FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Visiting pollinator fren

Nice shot!

Any other stinging critter I'd tell you to shut your mouth, let it mess around and find out. But, it's a honeybee, so shoo it away.

I consider mud daubers kinda okay too. They look super scary because of their shape and because they're colored similarly to yellowjackets (which are a**holes), and they make mud tubes in the siding that are annoying and hard to clean off, but they are non-aggressive and kill spiders, so....

You ever been stung by one of those mud daubers?

I thought that was a fren, not a honey bee. Nice shot, btw!!!

Nope, just been stung by a yellowjacket. In the armpit. For pretty much no reason except that I was reaching out to retrieve something near a plant that I guess it laid claim to. Like I said: a**holes.

htbm wrote: ↑Fri Aug 18, 2023 7:10 pm I consider mud daubers kinda okay too. They look super scary because of their shape and because they're colored similarly to yellowjackets (which are a**holes), and they make mud tubes in the siding that are annoying and hard to clean off, but they are non-aggressive and kill spiders, so....

Spiders are good guys. Many types of daubers are caterpillar hunters.

Oh yeah, jellos jackets will light you up. Most of the time, yellow jackets sting en’masse due to walking on their underground nests. You were fortunate to get the one sting. Me and some buddies encountered a weird thing years ago (when I could still carry a backpack). We hiked out to Blue Mountain in Cheaha State Park here in Alabama for a two-night camp. It was dry weather and we started noticing yellow jackets *everywhere* hovering probably sixteen inches off the ground. If we scraped some leaves up and exposed a bit of moist ground or decomposing leaves they would flocked to that spot. We were like wading through them wherever we went. One morning we had a couple of pieces of uneaten Canadian bacon left in a skillet. I got to watching and the round slices of meat started disappearing from the center and a pile of little golden “pills” started appearing beside them. Yellow jackets were scavenging the meat. Eventually the pills disappeared and the bacon was eaten to the rind. We got to looking at a topi map and found the creek at the far side of the mountain was named “Yellowjacket Creek”!!! Out of five of us, nobody got stung. As we walked through the wasps they would simple move to the side and kind of flow around us. Very intense experience!

As for the mud dauber sting…about like a red wasp sting. Experience from a young kid who decided to pick one up…’cause he heard they didn’t sting!

DragonsEye wrote: ↑ Spiders are good guys. Many types of daubers are caterpillar hunters.

And many wasps are spider hunters!

DragonsEye wrote: ↑Fri Aug 18, 2023 8:47 pm Spiders are good guys.

Not when they string invisible webs across walkways at face height they're not! Or when they rappel down from the ceiling in front of my face while I'm working at the computer. As long as I stay out of their space and they stay out of mine, there can be peace. But my bedroom, workspace, and walkways are off limits!

About 20 years ago, one of my coworkers died from anaphylactic shock after he unknowingly mowed over a yellow jacket nest and they swarmed him. I have zero sympathy for those insects.

Mike, that's a hard way to go. A county or two a way from me a young lady and her fiance' were discussing their wedding arrangements while sitting on some hay bales. Suddenly they realized they were getting covered in fire ants. She died of an allergic reaction from the bites, even before she could get to the hospital. Very, very sad. Venomous insect bites for people with allergies can quickly turn into life or death situations. The bad thing is that many people don't know that they're allergic until they're stung. Btw, just because you swell up like a balloon doesn't mean you are allergic...that is usually just a normal reaction. On the other hand, if you start getting a rash and it starts getting even a little hard to breath and/or swallow you need to be seeking out medical treatment.

A tip for the non-allergy group, multiple stings or even one sting can cause "reactions", but not "allergic reactions"...too many stings can sometimes push you "over the edge" even if you're not allergic. For the bad stings for non-allergic people, where you want to keep the swelling down and the itching to a minimum, try to keep some children's benadryl in the medicine cabinet. The reason for keeping children's formula is that it is liquid and gets into your system the quickest. When I was actively keeping bees and got into a mean hive (I don't use gloves normally) and ended up with several bee stings, when I'd get to the house I'd take a scientifically measured amount of the children's benadryl...the measuring usually consisted of turning the little bottle up and taking a good swallow. Some people react differently to benadryl...some it makes drowsy, some it's like drinking a couple of 6-hour energy drinks. So, be aware of that. I don't know whether it could help with anaphylactic shock as a stopgap until you could get to an epi-pen or not...better for people with known allergies to keep an epi-pen handy. When I was actively keeping honey bees I kept an epi-pen in the medicine cabinet for anybody's need...just in case.