Maybe not shop safety per se, but those things will build a huge nest in anything that hasn't moved in a day around here.
Living here nearly 40 years, I have been stung many times and always try to keep a can of wasp spray around. About a year ago, I was stung on my right arm and experienced a rather severe reaction. Had never happened before.
Within an hour, I was feeling very 'strange'. No respiratory issues, but feeling 'loopy'. I decided to lie down.
The next morning, my right arm was extremely swollen and red. My wife dragged me to the medical clinic. The PA barely glanced at it and stated it was a 'minor localized reaction'.
I'd hate to see what a 'major' reaction would look like.
He prescribed Benadryl. I have Benadryl at home, but the visit cost me $150.
I am now very leery of being stung, as I had never had any kind of reaction before. I ordered a case of wasp spray and have cans strategically located around my place.
When I see one of those critters starting a nest, I eradicate it immediately. About a week ago, I headed into town to get groceries. I needed gas, so stopped at the station I regularly use that is right next to the highway on the frontage road. Gas costs a few cents more there, but it is never busy at 6 AM.
I opened the fuel door on my car to remove the gas cap and was greeted with a paper wasp nest covered in wasps. Since it was early morning and pretty cold, they weren't moving very well.
I grabbed the nest before they could react and threw it into the ditch next to the highway.
I am normally a live-and-let-live guy, but paper wasps are now on my hit list. Along with black widow spiders.
Also, don't leave the key in your drill press chuck.
So sorry to hear that Will. Hope you feel better soon.
My doctor told me years ago that when we age we become more susceptible to allergies and insect bites and he sure was right. I was bitten by a tick a few months ago and the sore kept spreading and itching for weeks. Back in the day it would have been over with within a week or so.
Had a wasps nest on the end of the eaves a few years ago. Wasp spray just seemed to make them mad, but a few douses with WD40 out of a pressure sprayer really shut down the activity around the nest. Within 1/2 hour I was able to loosen it with a broom handle from an upstairs window and drop it to the ground below. It was larger that a regulation football, and went up in flames like a roman candle when I finally lit it up.
We have mud dauber wasps in our area, and they build sticky mud nests in any open crevice -- nasty things.
We have mud daubers here as well. They are solitary wasps and not aggressive. You can pick off their nest while they are on it and they just fly away to build another. I remove many of them from my toolbox drawers every year.
I have never seen a paper wasp nest here the size of a football, but regularly encounter softball-sized nests.
I really hate those things.
I got stung again yesterday afternoon. This morning, my right hand looks like a balloon. This is becoming concerning.
Hope the swelling is down. Wasps are nasty vile things.
Quote from: j.a.f.e. on Jul 12, 2025, 07:43 PMHope the swelling is down. Wasps are nasty vile things.
A little better today. I can almost see knuckles, LOL.
The paper wasps are everywhere here. I am becoming concerned as I have never had any reaction to stings prior to about a year ago.
Man I feel your pain bud. I have been dodging any flying insect with a stinger since I was a kid. At about 8 YO I was stung on the foot by a honeybee and could not wear a shoe for over a month. After that I avoided all of them, even mud dobbers which I know are docile.
Baking soda is supposed to help if you can get it slapped on quick enough. YMMV.
Glad you're on the mend Will. Those damn things are so darn vicious --
We here in the east have a bigger problem this year -- ticks. They've always been a problem in our part of the country, but this year they are everywhere. I've been bitten at least 8-9 time within the last two months and the infected skin bite and itch will last for weeks.
Mowing the lawn, even taking a walk on the lawn, or petting the dog when we come back from a walk is treacherous since the damn things will hitch a ride on the dog. We've gone so far as to thoroughly check the dog every day after she's been outside to make sure no hitchhikers are hiding in her coat.
Given that Lyme disease is rampant in the mid-Atlantic region, I'm going to get tested at my next checkup in Oct.
Quote from: goodfellow on Jul 16, 2025, 07:25 AMGlad you're on the mend Will. Those damn things are so darn vicious --
We here in the east have a bigger problem this year -- ticks. They've always been a problem in our part of the country, but this year they are everywhere. I've been bitten at least 8-9 time within the last two months and the infected skin bite and itch will last for weeks.
Mowing the lawn, even taking a walk on the lawn, or petting the dog when we come back from a walk is treacherous since the damn things will hitch a ride on the dog. We've gone so far as to thoroughly check the dog every day after she's been outside to make sure no hitchhikers are hiding in her coat.
Given that Lyme disease is rampant in the mid-Atlantic region, I'm going to get tested at my next checkup in Oct.
Yes, I have lived in this very rural Nor Cal area for nearly 40 years.
I never had an issue with ticks (even with multiple dogs) until a few years ago. I pulled one off my lower back about 3 years ago, and then had one attached to my inner thigh last year. That one took forever to clear up. This after being out running the weedwhacker, long pants, boots, etc. How that thing got inside my pants I have no clue.
About 2 years ago, I pulled a couple off of one of the stray tomcats that was hanging around here. We like having cats around, because they help keep the rodents in check. In all of these years, I have never found a tick on any of the dogs.
Do you think repellent spray would help? I usually have a can of Cutter "Backwoods" spray around for mosquitoes. I don't really like applying it, though. It stinks and feels like it never washes off.
Oddly enough, the mosquitoes really haven't been bad for the past several years. In years past, they were so thick in the afternoons you had to be careful not to inhale them LOL.
We've tried a lot of different repellent remedies, and although they work to some extent, I'm not impressed. Most recently one of the guys who was in charge of putting up our antennas through a wooded section of our base location had every imaginable precaution covered. Boots, treated pant legs that were tucked in the boots, and at the end of the day he was eaten up with rashes on his legs from jiggers.
I've heard old-timer stories of using creosote impregnated work pants to keep any number of parasites at bay, - but what a mess that would be.
Quote from: goodfellow on Jul 16, 2025, 12:51 PMWe've tried a lot of different repellent remedies, and although they work to some extent, I'm not impressed. Most recently one of the guys who was in charge of putting up our antennas through a wooded section of our base location had every imaginable precaution covered. Boots, treated pant legs that were tucked in the boots, and at the end of the day he was eaten up with rashes on his legs from jiggers.
I've heard old-timer stories of using creosote impregnated work pants to keep any number of parasites at bay, - but what a mess that would be.
Wow. Especially if you accidentally set them on fire. The smoke column would be epic.
I have seen "outdoor clothing" advertised that is impregnated with pyrethrin, the active ingredient in the best wasp sprays.
I don't know that I would want that stuff next to my skin, though.
Got stung again yesterday. Left hand this time.
This is really getting annoying.
Darn that looks painful.
Quote from: Heiny57 on Aug 05, 2025, 12:07 PMDarn that looks painful.
It doesn't hurt at all, but it itches like hell.
I have taken Benadryl and put Benadryl cream on it, but it is extremely annoying. I just don't get it.
I have lived here for 40 years and have been stung many times. Never had any reaction until recently.
I guess I'll order another case of wasp spray and go scorched earth on these MF'ers.