So you're doing OK? The last time I was stung I called my health dept friend nurse and she said advil, benadryl, ice and do it right now. It was a black and white hornet. And, yes, mean little suckers. I was down on the ground jammed in between a rhody and the fence doing some pruning for my neighbor where she couldn't reach. Stung right behind my ear and while I'm not allergic that I know of, I didn't react well to that one.

How close are your neighbors, it sounds like you did the bee dance outside.

I had the same thing happen to me but only on my head!! I was puttering around in a garden bed weeding and cutting things back and completely minding my own business. Little did I know that a colony of wasps or hornets had taken up residence in an old birdhouse on pole in the center of the bed and they apparently did not take kindly to me being in the vicinity!! They dive-bombed me en masse and I was stung multiple times on my head! My head felt like it was on fire and I developed the worst headache I can remember! Spent the rest of the day stretched out on the couch with a cold compress and popping Advil.

Mean little suckers is right! It was an unprovoked attack!!

The paper wasps here leave a pocket of venom similar to some spider bites. If the places remain red and swollen you may have encountered a wasp that does something similar. Only relief other than waiting for it to be absorbed is to carefully open each area and drain it of the pus that forms. You may need the Benadryl for several days if this is the case. Good luck. I used to allow paper wasps to live but no longer after seeing them helicopter into my arm when I disturbed a nest. Sometimes just walking under where they are will cause the helicoptering attack.

I was mowing once on the rider, must have ran over a yellow jacket nest, they stung me, I put the mower in 3rd gear and drove for the house, had my shorts off before I got inside! Mean little suckers is right!!

Mean little suckers indeed. I had the same thing happen, but with yellow jackets. We were working in a client's sidewalk bed, and I stirred them up with my rake. By the time it was over, I had been stung five times around my knee. I couldn't take my pants off until I ran back to the boss's house and went into the bathroom. Oh, the pain! We were leaving on vacation the next day, and I was on benadryl for days.

Feel better soon!

Might be wise to take a benedryl.

I was weed eating around my hubbies big trailers do all of a sudden several wasps came roaring out of the hitch. Luck for me I didn’t get stung. I went to get the bug spray and zapped those suckers. I warned all the guys so they know to check before hooking up each time. Meanwhile I will be checking once in awhile.. we had a deep hole in the ground where wasps had made a nest. We let the hose run for an hour. They still were there a few days later. My husband poured gas and lit them up.filled the hole and never had them again

Happy accident to report here. We bought a snake bite kit for camping; we would sometimes get pretty remote with no cell service. DH got stung by something and finally pulled out the snake bite kit. I have to tell you, that thing really works! We also tried it with mosquito bites - no itching, no swelling. We keep one in the medicine cabinet now. What we have is something like this, and I cannot recommend it enough for stings.

https://www.amazon.com/Extractor-Sting-Suction-Insects-Snakes/dp/B004AQFCMQ/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=snake+bite+kit&qid=1556672895&s=gateway&sr=8-10

Ouch! So sorry. Take care and be alert to bad reactions.

Dawn how horrible!! I've had mean little suckers with underground nests. What is really creepy is that apparently some yellow jacket nests can get quite large.

I can sympathise, Dawn. Years ago I was sitting on our living room floor and felt a tickle on my leg under my skirt. I idly brushed it with my hand and the "thing" went nuts and started stinging my leg and my hand through the skirt. I had no idea what was going on and rushed into the bathroom to take off my skirt, followed by my DH who wanted to know what happening. The skirt had a drawstring waist which of course chose this point to get knotted up, which made it difficult to remove.

When DH helped me get the skirt off, a little paper wasp fell to the floor. I must have had at least two dozen stings by this time. Foolishly I didn't think to take an antihistamine and spent the whole night having hallucinatory dreams. I'm paranoid about wasps now.

A little suggestion for those ground dwellers if they are located in a bad spot. A powder commonly called Roach Proof contains boric acid. It normally is in a squeeze container of some type. What I did was to water the area near and at the hole at sunset. Later while it was dark I located the hole with a flashlight. Turned the flashlight off so they would not fly toward the light and squeezed the container until the hole and the area near it was covered. Couple of days later no more yellow jackets. It only needs to have a small 6 inch or less area with the powder just enough that any that have been out of the nest will land on the powdered area. Be aware that boric acid will kill most insects and small mammals after it had done its job I watered the area so that it would soak into the ground and not be on the surface. Do not do this on a night the moon is bright.

If not in a bad spot just leave them alone.

OWWW! It hurts just reading about it.

Thanks to all of you for the good wishes, tips and for sharing your mean little suckers stories. Im sorry so many of you have had the same painful and frightening experience.

I put ice on the bites right after the incident which felt really good cuz my leg felt like it was on fire! A few hours later, the swelling is mostly gone so I'm doing alright. It was a paper wasp that got me; i dont think they are as aggressive as some of the other types, so I suppose I'm fortunate it wasn't a bald faced hornet that crawled up my pants.

Hubby was not so fortunate one summer evening last year when he was bitten between his toes whill BBQing. His foot swelled up to twice its normal size and stayed that way for several days along with pain and itching. I wanted him to seek medical attention, but since he felt fine otherwise, he waited it out.

We're planning to finish storm cleanup on Saturday. Since the mean little suckers seem to be out in full force, I'll be using duck/duct tape to tape my pants legs and eliminate that point of entry.

Ouch!

I remember once when I let sammy out and we were in our side yard. He all of a sudden yelped and started SCREAMING like I had never heard before. Like a baby! I discovered that there were some sort of red wasps living in the ground that had stung him on the paw.

There were a couple dozen holes in the ground, and yeah,they got the gasoline and fire treatment. Might not have done that if they had just stung me. But they hurt my dog and therefore had to die in a painful manner....

Glad you're ok!

Not going to lie, it's one of my biggest gardening worries. I am allergic. Can't imagine what would happen if I was stung multiple times? I might even consider it very scary, it would certainly be a trip to the ER quickly.

Ouch! Been there. I was standing on a rotted rail road tie trimming tree branches. My ankle was stung about 6 times. It swelled and the skin drooped. Took about a week to look and feel normal. Wishing you get better soon Dawn.

Rob, I hope you take your epipen out in the garden with you!

Hope you are feeling better soon, Dawn. Hornet in the pants is the stuff nightmares are made of :^(

Maifleur, thanks for sharing that info. Last summer DH was stung on the top part of his ear by a variety of paper wasp and it stayed red and swollen for about a week. He had no other adverse affects and we assumed it was probably because there isn't much blood flow to that part of the ear. Maybe it was a combo of the two things.

Close by, close by sjerin, and always the phone for 911. I've only been stung once, but I couldn't breathe after that one time. I know not to fool around with stinging insects. Healthy respect.

Last year I got bit 5 times in 2 days, those suckers hurt!

I posted this back in 2015. We still use the traps. And I still hate yellow jackets!

We have them bad here. We have always put out the reusable traps early summer. But one year they were so many we had to empty the traps every day. (Trick is to do that early in the morning just at sunrise while it is still cool.) It was so bad, we had to hire a professional exterminator because they were somewhere in the front yard and you couldn't go out the front door. I got 3 bites on the back of my head in a minute just stepping outside and boy did they hurt! My poor dog got bit every time she went outside to do her business. There can be 4000 -5000 workers per nest. I hate yellow jackets.

Wasp have their place you know and it isn't because they are mean. From their point of view we represent a threat to them (and we do) and their progeny. the period of time they are nesting and growing babies is not so long. I am just making a case for insects who have a place in the web of life.

I get what you're saying Patriciae and wasps do perform an important function, but when one is on the receiving end of a surprise attack complete with painful bites, all that comes to mind is "mean little suckers." At least, thats the first thought in my mind! :-)

Edit to add that the irony is that humans wouldn't be a threat to them if they weren't so aggressive in defending their nests. I'd be happy to peacefully co-exist if they had the disposition of a honey bee. They are their own worst enemy because of that aggression.