Wasps

I hate wasps - the flying stinging kind.

As a child I was not fond of anything that had the ability to fly and sting. My lack of fondness turned to hate the first time I was stung when I was about 25. My hate turned to fear when I had my first child.

My first sting happened while my friend and I were camping in the states and I felt something in my hair. Thinking it was a leaf, I lazily reached up a hand to wipe the offending object away. Imagine my shock at the sharp pain in my finger when it stung me. Knowing I was allergic to most types of bytes (and most of nature in general but that is a different blog), I took an anti-histimane and put some ice on my finger. I also had the foresight to take off my engineering ring. Within 10 mins, my knuckles were a distant memory and the swelling was moving up my arm. We went to the local ER and I paid a lot of money to have a stronger shot to control the allergic reaction. The Dr advised me since this was the reaction to my first sting, I should have an epipen with me.

My 2nd sting happened the year Adam was born. While at a neigbor's house visiting, I was sitting on the floor in the living room. I felt the sharp sting in my right calf (still have a vague purple mark after 2 years). I looked down and saw the wasp on the carpet. While relieved it stung me instead of Adam, I was still concerned. So I gave Adam to my neighbor and headed home to take an anti-histimane and ice while having my epipen close at hand. Lukily the reaction was not anaphylactic, but I did have a complete system reaction that lasted for about 3 days. It was like the worst flu I ever had - body pain, fever, a few hives and stomach issues.

My 3rd sting happened on Saturday, 2 days ago. Walking home from the grocery store with Phil and the boys, I noticed a large number of wasps flying low to the sidewalk. I picked up Adam and then about 2 steps later it stung me on the bottom of one of my toes. It was another block home so limping and holding Adam (Phil had Alex and the groceries) we made our way. Again, anti-histimane and ice. I am still limping since all the reaction seems to be localized to my toe this time (thankfully). My toe is huge and even putting on my shoes this AM was uncomfortable.

So Phil has been searching for wasp nests on our property and using Raid on any and all he finds. But there are still a large number swarming around our front door, so we are using the back door now. It is not wasp free in the back, but far fewer wasps. Poor Adam is so spooked by the wasps he could not even walk to the car, so I had to carry both him and Alex.

Finding myself trapped in the house like a prison of fear, I am looking forward to the cool weather that will cause the wasps to start their winter sleep. My Google search for info on wasps was not helpful since it only highlighted how many different types of waspy things there are and how there is not one solution for all types.

And since they like warm weather, I suspect with the climate change that is happening and the temperatures getting warmer, they will become worse. Now is the time for anyone reading this blog to invest in companies that produce epipens - I know I will need to get a new one soon since they seem to expire every 2 years or so.