A sting in the fear

I don't consider myself scared of animals all too much. Well, at least the flying ones which you have here in Holland are not the ones that are scary to me. Also creepy crawly stuff doesn't really give me the shivers. Oke, when you wake up and have something crawling over you ofcourse that is a different thing. I am just talking in general.

At the moment it feels like August is like the peak of the wasp season. And wasps are not really my friends I must say. Naturally we all know bees and how useful they are to the whole process of mother nature, but wasps don't really participate in this ecosystem that much, apart from being annoying

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So I have been noticing the increase of the amount of wasps over the last weeks a lot. And also around some fields or in the forest they sometimes have a nest, and that is surely a place where you don't want to be found. I even saw an article from someone who was walking their horse and the horse stepped into a wasp nest, unleasing the fury of these flying critters stinging the animal everywhere. It eventually died. You see the power of these rascals.



Pixabay

What I had also understood is that over the period of time they also change there diet. In the beginning of summer they are looking more for sweet stuff, and when it starts to get coolder again, they go for protein to build their houses from. So from initially landing on your coca cola, they end up landing on yout dinner plate going for the main course.

But still, I can always keep myself pretty still when some fly around, because I realize that waving at them surely doesn't help.

So today I saw a bunch of them in my house, which is not really something special, but 7 pieces in 1 room is a lot I would say. Usually they are clinging onto the window trying to get towards the light, and they were doing exactly this. No harm on that. But when I was working on my computer a bit, I felt something in my neck which I had considered a tie of hair from my ponytail, I waved it away and the hair stuck me.

It turned out to be one of the inside house wasps, which had just stung me in my neck. Yikes.!





Now as far as I could remember I was never allergic to bee stings or wasp stings but my last sting was really a bunch of years ago already. The body is very well capable of developing intolerances for things, so this did cross my mind this could also be an option.



Pixabay

I immediately had to think about a retired dude I used to work with who died of an attack of fire ants. He never knew he had a allergy for them but was found dead in his house covered in ant bites with the phone in his hand.

Also another dude I know never had an allergy for anything but was stung by a wasp whil drinking his beverage and he drank the wasp with the fluid inside. The wasp stuck him in his throat and he was on the ICU for weeks. No jokes with these guys.

Nice how all of these things cross your mind in a couple of seconds right?





Immediately I had to think about Misses Mia Wallace from the 'Pulp Fiction' movie who needed a sting of atropine straight in the heart after an overdose. Stings in the heart are not cool.

But I am still here and still breathing so I suppose the allergy isn't there as yet, and I am cool. So uhhhh...better luck on keeping these rascals out for the moment...

And yes, putting a bag of ice on the sting does actually help