Wasp or a Bee Sting? This is the Question…
We just arrived home after a trip abroad and the first thing that happened after stepping outside the house is realizing (the hard way) that wasps have taken over my backyard. Of course, it was my daughter got the first present - she got stung by a wasp. We weren't really sure initially whether it was a bee or a wasp sting. It turns out that a bee sting usually leaves a stinger behind, which appears as a small, black or brown barb embedded in the skin. Wasps, on the other hand, do not leave their stingers behind, so you won't find a stinger if stung by a wasp. If after that we were not sure, the nest forming around the hose storage in our backyard made it pretty the conclusion clear.
Fortunately, the sting treatment is straightforward, and we didn't have any serious reactions. That said, wasp stings always hurt like hell. The poor thing had to suffer for a few minutes, though she got away with just a red bump on the leg. We were unprepared with regards to medications. It turns out there are a couple of first aid items that could really help with the paid from bee or wasp stings (recommended by our pediatrician).
The first one is EZ Bites Relief Venom Extractor, available on Amazon. The second one is Sting-Kill First Aid Anesthetic Swabs, Instant Pain + Itch Relief, which I also ended up getting from Amazon. Hopefully I would not need to use them but I'm glad I have them in case anyone gets stung again.
Below is also a link to the anesthetic swabs:
How I got rid of the wasps nest....
Once our initial shock from the wasp sting was over, we had to get to business and kick them out of their nest.
We tried a couple of sprays that we purchased from the local hardware store, but none of them worked. Lastly we tried the Sevin Ready to Use Garden Insect Killer Dust. I wasn't sure this was going to work either but in this heat my garden was desperate for water, so I needed to reclaim my garden hose back. Sevin seemed to work almost immediately and I'm happy to report no wasps have been near my hose for over 2 weeks. Yey!
