Got stung by a hornet this morning while filling the bird feeders.

[Fla Dem]

Aggressive SOB. Came right at me. I waved my hand to get it away from my face and he stung my hand while it was in motion.
OMG, stung more than all the covid shots I've gotten. Swatted at it and knocked it to the ground, must have knocked it out, I was going to have it arrested for Assault and Battery, but it died.

Hand swollen and itches like hell.

[Tetrachloride]

1. baking soda and a little water. Wrap in nylon

[2naSalit]

3. Yup!

Make a paste and put it on the sting area, Cover with a wet cloth until the throbbing stops. If you have clay, like you'd use in a face pack, mix up to 30% in the baking soda and it will cling to your skin without the cloth.

Also, hemp oil or juice works too, and relieves the pain rather quickly. I worked on a hemp farm a few years ago and was stung by a mud wasp, on the neck, and it hurt like hell until I started putting hemp juice on it (I had acres of fresh, almost harvest time so I experimented and it was fast and relieving.)

[Fla Dem]

5. Hemp oil I have. Will give it a try. Thanks 2naSalit!

[2naSalit]

8. Please let me know how that works for you...

I only have my experience and that pf another on the farm who was also stung the week after. We were clearing tumbleweeds out of the irrigation canal and the wasps were in the TWs that were wedged in the mud.

I'm really interested in finding out how it works for others. Also, a tea might work or a poultice of leaves if you have them. You may want to put the oil on a gauze pad and dab at it.

[Fla Dem]

32. Hi 2na, sorry I'm just getting back to you.

I can’t really give you a report on the effectiveness of Hemp Oil on a Wasp sting. I only used it once, on the day I got stung; Saturday. By evening my hand had swollen up so much, it was “itchy as all get out and was swollen and red all the way up to my elbow.

I was up and out Sunday morning to be at “urgent care” when it opened at 8:00. The Nurse Practitioner gave me a shot of Cortizone. Told me to keep ice on it and use antibiotic and hydrocortisone creams. By last night things were getting back to normal.

So didn’t really get a chance to test out the Hemp oil treatment. Frankly, I hope I don’t get another opportunity to test it out. 😂

[2naSalit]

33. You did what you needed to do...

And that's the best. It sounds like it was too late in the game for that anyway. And I, too, hope there's never another chance to test that out! Thanks for getting back to me, though.

At least you're getting better.

[Fla Dem]

4. Thanks, put a antibiotic cream on and a ice pack.

I did read about making a paste of baking soda. Also mentioned a paste of salt. Thanks again!

[yellowdogintexas]

23. benadryl. Full adult dose.

Now that would knock me out but it really helps with the inflammation.

When I need it for allergies, I have to take a pediatric dose.

[Wingus Dingus]

2. Yikes. That's why I have a bee and wasp phobia.

I've been stung like that on the hand twice--both times by paper wasps, once while walking our dog, minding my own business. It just flew up to me and I tried to wave it away. And once while opening a storm window from the inside of the house, pushing in metal tabs on springs to slide it upward for some fresh air--it had entered our house at some point and was hiding in the slot where the metal tabs were. That was quite a surprise. Hope your swelling/itching goes down soon, I remember having to take off my rings really fast. My hand looked huge, but yours takes the prize!

[Fla Dem]

6. Thanks WD! Got stung once before and hand blew up, so yup, removed rings!

Also put an ice pack on it right away which I think kept the initial swelling down a bit. Not half as big as the last time I got stung.

Yes, I try to avoid them as well, but there has been an aggressive one out in my yard the last week or 2. I think it's the one that finally got me. Whenever I'd go out it would be buzzing around. Usually I was able to get away from it, but no such luck today. Came at me like a dive bomber.

[milestogo]

7. An antihistamine might help quiet the inflammation.

Looks awful, I'm sorry you got stung.

[secondwind]

9. Fla Dem, that looks painful as heck... ouch!

Am glad you are getting so many good tips.... I would have just said "put ice on it".

Take care, hope you are doing well, we're still here in the Caribbean... just sold the car today. Un besito

[Fla Dem]

13. Good to hear from you.

I did put a cold pack on it right away. Have also been trying several of the treatments other DUer's have suggested. Hand has swollen a bit more, so now the whole hand is swollen, treatments have taken a lot of the itch out of it. Itch was terrible for a while and redness hasn't really traveled up my arm beyond the wrist. So I think I'll survive. Hope you and Boogie are doing well. Let's touch base soon.

[Skittles]

18. making sure your neck didn't swell

as in anaphylaxis shock - I saw that happen to someone, I couldn't believe how fast a little wasp took a big guy down!

[Ziggysmom]

10. My dad kept several hives of honeybees on our farm. There were some type of aggressive

wasp or hornet that would attack the poor bees, and us, too. When we go stung, used to mix meat tenderizer with water into a paste and apply for about 20-30 minutes. Used tenderizer that contained papain or bromelain, and the enzymes helped break down the venom proteins in the sting.

[Midnight Writer]

11. Be wary of infection. If swelling and discoloration starts to run up your arm, get thee to the ER

Don't delay. An infection can get out of control in a few hours.

Good luck.

[Fla Dem]

15. Thanks MW. I did put a antibiotic cream on it right away.

Expected to see some redness around the bite and it did eventually cover my whole hand. Right now the hand is very swollen with little redness, so hope I'm past the infection point. But will heed your advice in case there is any flare up.

[TexasBushwhacker]

19. When I was stung on the chin by a wasp when I was a kid

They made a poultice out of one of my grandpa's Camels. It worked pretty well.

[yellowdogintexas]

21. that actually works! That was my Dad's go to when we got stung

It relieves the pain and reduces the swelling

He would peel off the paper and chew up the tobacco. My mom never could make herself do that but she would make the poultice with tea & tobacco.

I have often wondered why Big Tobacco hasn't done more with beneficial uses of tobacco.

Some form of tobacco should be in the first aid kit if you have to be around bees, wasps and hornets.

[UTUSN]

12. Commiserating with ya here. My battle with wasps began last year & got stung on the hand, too.

Apparently am not allergic, had a bit of itching but not much else. At the next regular MD's appointment a couple of months later there was still a bump but learned from the doctor that wasps don't drop the stinger and die after stinging the way bees do. But have been researching on the internet & YouTube ever since. Last year their nest was known, in an outside storage little room and the sting was because they felt their hang-out was being threatened. Several of them flew away out of cracks and only one attacked me directly.

After that it became traumatic to mow and to water or anything outside because of having to look over the shoulder, besides jumpiness when *anything* else flew by - bugs, butterflies, whatever. After hashing around for solutions, ended up with an exterminator for the nest and thought that was that. But this year they're BACK.

The difference is that now the nest is not known. The exterminator walked around looking. We encountered a couple, and by this time I had been using a kill spray that reaches ten or fifteen feet and was able to zap one that was (feeding?) on the ground, but the dude said that without a nest he couldn't do anything and left. He seemed to be afraid of them, took as a souvenir the one one I sprayed, marveling at how big it was, like he hadn't seen them before.

So I had discovered all these different traps - some with "attractant" bait, some with sticky paper. *Nothing* except a few lightweight bugs, no wasps. And the byword was that if you don't bother/threaten them, they won't bother you, no sudden moves. Since then I've gone about the chores and have been buzzed by them a few times, whereupon I don't make sudden moves and not been attacked.

My unease is a bit less, albeit continues as a vague dread and wariness.

[Fla Dem]

14. I don't know where this one came from. But definitely attacked me like a Dive Bomber.

I certainly would be wary if I had your situation. Be careful, as you know, their stings are nothing to laugh about.

[UTUSN]

16. Thanks/backatcha, last week got hit but not stung again on a hand. Since it wasn't a sting, at first

I called it a "kiss" - but thinking about it, it might have just missed with the stinger and bumped with another body part instead.

[yellowdogintexas]

22. there is truth to the no sudden moves instructions

I learned over time to just go perfectly still if a few of them crossed my path (or more correctly I crossed theirs). It's hard to do but they will leave if you do not do anything that makes them feel threatened.

Waving your hands around and so on is a dead certain invitation to be stung.

Hornets are horrid. Yellow jackets are mean and will sting you for the hell of it.

Honeybees are fairly placid and tend to ignore you unless you step on one.

Dirt Daubers are kind of the sloths of the wasp world. Their sting is painful but nothing like the other wasps. My mom had a bunch of them that hung out in the window of her sewing room (she called them her pets) I was in there looking for something to read and one of those bastards crawled up the inside of my jeans. I did not know it was there until I sat down and crossed my legs.

I could not get it out of my pants and it stung me more than once. I was cussing a blue streak; my dad walked by while this was going on and came in to do the tobacco trick. My mom said he came back into the tv room laughing over my profanity.

[UTUSN]

24. Sweet honeybees and bumble bees don't mind me watering at all

[whistler162]

17. ASPCA and PETA want a word!

[a kennedy]

20. Damn that looks bad......good luck with healing.

[Fla Dem]

26. Thanks Ak. Swelling has gone down quite a bit, almost normal.

My hand that is.

[yellowdogintexas]

25. how is the hand today? That is some bad swelling. nt

[Fla Dem]

27. Hi Yellow Dog.

Yes the swelling got so bad I couldn't even bend my fingers. My arm was swollen all the way up to the elbow and hard as a rock.
Now almost back to normal.

Thanks for the concern.

[LuckyCharms]

28. So sorry. I got about 15-20 wasps stings to the face

a few years ago. Eyes swelled up like balloons.

I wasn't too happy. They don't leave a stinger, they just keep stinging you.

I forget what I did, I think I kept icing it, but don't take my advice. I haven't read through this thread yet, but I'm sure someone has/will offer the proper advice.

Please keep an eye out for more serious reactions and get to the ER if something manifests itself, or if that gets too much worse.

I hope you feel better soon.

[Fla Dem]

29. OMG Lucky Charms!

This happened to me last Friday. I went to Urgent Care on Sunday when the swelling blew up.

I cannot imagine what you must have gone through. My hand and arm blew up like a ballon and the Itching, even with appropriate medication, was miserable. The hand and arm was so swollen it was painful.

You’re a Superman to have endured so many wasp stings, particularly around the face. Unbelievable! I hope there were no long lasting effects.

Thanks for your good wishes.

[LuckyCharms]

31. To be honest..

it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and I'm far from a superman

Big swelling and horrible itching.

I remember now that I took Benadryl for a few days. I was spreading some mulch, and there was an underground nest near me in my driveway. Got stung in my Achilles tendon a few times, but I didn't know what got me. The next day, they swarmed by face. I was trying to just take the stings, hoping they would lose interest, but they kept stinging. Sometimes it left a very tiny hole, sometimes it didn't, but you could feel the sting and see the swelling in each location.

I was more pissed off than anything. I managed to eradicate them the next night in the dark. I flooded the crack in the driveway with Dawn dish soap and water. They headed toward the flashlight which unfortunately was too close to me and and they got me a few more times in the forearm. I ordered a dusting bulb and some insecticide and dusted the crack when it arrived. Getting the driveway sealed again in the next few weeks, and they will seal the crack for me permanently (although they have not been back to that crack since that time).

Then last year I think it was, I was sitting at my computer and about 6 or 7 of them were flying around my office upstairs. I just about shit. A few weeks before this happened, if I went into my upstairs bathroom in the middle of the night, I would think I was going crazy because it sounded like the walls in the bathroom dormer were "breathing". Deep heavy breaths. Freaked me out. That's the only way I can describe it. Every night. So I thought it must be something outside. But when I opened the bathroom window to hear it, the sound would disappear.

After I saw the wasps in the office, I went outside, sat in my back yard, and stared at my house for about a half an hour in the afternoon. I saw where they were getting in. They were getting behind a piece of vinyl corner molding on the bathroom dormer, and making their way into this shuttle attic. I don't go in there. It's all blown in insulation.

I know a really good exterminator. I called him up and begged him to come that day. It was about 100 degrees out, so probably 130 in the attic. We unscrewed this little access door to get into the attic. He suited up and I stood behind him holding the flashlight for him, peering into the door opening.

Poor guy squeezed into the opening on his belly, in this heat, suited up, in all of this blown in insulation, and he started poking around. All of a sudden he said "Here they come". I said "I'm getting the fuck out of here". He said "Go ahead, I'll get 'em". There was a nest of THOUSANDS in there, under the insulation. He got 'em, and he got the nest too. Hundreds of them fell down the wall into the basement (concrete block walls with hollow cavities in that part of the house). I had to vacuum them up with a shop vac.

I have read your thread since I last posted here, and I'm glad you are doing better. You probably experienced more pain than I did. If I remember, correctly, the ones in the driveway about 3 years ago were yellow jackets. I think there are some variants of hornets that are much more painful.

[RFCalifornia]

30. FUCK HORNETS!!! LET THEM GO EXTINCT!!!

[bluecollar2]

34. Benadryl...n/t