Yellowjackets -- the wasp/hornet

wait. car, dog, knife?

 

Buffoon occasionally.
Maybe ONE other ....um.... wind instrument.

I'm otherwise musically untalented......

 

Stinking Hornets. Just came across a hornet Bungalow like I've never seen before. Trimming the neighbors overhanging maple before all the leaves become 2 tons of lawn art on OUR side of the fence, I start cutting back branches & limbs so it's easier to manage.
Will have to douche it w/ long range hornet spray early tomorrow morning when it's only 62°. That's one way to get out of yard work for the rest of the day.



It's probably a good 3" diameter
.

 

bees are driving the hummingbirds batty

 

Hiking in the Grand Park area of Mt Rainier National Park yesterday, I saw numerous fallen and abandoned paper wasp nests on or next to the trail. Well inside a federally protected wilderness area, safe from humans but not from recent weather events.

But it wasn't one of them that got me. Some other kind of trail-side wasp or hornet, ground dwelling in a decaying log, did, on the back of the right hand.

It was quickly apparent that this was going to be my strongest insect sting reaction since my early teens. Normally the sting pain starts fading after a few minutes, but this one kept growing, widening to the full width of the hand, with other tingles as far as the elbow. Puffiness also kept expanding, covering the entire back of the hand this morning.

I've long been less reactive to insect stings than the spouse, but maybe that is changing. She'd also been seemed to reacting stronger in recent years.