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Ok, so nothing as serious as masco and bongo but I was just stung while pruning my lavender - damned thing stung me in my armpit... I can't see a sting, I can only just see the wound.

Can anyone tell me (quickly) what the best thing is to put on it, I have an ise pack on it now, but my arm is aching from the cold

I have just read that you shouldn't put vinegar on it as you can't get it to the venom, which is 5mm under the skin... I was thinking lavender EO should be OK though? (can anyone else see the irony )

I know, I am such a woose, but when I have been stung before it has ached for days... which I am not looking forward to

you should lay some vinegar on it on cloth, just because it can't neutralise the sting itself doesn't mean it can't help the pain. also, take some ibuprofen and an antihistemine. both will reduce any swelling, redness and soreness.

many hugs.

thanks mrsF

I know we used St. John's Wort (oily extract) for wasps' stings in France, and it worked brilliantly... Not much good to you unless you happen to have the stuff in the house.

People might come up with some really good ideas, but if you don't have their suggested remedy in the house, it's going to be a while before you can treat the sting. Vinegar is the type of thing that everybody has in their house. I would put that on while your waiting for someone to suggest a better alternative that you have in.

For anyone who can never remember what to put on wasp or bee stings, I heard this somewhere (no idea where, it was ages ago)..
Vinegar for a Vasp
Bicarb for a Bee

If you have essential oils at home there is a few you can use:

Basil and Thyme are Antivenomous

Celery, Chamomile, Clary Sage, Eucalyptus, Fennel, Guaiacwood, Immortelle, Lavender, Myrrh, Patchouli, Peppermint, Pine, Rose, Sandlewoo, Santolina, Tagetes and Yarrow all reduce inflammation.

I'd go with Thyme and Chamomile.

From a nursing point of view - cold compress, antihistamine and a NSAID like ibuprofen.

Hope it heals - Barry

Thanks everyone

It still aches (it was 8 hours ago I was stung) I am dozed up on iboprofen and antihistamines, I am feeling woozy but I don't know if it is from the sting or the meds

My FIL was just telling me how the pain clears after a few minutes ummm.... evidently we can have different reactions. But I know what to look out for regarding anaphalaxis and I am OK, can you get a reaction like that to wasps?

Never did the vinegar thing... honestly I found some website saying it was more likely to harm you than do any good... I don't know where the website is now though


I HATE BLOODY WASPS!!!

Can anybody enlighten me? What,exactly,is the purpose of a wasp? (apart from their small contribution to pollinisation). P.S. Hope the sting has receeded, Annpan.

Aww poor you - it's a big nasty! Hope you are feeling better soon. As Rosendula said - vinegar for wasp stings or as my sis says winegar for wasps - only her DH couldn't find any and offered her Worcester sauce instead! Well it starts with a W! Do be careful tho. I haven't been stung since I was 11 (keep your fingers crossed for me) be when I was stung on the ankle my foot swelled so much that I didn't have toes - I just had nails on the end of my foot! So beware!
You could always try taking the vinegar internally - chips and wine should do it!

Annpann, its more than likely the antihistamines that are causing you to feel doped up - not all antihistamines make you drowsy but ones like Chlorpheniramine (Piriton) does. You can have the same reaction from wasps and ants as you can rom bee's.

Pumpy - i think the same of wasps - but if it wasnt for them we wouldn't have Bee's - in evolutionary terms, first there were wasps, which turned into Bee's with the arrival of flowers with pollen, and then when the place was full of Bee's and there were too many Bee predators, they took to living underground, shed there wings and what do you get...............Ants!!! - mad, totally mad.

Thanks for that,Barry. Next thing to look-forward to is Autumn,when the little bu****s get drunk & aggressive,on rotting fruit!!

Thanks again all, it was the non-drowsy anti-histamines I took... I can't remember the name of the active ingredient. My sister is allergic (very seriously) to bee stings, so better safe than sorry - I wonder if it is more of a hereditary thing as to who reacts badly to them???

Milims, that happened when I was was stung under my ear, it was hugely swollen for a day or so and was a week before the pain eased (my ear/neck that is, not my foot, you understand...lol)

I will apply chips and wine - for the purpose of recovery of course

I was just so close to tears when my FIL said it doesn't really swell or hurt, um yes it does. Then I feel like a big phoney cause it hurts to lift stuff

Feeling OK now though, I will have the ice pack on standby and I am sure I'll be fine by the morning, then I might finish trimming the lavender


Oh by the way I found out what the absolute best free wasp trap is...
jam jar with metal lid, cut an X in the top and fold down the sides just enough for a wasp to crawl in. In the jam jar put the cut up peel of a very ripe banana and about a cup of water... works a treat.
I don't know how this one little bugger avoided it though, there must be about 50 of them in it

pumpy wrote:Can anybody enlighten me? What,exactly,is the purpose of a wasp? (apart from their small contribution to pollinisation). P.S. Hope the sting has receeded, Annpan.

They fertilise figs. I don't know how, but that's what they do. What's more, I have at least 7 varieties of figs, and each can only be fertilised by a specific variety of wasp. Nightmare.

what a nightmare that must be - but if figs are what you get for the hard work then why not?

This is the first summer since I moved here 4 years ago that we've had a problem with wasps. They are seriously bad now and were eating my corn cobs!! I've got 2 wasp traps up now and they are full within 24 hours - catching a lot of hornets too - though they never seem to pester us like wasps do.

I react badly to wasp stings so don't want to get any - but I've yet to try out antihistamine tablets on a wasp bite so I'll be taking one immediately if I should get stung to see what happens. Though frankly if it is during a weekday I think I'll go to the doctor for an injection - a dentist once saw my (skin) reaction to wasp bites and told me I should have gone to hospital!!! The last time I got quite flu like symptoms too for about 24 hours (but that was without antihist tablets).

It does however sound like most of us swell up really badly with nasty pain as well as itching so we all ought to think about keeping antihistamine tablets at home at all times!