I was trying to clear the weeds around the biggest wood pile behind the barn and stumbled upon a wasps nest in amongst the older more rotten logs. I got hit a good eight times much to my chagrin. Luckily the dog is ok. I did have to pull over three separate times to let wasps out of the car, and swipe them off of me. I was wearing full length pants, a bulky sweater and a jacket so many of the potential swarms stings were muted. But one went up my shirt and got my hip real good, and the top of my butt, and the face/neck stings were direct hits. Could have been far worse, though I’m not thrilled about the stings I did get. Ha!
On the plus side the weed eating is just about done. So tomorrow I will stack wood in the first pile, and I might take a break and work on my furniture build. See if we can’t get some Frost’s to roll in and subdue the wasps before I go back. The nest looks to be about ten to fifteen feet over from where I had planned to start on the spring time bucked bits, so that’s a no-go right this moment.
I am now out of the shower, and have rubbed myself down with after bite and benadryl creams, and am in the process of washing all the clothes that I had on to get rid of any angry wasp pheromones so they don’t come back at me upon my return.
Also checked myself for ticks while I was in the shower and so far I’m all good there too. My face and hip do hurt pretty good right now, I’m not going to lie. I was so caught up in sweeping down all the long grasses and weeds I didn’t even notice the swarm. My safety goggles and headphones protected my eyes and ears, but my neck and cheek still got got, if you know what I mean.
I’d swear that at any one point I probably had ten to fifteen wasps on me just going to town with their stingers. Thank god it’s cool and rainy and I had all these extra clothes on otherwise instead of just eight or so stings, I’d have fifty or more – easily. Yuck! Makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.
Take care of yourselves out there. Be aware of your surroundings! Wear the appropriate PPE.
