg most of the day - not a lot of swelling but jeez that hurt. I should have remembered the penny, maybe that would have helped. Today all is well, doesn't even itch very much. I don't remember cause I was too young, but mom likes to tell the story of when I was about 3 years old I disturbed a wasp nest or bee hive - got stung something like 17 times. After that healed and all was well I decided to play in a red ant pile. I actually do remember a bit of that - getting stripped naked outside to get the ants off. Many, many bites. That same year I fell out of the car (10 stitches on my head) and fell into the cellar from the trap door in the floor. Amazing I lived thru that year. I'm allergic to deer flies. I haven't been bit in a long time by one but I really swell from them. Hope you're better soon, Sharon. Itchy blisters, that can't be fun.

The centipede is the only 'critter' I fear when we are on Maui. I saw a lot of them when we had such nice rain last winter. They have to escape saturated earth or drown. We were waited on by a centipede-bitten sales associate at Macy's. She was working with one flip-flop and one bare foot. She'd been poisoned two months previously. *Very Frightening*! (My only 'encounter' was lifting a door mat to sweep beneath it. A foot-long centipede whipped off at the speed of light -- lucky me. They can really *move*!) So sorry, Caroline!

We had a nest of the little suckers in the kitchen wall earlier this summer. I couldn't figure out why I kept finding wasps in the kitchen but chalked it up to them coming in through open doors. One morning I was outside watering plants and saw one crawl into the pipe that functions as a drain for the water heater that is under one of the kitchen cabinets. My husband blocked the opening with some wire mesh and they managed to chew through it so he then capped the pipe. They finally stopped getting into the kitchen, so I guess the nest eventually died. The area where the water heater is blocked by an access wall, but they must have been small enough to squeeze through the area where the wall met the inside of the cabinet. Once we found the nest, we had an explanation of why there were so many wasps hanging around the deck and why they seemed more aggressive than usual. It also explained the sting hubby received between his toes when all he was doing was standing out on the deck minding his own business. Hope the horse is feeling better, Bob. A few years ago, one of our dogs got into a nest and was stung several times. They would not let go and I was trying to brush them off of her when she got away from me. She ran all the way to the neighbor's house, which is over half a mile away, before she stopped running.