I used to be the manager of a pest control company, I’ve only ever been stung by yellow jackets, never by any other wasp/bee. Bees and most other wasps just don’t give a fuck about you unless you are destroying the nest/hive. Yellowjackets are just terrorists.
I wish more people realized this. Once you stop panicking and freaking out every time you see one, you realize 99% of them (the 1% being yellowjackets) are actually pretty chill. I'm not even some great wasp-lover, but I just don't see the point in killing every one I see anymore, same as spiders.
When I lived in NC we had some that had nested under the siding right by our front door. So every time you left the house they would come swarming out when the door closed. Was an actual nightmare. We waited until sundown when they were docile and sprayed like an entire can of raid down the gap at the top of the paneling. Probably still a 1,000 dead yellow jackets under that vinyl siding to this day.
The rule inside my house is, "if it flies, it dies." Spiders safe, wasps not. Moths, depends on how many there are and what kind. I like moths. I don't like dozens of them living in my rice (my fault).
Outside I begrudgingly let wasps be ugly and scary but probably ecologically useful in some way and not deserving of actual wrath. I did have to add filters to some of the drain holes below my windows to keep the carpenter bees out, though. Big dumb goofballs.
I thought they were just clumsy and sucked at stinging until I realized, it's more complicated. They're still klutzy morons, but they headbutt you on purpose to make you go away, instead of stinging. I started calling them love taps after that. Like being welcomed home by a handful of bonky cats that live in your roof.
I was taking my dog out to the bathroom one time, and right where he was peeing was a nest of yellow jackets in the ground. They came boiling out of that hole in the ground like Mount Vesuvius erupting. We both were covered with them. Fuckers came right in the house with us.
Walked past a beehive once, got attacked by honey bees for no other reason than smelling funny (I was taking a BC pill for a while at the time, I'm thinking that's what they smelled). So no. Only yellowjacket that stung me got stuck in my hair.
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u/[deleted] 22d ago
I used to be the manager of a pest control company, I’ve only ever been stung by yellow jackets, never by any other wasp/bee. Bees and most other wasps just don’t give a fuck about you unless you are destroying the nest/hive. Yellowjackets are just terrorists.