It is funny, I have NEVER been stung killing yellow jackets, wasps, or hornets. I used to kill hornet nests with two aerosol cans. I would hit the hole with an aerosol with an immediate kill, then stick the tip of a fogger type aerosol (like a WD-40 tip) through the side of the nest and fog the inside. They would pile up in the entrance and clog it. Today I tried using a plastic bottle of dust, the dust didn't come ut quite right and instead of backing away... I went for it again. It was in aholly hedge, I thought a holy leaf was sticking me on the outside of my arm at the elbow but it was a big black baldfaced hornet. I brushed him off and went to the truck and got a sting swab. Went to the drugstore and got some benzocaine sting swabs, cortizone creme, and some benadryl, just in case. I think it hit the vein that runs just outside the elbow, not in the bend but following the outside of the forearm at the elbow because I felt it in my wrist and hand right after it stung me. I now have a purple/red spot the size of a nickle there... but it really didn't hurt that bad... another reason I think most went in my blood stream. I guess I am lucky I am not allergic, I would have been DRT, if I were allergic. I mean, it did hurt but not as bad as some yellow jacket stings I have had. I was a little sick to my stomach and was getting some prickly head rushes but it is all gone now.. I hope. If you don't see me anymore you'll know why but I think I am OK.
I started out to say it is funny and got off track... it is funny because I have always felt that if I didn't charge extra for killing jackets or hornets... I would surely get stung. We just started her pest control service less than a week ago and I decided, for the first time ever to not charge extra for it and it crossed my mind... I'll get stung, sure as the world, if I don't charge for this... and sure enough, 25 years in business, never stung killing a nest... until today. You bet I will charge from now on.
 
I am going back tomorrow to check, I am not sure I killed it... now it is personal. It is bigger than a basketball.
 
J

Are there such a thing as "hairy-faced" hornets?

They're in league with the birds.

I'm a little worried because I think it got me in the vein. I have no pain unless I rub the site. It never did really hurt very much. It hurt if I straightened my arm but not much and as I said, immediatey after the sting I felt it in my hand and wrist. Now I've read about wasp stings and delayed Kounis syndrome, which can cause a heart attack from 48 hours to 2 weeks after such an event as this... something else to worry about, great. I will take Benadryl and keep the nitro pills handy. I just don't like that it didn't really hurt. I take plavix which would explain the big bruise if the vein got a hole in it...
I think I will call my cardiologist tomorrow, I have a 6mos appointment with him next week anyway.
 
J

Those bugs tend to get really miffed when you mess with their home.... 
 
As an electrician and alarm tech, I tend to run into red wasps in panels that are outside, and under the eves of buildings. I keep some wasp spray and WD-40 handy. 
 
I recall one instance where we were installing a new service and needed to put a 2" pipe through the wall.... as soon as we started pounding on the cinder block to knock the hole, yellow jackets started coming out about 5 feet down from us.  A radio call to the boss (I had not started my own business yet) and an exterminator showed up..... with a few cans of bug spray.  He wanted us to beat on the wall while he sprayed them as they came out........     uhhhhh NO!
 
One of our guys used a 10' piece of conduit to stand back and beat the wall.  And they started to come out. The guy ran out of spray and had to go to his shop to get more. He came back with a case and lined the cans up on the ground so he could grab as needed. 
 
To make a long story short, he estimated there were 40,000 or more yellow jackets in that wall once he was able to get it open. The hive was up the wall and across several cavities. They had been there for some time. 
 
we were able to work to complete the job with only minor distractions from the returning yellow jackets. The exterminator was stung several times as was the lineman in the bucket truck and both of the other guys on our crew were hit once each..... but they were also provoking the bees after the job was done.
 
I don't know if hornet, wasp and yellow jacket venom is similar to honey bee venom, but they are using bee venom to treat MS.
 
 
 
side note: In Charleston SC they paint their porch ceilings light blue. It's believed that the color keeps wasps from building nests under the roof..... they think it's the open sky or something.

When I was young (5-ish), I was sitting in my grandparent's backyard on a wooden picnic table.  I didn't know this table had been claimed by yellow jackets.  As I sat there, legs dangling over the side, they kindly gave me six stings on each leg.  It hurt even more than being dropped on my head.  I remember rolling on the ground screaming in agony.  My folks poured rubbing alcohol on my legs to make them hurt more.  What we lacked in actual medical knowledge, we compensated with torture techniques.
 
Wasps, bees, hornets, yellow jackets, etc. have all tried to exterminate me.  When I soak their nests in pesticides, I claim self-defense.

Horror story:
 
While visiting a friend, his little buy suddenly started screaming and jumping around while swatting at his legs. I was the first to reach him and his dad was yelling "get his pants off" so that's what I did.
 
A red wasp had gotten up his pant leg and was stinging him..... he had multiple stings and the wasp was "bristling" when we found it..... we crushed it...

 Ugh. Jbow you have been pretty fortunate until today I guess.
 
 I won't bore you with all the occasions that I have been stung. It comes out with me winning though because Ive done a lot of those hornets, wasps,yellow jackets in too.  If I corner them, well there's a lot of me to sting.
 
 I'll share one occasion that this happened. I was at my Great Grandmothers house in a large pear tree loaded with pears. I liked climbing trees back then, still do, but I would look funny at my age in a tree...anyways, I was up as far as I could go and happened to turn my head and not more than 6 inches from my face was the largest wasp nest I have ever seen. They must have liked the pears too. When they stick their wings straight up it means they are on alert and that means you are in deep do do. I had so many stings on my face I couldn't count em' all. My face looked pressurized. 
 
 That was bad enough, but my uncle being the southern gentleman he was, knew of the best remedy there ever was, oh god yes. Chewing tobacco, wet chewing tobacco and lots of it. The idea is to chew it then spit it on the affected area (my face in this case). It's supposed to draw the poison out. I think I had a whole bag on Red Man on my face. It was a fun day I'll never forget. No critter of any kind would have come within a mile of my face after the treatment.

Guitarhacker
side note: In Charleston SC they paint their porch ceilings light blue. It's believed that the color keeps wasps from building nests under the roof..... they think it's the open sky or something.

Hey, cool tip!  I'll have to keep that one.
 
My horror story happened at a friend's house when I was young and we used to play wiffle ball in his back yard.  If you hit it over his back fence it was a home run, but you had to go get the ball yourself.  I tended to hit a lot of homers and, on one of them, I went out his back gate and the ball had landed on what looked like a green felt blanket (there was a so-called "greenbelt" behind his house where the power lines go and nothing gets built).  I reached down to pick up the ball and was suddenly surrounded by wasps.  Since I was wearing shorts I freaked and managed to vault his fence, land on the diving board of his pool, and fall into the water with a few of the wasps still on my legs.  I ended up with 14 stings and a very long paranoia of flying, stinging insects.

57Gregy
They're in league with the birds.

Yup.........
 
hello mr Jbow, so you think it's fun to shoot my friends do ya ? Have some of this. Gotta love nature fighting back :)