Wasps are common in the warm summer months. These small insects can cause a lot of nuisance to humans. You prefer to keep wasps away from you and especially from your children. How do you recognize and repel a wasp and how can you best treat a wasp sting?
- Are you dealing with a wasp, a bumblebee or a bee?
- When does a wasp sting
- Ways to keep wasps at bay
- Stung by a wasp? What now?
Are you dealing with a wasp, a bumblebee or a bee?
The wasp, bee and bumblebee are three different types of insects, yet they are very similar. All three of these insects can sting you when angry. All three insects are also striped black with yellow, but what is the difference between these three insects?
Bumblebees and bees
Bumblebees and bees will never sting you just like that, these two insects usually stay close to flowers and are less likely to find sweets and food than wasps do. Besides this, bumblebees and bees are also much less aggressive than wasps. A bee can only sting once, then the bee dies because it has lost its stinger. Of course the bee will not just sting, they only do this in real panic. Bumblebees are the largest insect of the three, the bee is slightly smaller than the bumblebee and the wasp is the smallest and thinnest. Bumblebees and bees are also very fat, a wasp is narrow.
Wasps
Wasps are faster, more aggressive and often more annoying than bees or bumblebees, because wasps like to visit sweets, such as food. Just like bees and bumblebees, wasps will not just sting, but a wasp will not die if it stings. A wasp can easily sting many times in a row without consequences for the wasp. Only the female wasp can sting.
When does a wasp sting
A wasp stings if you bother the wasp, this can be because you hit the wasp away, or corner it. It is also possible that you are in the flight path to and from the wasp nest, so you are in the way for the wasp. A wasp will not sting just like that, so it often has a reason.
Ways to keep wasps at bay
You have probably heard all the standard measures to keep wasps at bay: no sweets or food, no sweet perfume, check your drink before taking a sip and hang up a wasp trap. But what else can you do to keep wasps at bay?
You can put a bowl of water with a good splash of ammonia / ammonium on the table, wasps find this smell very dirty, but you should of course also be able to handle this yourself. You can also cut a lemon into pieces and put it on the table, this smell also keeps the wasps at a distance. Besides ammonia and lemon, vinegar and cloves are also very helpful, especially cloves, which you can put in a bag and hang will keep the wasps at bay. The last tip that is increasingly emerging is to hang a bag of water. This shines in the sun and wasps can, but flies, too.
Fear of wasps
Many people are afraid of wasps, which makes sense because it is not pleasant if you are stung. Many people are also allergic to wasp stings, so they have to go to the doctor as soon as possible to get an antidote, because it can kill people. Often glands expand and the person can no longer breathe. The fear of wasps is often something that children already see in their parents, so children also become afraid of wasps when they do not know what wasps do. So always try to stay calm when a wasp flies with you, this way the wasp will not harm you and you also teach your children that when they see a wasp, they must remain calm.
Stung by a wasp? What now?
If you do get stung by a wasp, it is important that you vacuum the spot, you can do this yourself with your mouth, but spit out the poison and do not swallow it. You can also use a special type of syringe that you can buy in many stores. This syringe has a kind of mold at the end that you can put around the stitch, you can now let this syringe suck the poison from your wound.
To relieve the pain and itching, you can smear ammonium on the sting. You can still suffer from the wasp sting for a few hours to a day.
Would you like to give a barbecue with the family in the summer or just sit in the garden? Don’t forget to put one of these above products on the table to keep the wasps at bay.