Late one evening recently, my wife bent down to pick up what she believed was a dead fly off the utility room floor in our house.
She screamed and I took running off running towards her. I couldn’t imagine what had happened.
When I was almost there, she already was half way to our kitchen sink and crying and hurting. She quickly turned on the water, put a finger underneath it and then turned to make her way to a cabinet where the baking soda was.
She got some of it out, put it on her finger and rubbed some water on the spot that was causing her so much pain.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a fly she tried to pick up. It was some kind of dark colored bee or wasp that had stung her on the finger.
I first grabbed a Benadryl in the cabinet above us, got her some water and she took it, still unbelievably hurting from the sting.
Feeling helpless, and almost feeling her pain, I asked her what else I could do. There wasn’t much except to get her to the recliner where she could sit down and rest.
I then grabbed something else from a bathroom cabinet that I thought might help ease her pain and she took it. I asked if she thought I needed to take her to the emergency room.
This is a big deal for Pat. She’s highly allergic to bee or wasp stings.
It’s been more than 30 years since she was stung last, but she had to go to the ER then when a wasp got her. So I was watching her closely this time just in case.
It continued to hurt her horribly, but what she had done for herself with the baking soda and what she had taken to ease the pain started to help after a while. Still, it was uncomfortable for her several hours later and bothered her sleeping.
I’d already been on a mission to eliminate as many of these wasps and hornets that I could this summer, so I’ve stepped it up a notch recently.
I’ve done away with quite a few “mud dobbers,” as I call them, and a few of those pesky red wasps.
I spotted one of the latter this past Saturday around an old smoker we have in a dog pen and suspected there might be nest inside.
So, a couple of hours later, I headed off to a store that carries lots of wasp and hornet spray and purchased several cans.
On my return, armed with a new can, I carefully lifted the cover. Sure enough, there was one of the largest nests I’d ever seen.
The nest and the red wasps are no longer there. That mission was successful.