Random Terrain's Tetraternarium - Ground Hornet/Yellowjacket attack

[RSS Bot]

I've seen common Yellowjackets before and they usually have the classic look you can find at Google Images. What I saw tonight didn't look like any Yellowjackets I've seen before. Can't really find a straight answer. Some web sites say that Ground Hornets kind of look like Yellowjackets and other sites say that Ground Hornets are Yellowjackets. Whatever you want to call them, they were fairly small and semi-dark looking. Not the bright Yellowjackets many of us have seen.

 

It was getting dark and I was trying to finish the weed whacking. It was starting to become a little hard to see, but I was almost done, so I thought I could hurry up and finish. Not the smartest thing I've ever done. It felt like I got a a mosquito bite on my belly, then I smelled a really strong, horrible stench that smelled tree-based. Smelled a lot like some crap I got back in the 1990s from a health food store that I put on one of my toes which ended up being dark and sticky (kind of like tar) and got on my sheets and wouldn't wash out. The name tea tree oil keeps popping up in my mind, but I'm not sure that's correct.

 

Right after the smell, I got a pain near my left temple, then on the back of my left arm near my elbow and that was when I saw what seemed like hundreds of small winged insects flying up out of the ground. They didn't look like Yellowjackets, especially in the semi-darkness, but I quickly figured out that the little itchy pains must have been stings, so I dropped everything and ran to the house. Right when I got inside, I noticed one little wasp on my arm so I knocked it off and ran to my room and yanked off my shirt and pants. Crap! More wasps! Three wasps were repeatedly diving at me, so I grabbed a flyswatter and whacked them as quickly as I could before I got any more stings. Thought I was done, but two more came out of my crumpled up shirt on the floor. I whacked one, but couldn't get the other. I grabbed my shirt and pants and threw them out on the front porch since there were at least a few more wasps on them.

 

The little wasp in my room was attacking a light, so as waited for a good shot, I took some store brand liquid Benadryl type stuff, a store brand Benadryl-style capsule, and put store brand Benadryl-like cream on my temple, arm, belly, and foot. When I got done, the wasp was gone. After a few minutes of searching, I took a shower, reapplied the cream to the spots, got dressed and searched some more. Nothing. The little wasp is still in my room somewhere. I hope I don't get stung while sleeping.

 

Oh yeah, remember that stench I mentioned? The places where I got stung also smelled like it to me, even after my shower, but it seems I'm the only one who can smell it. You'd think other people could smell a stench like that. Smells like I've been raped by a smelly tree.

 

 

Random Terrain

_http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?app=blog&blogid=120&showentry=6409