Tuesday, July 18, 2017

4th of July with yellow jacket

On the 4th of July I was stung by a wasp, a yellow jacket, while watching our town parade. I saw her crawl up my pant leg, but I waited to retrieve her, hoping she would turn around and find her way out on her own. Instead, as the fabric became tighter around my leg, she wedged herself and stung me. Ouch! The pain registered as a splinter jab and then bloomed into a prickling sensation that traveled across my leg and lingered for thirty minutes. Luckily, I'm not allergic to wasp stings, like so many people are, and that was the extent of the damage.

Yellow jackets are aggressive. They'll liquify just about anything to feed their young. Here is a photo of yellow jackets feeding on a sphinx moth in my neighbor's yard. 
 And building a new nest across the street.
Linked is some light reading on yellow jackets and other social wasps from California's IPM program. 
Yellow jackets beware, I'm keeping a sharp eye out and I won't hesitate to smack the next one of that lands on me!