Wasps and tents (and mosquitoes)

A bit of background. I try very hard to not hurt anything or anyone if it can possibly be avoided. I really do. I try to catch most creepy crawly things when they and I cross paths, and move then gently out of my home. I do not interfere with spiders. I do though, kill mosquitoes, whether I am provoked or not. Effective immediately, this policy applies to wasps and yellow jackets in my home as well. lasarina suffers life threatening anaphylactic reactions to certain insect stings, specifically bees and wasps.

Sunday morning, around 10:30 am, two small yellow and black wasps managed to get into our tent at Pallas SamBon, before lasarina arose. I saw them flitting around the netting at the top of the tent, and decided to do my usual “shoo ’em out” routine to ensure we didn’t have to make a rush trip to an ER. I bet you can already see where this is going.

Yep, that’s right. I got stung. On my right pinkie. She left her stinger and venom sac in my finger. BTW: Several sources, including Wikipedia, claim this only happens in honeybees. I don’t believe it. That looked like no honeybee I have ever seen. It had the wasp body shape, narrow and segmented, black and yellow striped. (That’s not the exact wasp, but it’s pretty close.) It may even have been a yellow jacket, since I did find one reference to indicate they occasionally do lose their stingers. See description of Eastern Yellow Jacket (Vespula maculifrons) here.

I removed the stinger and finished what I was doing anyway, but this time with extreme prejudice. The other one died quickly. By the time this was done, I was in searing pain. I do remember calling for tobacco. I don’t remember the exact sequence of events after that, but lasarina called out to either ergothevirgo or unarmed_dreamer (maybe both) to find me some tobacco. As it happens, someone else nearby offered Absorbine Jr. which would supposedly work just as well. It didn’t, but by this time, I had forgotten the tobacco request. Very soon, my finger had swollen to double, I rated my primary pain as 8 or 9 on a scale of 1 – 10, and I was experiencing some pain in other fingers as well. I had likely removed that stinger incorrectly, and probably pumped all of the venom into my finger.

I had a pretty good allergic reaction to the sting.

In an allergic reaction, symptoms are not limited to the area that is local to your sting. A mild allergic reaction may cause symptoms that mimic hay fever, or may produce a rash of puffy pink “hives” or “welts” on parts of the skin that are not near to the sting. Symptoms of a mild allergic reaction could include runny nose, tearing or itching of the eyes, sneezing, or a metallic taste in your mouth.

I didn’t sneeze or get hives. It was not life threatening though. No breathing difficulties. Next time I may not be as lucky. Often it’s the second and subsequent exposures that will be life threatening.

I spent most of the remainder of the day somewhere slightly above unconscious because of benadryl and vicodin, and with an icepack on my finger. I paid a “starving college kid” (©) to break down and pack my camp. No way could I have done it myself. After we were packed, we went into Austin, had a bite of lunch, and then hung out with ergothevirgo and unarmed_dreamer until late evening, including a nice dinner at Mother’s. Drove home. Crashed.

I’m not on pain medication now. The finger is still swollen and stiff, but only mildly uncomfortable. Extreme prejudice now applies to wasps, yellow jackets, and mosquitoes.