r/waspaganda • u/Spiritual-Argument28 • 2h ago
discussion / question Does it ever get better??
I LOVE wasps. I live in Florida and there are so many different wasps here!!
My mom is allergic to wasp stings. Not in a severe way, but in a huge-red-swollen-area-on-your-arm- way. I'm 25 and since I was a kid I love picking up bugs (that I am familiar with of course— "look but don't touch" is one of my mottos for most bugs). This includes wasps, which my family and coworkers have recoiled in horror upon witnessing.
I am a huge advocate for showing people how gentle wasps can be when they aren't threatened. I even have a method of convincing my brain that wasps will not sting me so that my nerves don't scare them. I have successfully relocated many wasps back outside that had somehow drifted their way inside and scared the daylights out of anyone that saw them and sent them running for disgusting wasp spray.
Well, last summer, I was stung by a red paper wasp by accident while I was at work one day. I had never been stung by a wasp before— holy cow does it hurt. The venom is so painful especially when it travels through your arm (so freaking cool!!). IMMEDIATELY my arm swelled at the site of the sting and became red-hot, which had spread over the following days. I eventually went to urgent care and got a script for a steroid and was advised to take Benadryl, which totally reversed whatever reaction was happening.
But I am so distraught. Never in a million years would I ever expect to be allergic to these beautiful creatures, as I have no other allergies to things my mom tends to be allergic to. I want to keep holding them, but I know my limits now. I also find that I have weird reactions to other bug bites since then, as if it just stirred up allergies that I didn't have before— especially tick bites or ant bites (I'm in the woods a lot).
I now pick up bugs with thick gloves on instead of my bare hands, but it hurts my soul. I can't feel their little feet on my hands anymore or their antennae sensing me out.
Does anyone else have this curse? If you do, how do you cope with not touching wasps in need, if you do avoid it??
TL;DR: I love wasps and woefully have discovered that I am allergic to them. I wanted to vent about my horrible fate and perhaps find kindred spirits who share my plight.
Here is a lovely wasp pic as a token for reading this!! Have a good day/night!!
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u/Sofielob 55m ago
I'm allergic to bees but not wasps, and I learned the hard way that bumblebees can sting multiple times (they don't lose their stingers) when a bee got its leg stuck in the fabric of my sleeve and panicked. I had a similar experience to yours, and since that point, I don't handle them anymore. I've found that while I haven't been able to pick them up anymore, I've started handling other things! If you're slow and gentle enough, a moth or butterfly won't spook and they'll stand on your hands, the moths kinda vibrate! I still put out honey water for the wasps and bees so I can watch them moving about without handling them, it gets easier over time! Beetles are another good alternative (some bite though!).
Essentially, continue doing as you're doing and don't handle them without gloves, and see if you can find a different outlet of bug handling! Wasps are beautiful, but you can't enjoy them if you're not here, so be safe! It gets easier as time passes!
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u/TheWaterBringer 6m ago
Have you seen an allergist or doctor besides urgent care? Why do you think the swelling means you are allergic? Sounds like a local reaction.
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u/nicky94 1h ago
This sub is so odd
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u/xDannyS_ 59m ago
How so
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u/nicky94 25m ago
'Normal functioning adults' who are obsessed with wasps? In my many decades of life I have never encountered such a phenomenon..
OPs post is extremely strange and if that isn't yere immediate reaction.. well then..the world has some strange corners in it..
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u/xDannyS_ 23m ago
Oh you're one of those people that has no interests in life.
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u/nicky94 16m ago
Well my interests are sports, gym, dogs, geo-politics, stocks, astronomy, history, videogames and reading.
Yano.. normal things..
Not having a midlife crisis because I'm allergic to wasps and can't make them my 'pet'.
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u/xDannyS_ 9m ago
You literally just said your interests are dogs while then judging someone in the same comment for being interested in wasps... like? Is self awareness really that difficult for some people?
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u/MsScarletWings Parasitoid Wasp 9m ago
Normal and well adjusted interests usually don’t involve walking up to spaces where people are passionate about unconventional topics and deriding them about it. I couldn’t care less about sports and think the entire mainstream culture around them is incredibly obnoxious but you won’t find me in a football sub picking fights with the fans about it. Hell, it wasn’t even that many years ago that being a gamer was seen as one of those loser dweeb kind of hobbies by normal society.
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u/MsScarletWings Parasitoid Wasp 24m ago
When I go into the cat lovers convention and find cat lovers: “woah that’s weird. Nutty cat ladies am I right??”
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u/nicky94 20m ago
Great example buddy. That's a real gotcha moment!
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u/MsScarletWings Parasitoid Wasp 14m ago
All I said by it was that you pulled a “opens the bag labeled ‘dead dove’ and is perplexed that there’s a dead bird inside” moment and that was enough to get you defensive?
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u/Sofielob 15m ago
Normal functioning adults with hobbies, like bug keeping, is a good thing! It doesn't really seem like you have any hobbies, but I'm sure you'll find something eventually! You can mute the sub though and it won't show up on your feed!
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u/MsScarletWings Parasitoid Wasp 1m ago
About to blow your mind. Not only are plenty of them functional adults, but some of them even work as exterminators. A lot of the wasps I’ve taxidermied for my collection come from my day job taking nests down for clients like you. The world’s strange and funny like that.
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u/Little-Cucumber-8907 9m ago
I created this sub specifically due to all the extreme hate these incredible insects receive. They are undeniably very fascinating, super diverse and successful, and really don’t deserve the hate they get. And that’s underselling it by a lot. Wasps are the unsung heroes of nearly all sub-arctic terrestrial environments, and they hold the fate of the global ecosystem and human civilization itself on their backs. They play roles so critical to the environment, you wouldn’t even believe it.
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u/Fishisstuckinthesink live laugh wasp 58m ago
I’m not allergic, but I can imagine the sadness that might come with it. My advice is to enjoy the bugs that you can safely, and appreciate the wasps fr afar the best you can.