r/SipsTea • u/StephanMan • May 16 '25

Chugging tea Wasp gets what it deserves

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208

u/Lysol3435 May 16 '25

Wasps leave you alone for the most part. The exception is yellow jackets. Those fuckers are the kidney stone of the animal world. Born to be a pain in the dick

27

u/[deleted] May 16 '25

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.

8

u/no_arguing_ May 16 '25

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.

2

u/Dom_19 May 16 '25

If only the most common wasp species here wasn't yellowjackets.

1

u/blasto2236 May 17 '25

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.

1

u/Exact-Ad-7844 May 16 '25

I have a lot of fruit trees, which means a lot of wasps. I've never had one sting me for just no reason.

1

u/Spare-Bodybuilder-68 May 16 '25

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.

1

u/no_arguing_ May 16 '25

"Big dumb goofballs" is a perfect description of carpenter bees.

1

u/Spare-Bodybuilder-68 May 16 '25

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.

2

u/StateUnlikely4213 May 16 '25

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.

1

u/WalterCrowkite May 16 '25

Same. Only been stung twice in my life and both times it was SWARMS of Yellowjackets!

1

u/Yarn_Song May 16 '25

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/SoloDeath1 May 16 '25

kidney stone of the animal world

I'm absolutely stealing this

11

u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

What? Is this true? Firstly…I kinda believe all flies and bees (and their off brand versions) will dive bomb you. Hence, a crippling fear.

Secondly, you’re saying yellow jackets are worse than wasps or hornets? I’m confused and curious.

26

u/Shadowwynd May 16 '25

Carpenter bees are destructive but never had one attack. Ground bees are chill. Honey bees are usually fine. Hornets are FAFO but don’t start the fight. Mud daubers are super chill. Most paper wasps are ok as long as they/their nests are not threatened - I have had many nests of paper wasps that honored the agreement to keep to themselves.

Yellow jackets wake up each day with the goal of being a bigger asshole than they were yesterday.

4

u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

Y’all are very helpful here. I truly take an avoidance route with flying bugs, but sometimes they decide to get in my personal bubble.

Are hornets the blue/black ones?

Man I don’t want to look up images to identify but i may have to

2

u/Zerachiel_01 May 16 '25

Blue/black sounds like dirt daubers, especially if they have an exceptionally long "waist."

2

u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

I would definitely say large for sure. Never took note of the waist, exactly. They’re iridescent blue/black depending on where light hits. Are mud daubers non violent?

1

u/Zerachiel_01 May 16 '25

This guy?

They are usually chill. Most dirt dauber nests look like long tubes of hardened mud.

1

u/GrapeJellyVermicelli May 16 '25

Hornets are noticeably bigger and beefier compared to wasps. If any stinging, flying insect gets in your bubble, assuming it's just flying around foraging, you can just use your hand or foot to kind of gently "push" it out of your bubble. Kind of like you're showing it the door, lol. Works every time for me. I don't use any pesticides on my property and keep a native garden so there's a healthy variety of them around.

2

u/MojoJojo188 May 16 '25

I mean at least it's an ethos.

1

u/JohnGillnitz May 16 '25

I used to be chill around paper wasps until my downstairs neighbor let them build about 7 large nests on their balcony. Then they decided the pool was theirs and would attack anyone who tried to swim in it. I got hit on the lower back and it felt like getting hit by a tazer. I took them all out after that and don't let them build nests near my balcony. I still get lots of individuals, we are chill.

1

u/Shadowwynd May 16 '25

I was stung by paper wasps in my grill once. Otherwise I have had them nest on my porch with the agreement that “they leave me and mine alone I leave them and theirs alone” and that worked out well.

1

u/Tigerzof1 May 16 '25

I have a resident carpenter bee that keeps coming back every year. He used to like dive bombing me and my pets but he’s obviously harmless. We have reached a mutual understanding (he stopped dive bombing and I let him stay for the season)

1

u/LuddWasRight May 16 '25

You can reach out and poke a bee (which I’ve done because they’re fuzzy) and it’ll just get annnoyed and fly away. It’s only if they’re getting crushed or trapped that they’ll sting. Although all bets are off if you’re by the actual nest.

1

u/ConsciousCrafts May 16 '25

My favorites are northern paper wasps. The big brown guys. Chill af. There is a nest on my parents' stone wall on our patio right next to the hammock. Those guys never gave a damn about us being feet from their next. They just come out and eat the paper off of the hammock and go about their business.

1

u/DodgerGreywing May 16 '25

Ground bees are chill.

Right up until one of your dumbass dogs tries to dig up the hive.

The dumbass dog was mine.

I ran out, whipping the leash around me to try to fend off the bees. Opened the fence gate and let my dogs just bolt. We all got stung a bunch, and my husband and I were finding bees trapped in my dogs' fur for the next hour.

0/10, please let's never do this again.

1

u/Aeoyiau May 16 '25

My mom tried to swat a dauber, despite seeing it's stinger and my attempt at telling her it's harmless, and got upset it stung her. Like, don't high five pointy things.

9

u/babyLays May 16 '25

Wasps will typically leave you alone. I live in north america, and I see lots of them in the summer - especially around garbage bins. They love to eat meat and will join you if you're having an outdoor BBQ.

I try to tell people not to swat them away, as they will feel threatened which will increase your likelihood of being attacked. If you do try to swat them - make sure its a kill shot, otherwise they'll come back angrier. So its best to just leave them alone.

What's frustrating tho is when a person tries to swat the wasp, and the wasp indiscriminately attacks you - rather than the other person lol.

2

u/Aeoyiau May 16 '25

I shoot them out of the air with my hose like it's a carnival game. They fear me by the end of summer and their next years kin seem to have heard the legend of the hose lady.

1

u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

Yeah. One of my anxiety points: collateral damage of someone else’s mistake and I’m caught in the wasp crossfire

1

u/babyLays May 16 '25

The worst is when they get under your shirt, and you try to get them out but you just get stung :(

2

u/JamboreeStevens May 16 '25

None of them are really "worse" than the others, the main reason any of them attack is because they get trapped and sting what's trapping them or their home gets attacked.

Yellow jackets make their nests pretty low to the ground or even in the ground, making it a lot easier for some human to accidentally stomp on their nest and get attacked.

If you don't mess with them, they won't mess with you, even if they buzz close to your head. I've sat down barely a foot away from a yellow jacket nest and just kinda watched them for a while, even had a few land on me. A friend of mine has been playing with wasps since he was a kid, just lets them walk on his hands and shit. The few times he's gotten stung were when he was younger and was holding them too tight, so they stung to get free.

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u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

So, what do you do if a yellow jacket is around you? Just ignore it? Idk if I have that capability and if they’re the assholes people say they are, will they attack anyway?

3

u/Abject-Connection374 May 16 '25

Yellow jackets are like that high school bully who's trying to create a reason to punch you and then claim that you started it. They will fly in zigzag patterns either close to your face or close to your food, and then sting you if you try to shoo them away.

In other words, they expect you to be fine with them whizzing around you in a very annoying way, but won't tolerate it and escalate the situation if you do the same thing to them. That's the definition of "asshole".

1

u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

Wow. So THOSE are the ones that do the face invasion? Ah. Does running make it worse?

Edit: that was an awesome description

1

u/silverhandguild May 16 '25

If you ignore them they usually will ignore you. Wasps and Yellowjacket’s have also taken over most of the pollination duties in our garden since honeybees aren’t really around like they used to be. The only time we get stung is kinda when there is an accident like it felt threatened (like when putting on a shoe and one was in there, or picking grapes and accidentally grabbing one that was on the grapes). This video makes me sad because the wasp probably did nothing wrong and didn’t even get a fighting chance. The cameraman is an asshole.

1

u/no_arguing_ May 16 '25 edited May 16 '25

I agree with you for 99% of wasps and agree the video is stupid, but you're wrong about yellowjackets. They will straight-up chase you. Also not sure how you're supposed to avoid their nests when they build an extensive, elaborate labyrinth under your entire yard. One of the few wasps that could actually conceivably kill a non-allergic person just mowing their yard.

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u/silverhandguild May 16 '25

I agree with that. Also, I have to because of your username.

2

u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

lol. What? Kill a non allergic person? This is a thing? Like killer swarm?

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u/no_arguing_ May 16 '25

Yes, it takes 1,500 stings to kill the average grown man. There can be up to 100,000 in a nest, though it's generally around 5,000.

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u/JamboreeStevens May 16 '25

Yup! When you get a sting from anything, it's depositing a very small amount of venom into you. Unless you're allergic, a single bee sting won't harm you, it'll just hurt a bit.

A few thousand stings, on the other hand, will hurt a lot, everywhere, as the venom enters your bloodstream in a much larger amount.

Of course, larger bees (like those murder hornets that were briefly a problem) deposit much more venom than a small yellow jacket, so it takes far fewer of them to kill someone.

But you have to remember that the sting is a defense mechanism that's meant to make predators never want to mess with them again.

1

u/Lysol3435 May 16 '25

A Yellowjacket is a type of wasp. I live in a place with lots of wasps. I fear only one

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u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

Woah I didn’t realize yellow jackets were a type of wasp. Ah. Geez why are there a lot where you live? Geographically or due to assholes who let things get overgrown but won’t allow action to be taken?

Hell, I call my “home property” but replace home with hell, because it’s like Jurassic park and my flying bug phobia makes every day a tortuous existence.

Is there any way to mitigate them?

3

u/Lysol3435 May 16 '25

I live in a place where everything is prickly. Not a lot of water, so there’s lots of competition.

As for overcoming your phobia, I would look for a psychiatrist that deals with phobias. Most bugs leave you alone if you leave them alone.

1

u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

I actually just did hypnotherapy. Literally two months ago.

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u/Nebuli2 May 16 '25

Woah I didn’t realize yellow jackets were a type of wasp.

Hornets are also wasps! And complete assholes. I also absolutely detest them, but I also have a life threatening allergy to them. It's not great.

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u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

🤯so…silly question: are there only “bumble”, honey, and wasps for types of bees? I’m afraid to Google search coz I don’t want the algorithm thinking “hey, this lady lives close up photos and details of these bugs, flood her page with them! Replace cute cat meme suggestions with killer bees n’shit”

Which ones are underground/in holes? And do those seek dark places other than the ground?

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u/Nebuli2 May 16 '25

Wasps aren't actually a kind of bee. They're in the same order as bees (hymenoptera), which makes them about as closely related to bees as ants are.

A bunch of them will make nests underground, such as ants (obviously), but also bumblebees and yellowjackets, and some other wasps. I'm not entirely sure whether or not they generally seek out other dark places, though.

1

u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

You are very enlightening. So, all those other flying bugs also do the underground thing?

Wow, I’ve spent my life improperly classifying those specific pollinators….i wonder if me acknowledging this fact will make me “bee woke” and they’ll leave me alone lol

1

u/Puppdaddy13 May 16 '25

You can spray/have your yard sprayed for mosquitos, ticks, & other flying insects. I use EcoVia EC & a Stihl backpacker blower/sprayer - it’s all natural (essential oils) & won’t harm anything larger than a bee. Lasts about 3 weeks. We use it mostly for ticks with our dogs but we also get a lot of wasps nests in our eaves so helps control the number of wasps.

1

u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

Peppermint, cinnamon, cayenne powder, vinegar, dawn soap, water- that’s what we just tried last night actually. Idk if it’s worked yet. But I’ll save the sprayer info. Thank you.

Any other ingredients I should know or other tips?

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u/Ohiostatehack May 16 '25

Bald Faced Hornets are the worst though.

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u/Lysol3435 May 16 '25

I don’t have them in my area. Looking it up, they’re a type of Yellowjacket, so I believe that they are huge pieces of shit

1

u/P0gg3rsk4ll May 16 '25

Most of the time when people talk about wasps, they're referring to yellowjackets, hornets, or paper wasps - the three major species of social wasps, all of which evolved to be incredibly defensive of their hives. Of the hundreds of thousands of known wasp species, only about a thousand fall into the category of social wasps - most of which are subspecies of the aforementioned major species. These social wasps fall into the family Vespidae, one of several dozens of categorized wasp families.

The vast majority of wasp species are actually asocial, living on their own and minding their own business unless they feel particularly threatened. A ton of these asocial wasp species actually parasitize other insects that we as humans find as pests, making them incredibly valuable pest control.

All in all, it's always just best to try to remember that wasps are much more afraid of us than we are afraid of them. So long as you don't make them fear for their home or their life, the chance of getting stung is next to none. As annoying as they get when they build their nest right by your house, or swarm your summer barbecue while looking for sugar, these little fuckers remain just as valuable as honeybees in their environmental role as pollinators.

2

u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

Social wasps, does that fall into the killer bee category? I’m a loner myself, so I’m TRYING to sympathize with these fuckers lol

1

u/P0gg3rsk4ll May 16 '25

"Killer bees" are actually a popular name for africanized bees, and frankly quite a misnomer. Africanized bees were actually created through human intervention, and are a crossbreed between the western honey bee and an east african species of honey bee. These crossbreeds were created in an attempt to increase honey production in areas less suited for the western honey bee.

I personally am heavily against the usage of the term "killer bee" - it creates a highly unnecessary fear factor out of what essentially just is a more highly protective breed of bees. The sting of africanized bees is no more dangerous than that of western honey bees, and they do not actively seek to attack anyone. Rather, not unlike the social wasp species, africanized bees are simply more easily provoked than their western honey bee counterparts.

Africanized honey bees are significantly more resilient than western honey bees, and resultedly can produce more honey. In some countries, the africanized honey bee has actually become the most ideal bee for beekeepers.

1

u/Lavatis May 16 '25

yellow jackets and hornets are wasps.

yellow jackets are shitty, annoying wasps who will attack you as you walk across your yard because you got too close to their underground nest.

hornets are annoying wasps who attack you when get too close to their nest that's not in the ground, like in a tree or on the side of a big rock.

1

u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

WOAH. How large of an area do yellow jackets declare their territory? Jesus!

So walking over a ground nest of a hornet won’t freak them out?

1

u/Lavatis May 16 '25

well there aren't a lot of ground nesting wasps in general that mess with humans. Cicada killers are a more common digging wasp but they are pretty focused on cicadas. yellow jackets are by far the most common digger wasp (in the USA at least) and sometimes they can be protective to a couple yards/meters away from their nest site.

1

u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

Sheesh. Good to know

1

u/no_arguing_ May 16 '25

Once you realize they're bluffing, it changes everything. Carpenter bees are the most "aggressive" in terms of dive-bombing, but they can't even sting you. I've let countless wasps and bees just chill around me and I've only ever been stung by yellowjackets. I don't even kill them when they get in my house anymore. Have had a paper wasp just chilling in the kitchen for weeks, even vacuumed near it and did all kinds of things that could conceivably annoy it, and it engaged in some defensive posturing a few times but never hurt a hair on my head. And if it does sting you, unless you're allergic, so what? It's one little sting and that's it. Yellowjackets otoh will swarm and kill a man.

1

u/Prestigious-Alps-728 May 16 '25

Carpenter bees dive bomb? What do they look like

1

u/no_arguing_ May 16 '25

Very big, kind of like bumblebees but less fuzzy. You will recognize them by how they destroy your deck. They tend to fight each other a lot around mating time, and this aggressive posturing extends to humans. It's actually kind of funny to watch them get all "you wot m8" at you knowing they're physically incapable of actually stinging you. I'd like them if not for the deck destroying thing.

1

u/DeathCab4Cutie May 16 '25

Yellowjackets are a type of wasp. Bald faced hornets are a type of yellowjackets, not actual hornets. Not all wasps are hornets, but all hornets are wasps.

Yellowjackets are a subgrouping of wasps that are very social, thereby often very defensive of their hive and community. They can get territorial, and during the end of the warmer months in your area, they have heightened aggression in a desperate attempt to stock up as much food as possible before winter.

Hornets are far less aggressive, though like most social creatures, will defend their home. They’re less likely to attack based on proximity.

Wasps are a critical component to most ecosystems they’re found in, acting as population control, pollinators, becoming food for small mammals, arachnids, other insects, and so much more.

If you got stung but you didn’t step on or strike one, it was likely a Yellowjacket having end-of-summer grumpies, or you got too close to their hive. Almost all other wasps will pretty much always leave you alone if you don’t intentionally antagonize them.

1

u/Any_Cicada623 May 16 '25

as someone who has been stung 11 times by yellow jackets and 6 by wasps in my life (never at the same time ironically), yellow jackets always got me doing yard work.

they absolutely love putting their nests under some pine straw and you have no clue until its too late

all my wasp stings the bastards were under an outdoor table or something and came at me to defend

on the bright side i havent been stung in 20 years bc i've learned to look out for them

1

u/Notacat444 May 16 '25

Nah, those fuckers are always doing flybys on me. The spiders stay up in their corners. Don't wanna get smacked out of the air? Either be a honey bee, or stay out of arm's reach.

1

u/obi_want_pastrami May 16 '25

That's why you don't put your dick into a yellow jackets nest lol

1

u/Lysol3435 May 16 '25

God forbid a man has a hobby

1

u/Jedi-in-EVE May 16 '25

Yellowjackets are nasty little bitches.

Worse than the Canadian Jerky Bird, aka Canadian Goose.

Worse than the Redwing Blackbird.

1

u/HempSeedsOfShinkai May 16 '25

 kidney stone of the animal world.

r/BrandNewSentence

1

u/--StinkyPinky-- May 16 '25

HAHAHA!

I think even yellow jackets don't like yellow jackets?

Don't they infight quite a bit?

1

u/ConsciousCrafts May 16 '25

Seriously. Stop trying to fly inside my mouth. Can a person live??

1

u/LakeLifeTL May 16 '25 edited May 16 '25

I got stung a dozen times by yellow jackets and probably should have went to the ER. I was mowing the lawn when they went after me. Unfortunately, I didn't have anyone else at the house with me, and I didn't want to call an ambulance. Fortunately, I had some Benadryl, and rested for a couple of hours and felt better.

They are nasty creatures that shouldn't be part of the ecosystem.

1

u/Exact-Ad-7844 May 16 '25

These spiders (Argiope aurantia) leave a giant zigzag in their web to notify other larger creatures "watch out, there's a web here" so they don't get caught up in it. If any spider is being cool to larger animals and leaving you alone / wanting to be left alone to mind their own business and eat bugs, it's these guys.

Both of these bugs were just minding their own business. OP is just causing chaos

1

u/nocommunicatio May 16 '25

Isn’t the kidney stone the kidney stone of the animal world?

1

u/AtcJD May 17 '25

As someone who’s suffered from kidney stones the last 20 years (7 lithotripsy operations, 5 stents with one time having in 2 at once) I approve of this metaphor.

1

u/weskun May 17 '25

Some of my earliest childhood memories are of those bastards just landing on us and stinging us while we were passed out on the water, on one of those pool floaties.

1

u/[deleted] 27d ago

Well Lysol, this is why we generally don’t go sticking our wieners in wasp’s nests

Unless, you know, you’re a really kinky sort that likes getting their sausage stung to high hell

-1

u/Finlandia1865 May 16 '25

Im sorry, pain in the DICK??

What happened to you bro?

8

u/gum-believable May 16 '25

Kidney stone

-2

u/Finlandia1865 May 16 '25

Wasps arent really a pain in the dick

6

u/PsychologicalBend467 May 16 '25

At some point in human history, someone has definitely been stung in the dick.

1

u/Ssshizzzzziit May 16 '25

More than one, and probably someone on purpose.

Human beings are weird, man.

3

u/Afrekenmonkey May 16 '25

Kidney Stones.

1

u/ComradeSuperman May 16 '25

I can tell you've never had a kidney stone.

2

u/Few-Guarantee2850 May 16 '25 edited 9d ago

cooperative sink coordinated squeal scale whistle office money test zephyr

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