Picnic Pests

You have set the ideal summer scene. The weather is great, the company too and you have the picnic blanket spread out with a generous feast of nibbles, treats, cakes and sandwiches. The kids have their sweet drinks and ice creams and then ……..

BUZZING & SCREAMS !

The first sighting of a wasp can send panic and hysteria among many. Their buzzing arrival, tiny size coupled with fast random movement unsettles even the toughest person.

Your VERY first reaction is likely to be a verbal expletive followed by frantic movement, swatting with arms wailing around your head. This is not only a sure way to aggravate a wasp, send food flying and drinks tumbling, but it will be copied, remembered and repeated by on looking children.

Don't show your fear since you're setting the example for their future reaction.

As I write this I’m sat in the garden and there’s a wasp on the chair right next to me but I’m not panicking and I’ve a few quick choices:

Being calm, watching and allowing the wasp to land teaches the kids to not jump around and alarm it. By making it a game to spot the first wasp you’re making it far less likely for someone to get stung.

Ignore It

For my visiting wasp I know it’s not interested in me since it, like many before it, love scrapping wood off the chair to go repair or build a nest. I’m also surrounded by flowers who need the wasps and bees, although I’d rather we don’t share the space at the same time it’s tough luck.

Move On

Go inside or find a new spot in the garden and you're accepting defeat by a common visitor, it’s my garden too!

If you don't move far and you’ve sweet drinks and food wasps will follow you in a hurry.

Track It

If you don't kill or trap a wasp or bee at least follow it's flight and see if the nest is nearby. If you're at home and it's wasps then you must act since they'll annoy you all summer but if you're on a picnic take the easy option and move on.

Shed's, compost heaps, under the eaves of the roof, inside the porch or cracks in the bricks are favourite places. So too are trees, hedges and anywhere they've decided to set up camp. Google for local pest controller who'll help for a fee but don't poison bees! Contact a local bee keeper to have them removed since we desperately need them to pollinate our gardens and grow crops.

If you get stung here's some basic facts that might come in useful.

1. Except for the honey bee, which has barbed stinger, wasps and bees can repeatedly sting. This explains a little about the aggressive behaviour of all but the more 'friendly' honey bees who are less likely to sting you unless in self-defense.

2. A sting is the injection of venom into a tiny area beneath the skin. Honey bees leave a sting sack in the wound so the quicker it is removed the less venom that is injected.

3. Among many ingredients the sting from a wasp is acidic and alkaline from a bee so even if you remember your chemistry lessons and apply milk or vinegar alone to the wound it still will not counter the other painful ingredients.

4. The objective of any treatment is to reduce pain and local inflammation. If you have ICE to hand then this is what I would use because it reduces swelling, numbs the wound, slows the spread of the venom and reduces your body’s natural release of histamine.

Branded creams containing anti-histamine, hydrocortisone or benzocaine can reduce swelling and pain but it’s unlikely you’ll have this to hand.

Rubbing the wound will promote endorphin release but might also promote the speed and spread of the venom but any treatment will provide a soothing effect to the mind.

5. An allergic reaction could be described (I am not a doctor) as being symptoms after being stung that are not kept local to the wound. If you get stung on a finger and you have further symptoms such as your arm swells up, or have difficulty breathing, or feel sick, or have diarrhea, or have headaches then it’s likely to be as a result of the venom and medical treatment is needed. The severity can be huge and life threatening.

Also if, after a few hours of being stung, the local swelling does not go down then it might have become infected and require medical treatment.

For more information visit www.insectstings.co.uk

Foreign Pests

Although there’s a distinct difference between the behaviour of Bees and Wasps what we might also not be aware of is that in Ireland we don’t tend to have the super aggressive, territorial and swarming continental varieties.

Choosing Fight or Flight depends on where you are in the world. Ask the locals and you’ll find out soon enough.

If you 'google' the top 10 most deadly insects you'll find they're far away from Ireland but 'Killer Bees' are real and not movie fiction. There's a listing too of the most painful stings which has 'Paper Wasps' as ones to really, really, really avoid.