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Posted by kingredneck on August 11, 2002 at 22:15:41:
I was doing some yard work the other week. Routine weeding, picking up limbs etc, in the back
yard. As I walked by the corner of the porch I heard and felt something fall on my straw hat.
Something light like a broken twig or dead leaf from a tree. I looked up while taking my hat off
to see a wasp flogging me. I quickly broke right then left and the wasp brushed my hair. I took
off in a full run and got about 15 yards when the wasp nailed me on the forearm. After putting
some tobacco on the sting for a few minutes (I noticed my arm didn’t hurt that bad as I have been
stung before by wasps and after some moistened tobacco placed on the sting and couple hours
later I’m fine) I went back to find the wasp atop the porch in an attack mode. I killed him with
some foaming type bee and wasp killer and soaked the hole in the eve of the porch where the nest
was. A few staggered out of the hole and died. I really soaked the inside of the hole about 1/3 of
the can. That was that. Case closed. I win. Until.....................about 30 minutes later when my
arm and hand swelled up like a coffee can. I missed work the next day as the swelling and pain
continued on to my shoulder. A few days later as the swelling went down I noticed the spot
where the wasp stung me was hurting and I had a slight fever. It was about a week before I got
back to normal. Today (you guessed it) I was doing some routine weeding, picking up limbs etc,
in the back yard when I walked by the corner of the porch and felt something fall on my straw hat.
I took off in a run about 50 yards this time and never looked back. When I returned I saw one of
my old buddies atop the porch roof waiting. I couldn’t believe it. Loaded with another can of
wasp killer (the foamy stuff sucks, it doesn’t have the range nor the accuracy of the regular liquid
killer) and some cheap flying insect spray I mustered up some courage and marched into combat.
I picked off the sniper atop the roof on the blind side of the eve crack where they entered the nest.
Then quickly advanced on their position with both barrels firing. I ceased fire and took my eyes
off the eve for a second. When I did about five of the wasps charged the hole and escaped while
two stayed back and fired on me. I darted and dropped and got one. The other flew high in the
sky and dive bombed me and, taking a chance, I saved the 50 caliber ammo (bee spray) and fired
on him with my M16 (flying insect spray). A poor calculation due to fact that he wiped it out of
his eyes, reloaded his machine gun, fired up a cigar and dive bombed me again. I killed him but
narrowly escaped another folger’s coffee can hand. I retreated to the corner of the house and
waited for the others. One by one they came back and I picked them off. Two came back and as
I started off I noticed that one was flying in the hole and the other took a defensive position about
4 feet from the hole. I picked him off, but not before he flogged me, and used up the rest of the
50 caliber ammo on the hole. One or two more came back and I picked them off by saturating
them in insect spray. An hour later I took a clothes hanger and routed out the nest to discover
that moss and grass had been barricaded around the nest to protect it from spray, or invaders. I
spent half the day going back checking and spraying the hole. Ten hours later I’m still thinking
about the wasps and writing about them now still thinking there’s a couple out there. Waiting to
build a nest next year. Or perhaps just waiting for me to walk by the porch tomorrow. I asked
my old country wise neighbor about the wasps and he called them a Japanese Hornet. They are a
wicked little beast. They are bigger (estimate about 1/3 larger) than a common red wasp. They
have a golden color to them. What’s really impressive is the way they fly. They “dip” and “dart”
much like a butter fly while attacking, but fly straight otherwise. This makes them hard to hit.
And yet more impressive that this is their intelligence and aggressiveness. In my experience you
have to get really close (6, 12 inches) to a red wasp nest before the scout will leave the nest and
start flogging. And when he does he will not chase you far maybe 10, 20 feet before he quits.
Both times I was flogged by the other wasps, they were 5 or more feet from me before they
launched. They have a more acute sense of battle and defense than red wasps do, that and the
fact that they are bigger and stronger make them dangerous. I asked my doctor about the sting
and he said that after you get stung over the years you develop an allergy to them. I’m not so
sure about this. I think that their venom might be of a different toxin, or stronger. If anyone
could add information about these little devils I’d appreciate it. Thanks