By drunken German wasps ! They are not pretty and they have been feeding on fermented fruit, so tipsy to boot ! They are bored having done their chores for the Queen So - they are going around stinging people ! I need to be a bit quicker when I venture out, maybe a helmet and a wet suit - if the weather cools down I doubt we'll have any French wasps though - onions round their necks will only weigh them down, so that's a relief !
Wasps? Oh no, I hate those wasps because they are more wild than the honey bees which appear tamer compared to wasps. And German wasps are bigger? When we moved into this house, there were lots of pests like ticks and fleas, flies, mosquitoes and bees and wasps. What we did was to spray insecticide all around to eradicate the pests. But the wasps seemed to linger so we investigated and eureka, there was a big nest in the exterior ceiling. When we have finally removed that nest and burned it so the eggs will not be hatched anymore, the wasps were gone.
@Corie Henson Oh no Corie - I call insects 'screamies' 'cos I always scream when I see them - not too loud, more of a yelp These German ones are big, not that it matters to me, they could be half the size and I'd still have a fit
@Holly Saunders - You're tellin me - alright for you, you can run to them thar hills ! BTW Holly - They like BBQs ................Few people got nasty stings
LOL..well it's a good thing I hate BBQ,s never have them and never go to them....it'll keep me German wasp free I hope!!
I don't know if there's a bumper crop of wasps this year, or if the drought then torrential rains and/or extreme heat have anything to do with it, but I'm having wasp issues. I have several nests on the part of the roof that overhangs the house under the car port. I sprayed them, and the wasps moved to behind the side mirrors on my car. I sprayed those areas, and they moved to under the door handles! I went to check my mail the other day, and there was a wasp nest inside the mailbox. Ugh!! I keep the wasp spray just inside the kitchen door, which is by the car port, just in case.
We alwys have a lot of wasps around this place. I keep wasp spray handy in case one of the little buggers happens to meander into the house. Also, I like to sit on the porch sometimes..and I will spray one if he/she is harassing me. The thing that is worse than wasps though are these Bells Hornets I think they are called. They are agressive...swoop and can bore right into the wood. They are huge and nasty. I got stung by one once...and it left a huge red mark on my side. I avoid them like the plague. Fortunately, I haven't seen many around this year.
I get them at my camp but have rarely had them at the house. One year we had a few wasp's nests but I think that was the first summer we were here. Of course, I don't schedule "Happy Hour" for my wasps so they don't tend to come back.
I've only passed out twice in my life..once when I was seriously ill ..but the other time was one summers' day about 30 years ago when my friend and I were taking the children for a walk through the cornfields. I was wearing a short dress, and a Huge hornet flew up my dress and stung me on the top of my leg.. I didn't see what got me, but Karen did, and she said that all the blood drained out of my face, and fainted right there on the spot. I was out cold for a couple of minutes and the pain when I woke up was like no insect bite I'd ever had before....even when I was about 8 or 9 years old and local bullies tipped a whole can of angry bees down my back!! If I ever see a Hornet now, in the words of @Patsy Faye , I run for the hills!!
I had mentioned this thread to my husband and he related the experience of his younger brother who was 5 years old when they moved to their new home in a village that has only few residents so you can imagine the trees and the vegetation. There was a guava tree right in the vacant lot beside their property. The big ripe fruits attracted the boy. Little did he know that there was a hive of wasps. To make the story short, the boy went home crying and when their mother saw his little brother, she screamed because the little brother had a long chin (swollen due to the sting of the wasps) and a bulging forehead. My mother-in-law said that she thought her son was an alien.
"Huge hornet" Think we had them in MO. Was walking down our road, an overhang of oak foliage high overhead, and one suddenly screamed downward from up there and instantly stung me on top my head! Right into the scalp! Hurt like hell! Wonder what the difference is, between wasps and hornets? Frank
As it has with many subjects, Mental Floss gives a pretty good description of the differences between bees, wasps and hornets. Basically, hornets are wasps with an attitude.