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How to Deal with Wasp Stings,
August 12, 2019
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Aloe Vera Tips n' Solutions - August 12, 2019

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Aloe Vera Tips & Solutions
the newsletter/ezine of
www.aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com
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Vol. 8 #94 August 12, 2019

How to Deal with Wasp Stings

I got my first wasp sting on Friday evening, while pulling weeds in my garden, close to an old fridge turned into a planter. I've been checking out how to deal with wasp stings. Realizing this could happen to you too, I want to share what I've learned.

Immediate Treatment of a Wasp Sting

Wash the area with soap and warm water and try to remove as much of the venom as possible. Fortunately, wasps do not leave a stinger in you as bees do. Keep your wound area clean and dry to prevent infection, but you may certainly want to get a cold pack to hold over it, just to reduce swelling and the pain.

You might want to put a large bandage over the spot, but I found that an area of several inches each direction turned red, and the stickiness of the bandage did not feel good there.

Instead, I looked for home remedies to try.

Honey is recommended for bee stings, so I tried that, but the stickiness meant I had to be careful what I bumped into with my arm, even my clothing, the arm of a chair, etc.

Apple cider vinegar is also advised. It felt cooling and drying as I wiped over the area with gobs of fluffy cotton balls. A friend suggested salt water, so I added some to the apple cider vinegar, but then the red patch of skin began to get dry and crusty feeling. I decided it was time I turned to my tried and true remedy for just about everything - aloe vera gel!

I have some in a tube from Forever Living, and it was handier than cutting a leave and scraping it out, so went for that first. Ah, the gel was so cooling and soothing! I have no problem remembering to do it over again every few minutes.

Online I found other remedy suggestions, such as baking soda, toothpaste, a wet aspirin tablet on the spot, or to use meat tenderizer, and then herbs and oils. I decided that I was content with the aloe vera gel.

Allergic to Insect Bites?

If you should be allergic to insect bites, it may happen that you experience more severe symptoms. These can range from a large swollen area a the bite site for two to three days, to nausea and vomiting, and the extreme - a life-threatening anaphylactic shock. If it gets out of hand, by all means, head to Emergency at your nearest hospital, or get in touch with your doctor.

How to Get Rid of the Wasp Nest?

Depending on how severe your reactions to the wasp sting or insect bite, (or the reactions of those who love and want to protect you), there will soon be talk of getting rid of the wasp nest.

It is advised to wait until dusk as the wasps go into their nest for the night.

By the way, wasps help your garden or property by capturing and eating other insects such as flies, caterpillars and beetle larvae. The ones roaming around further from their nest are usually harmless. It is the ones that stay in or near the nest that are the warrior wasps meant to protect their nest, and they will attack you - especially in daylight hours.

A couple of friends found out about my bite on Saturday, and today the husband came to give me a tall spray can of WASP BgonMAX. So I will see that I'm well covered with clothing at dusk tonight and go out to spray all over the wasp nest in my garden.

If you don't have such a pesticide, you can use dish soap mixed with water in a 1:10 ratio. Pour this solution into a spray bottle, and spray it directly on each wasp you see. Wasps breathe through their skin, so the soap will suffocate them, and at the same time render their wings useless.

Normally, wasps do not chase you unless you disturb them, or if you run. Remember they can out-run you! When they do sting you, they mark you with a chemical that identifies you to other wasps that you are an enemy. However, the yellow jackets and paper wasps (2 kinds) will not chase you very far unless you have destroyed their nest.

Destroying the Wasp Nest

Once bitten or stung, you are likely to develop a real hate for wasps. Or any other stinging insects. Try to keep a clear, cool and thinking head. Remember that like bees, wasps pollinate your plants and flowers. If all wasps were wiped out, it would create new problems of far greater dimensions. Rather, let's try to be more careful, and be aware of good remedies to use, if and when a sting happens.

Sometimes for the safety of the people, the wasp nest must be destroyed. There is a wiki page with excellent tips and images to show a number of ways to do this. https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-a-Wasp's-Nest




P.S. I apologize for not sticking to my schedule of issues the last month or so. July was super busy with organizing a Memorial service for my brother, and preparing for the out of province visitors. But I was also helping a handicapped friend to move. Exhausting work! Then last week when I hoped to buckle down to my regular work schedule, this desktop would NOT go online. In trying to solve that problem I ended up re-installing my operating system 8 times over 4 days, each time getting a failed bootloader error. I do believe it was God who prompted me after that 8th time to go change a setting in the BIOS, and voila! I was able to login. So now I'm peddling fast to catch up!

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