WASP: two painful encounters with this small angry menace

SUMMER in this country often heralds one of our less welcome traditions as temperatures start to rise - getting ourselves bitten and stung.
In Africa, when some villagers aren't busy dodging lions and crocodiles, they still have poisonous spiders, snakes, and scorpions to contend with. Then there's that killer of millions worldwide, the malaria-carrying mosquito.
In Britain, we generally face much gentler hazards in the great outdoors. Even the adder rarely inflicts a fatal bite, while wasps, bees, ants and ticks are hardly in the same category as those African menaces. Even so, these last four are still capable of putting the kibosh on what had previously been an enjoyable ramble or picnic.
Wasps are probably the most aggressive of this group, with the largest European strain - the hornet (vespa crabro) - inflicting a particularly painful sting. However, Common or 'German' wasps are the two species most often encountered and are virtually identical.
Quite handsome in their black and yellow stripes, these characters are nevertheless 17-18 millimetres of pure spite when upset - and I should know. I've had two painful encounters with them.
The first occasion, when I was a kid, was far worse. Walking in woods with my older brother and his friend I'd begun to lag behind in a daydream. I hadn't a clue that they'd discovered a wasps' nest up ahead and decided to play a rather mean prank on me.
As the entrance hole to the nest was situated beside the footpath, they simply jumped up and down on it before fleeing. Seconds later, bemused by their actions, I stepped into a cloud of very angry wasps aiming to wreak revenge. Not being Dr Doolittle, I could not explain that I was innocent of squashing their nice home.
What came next is largely a blur of pain and terror as I set off running, covered by wasps. Wasps in my ears, eyes, hair, down my chest and all over my hands. I was stung about 30 times which, considering the number that attacked me, was probably a lucky escape.
Feeling guilty at the success of their dastardly trick, the two perpetrators rushed me to the friend's house where his mum ripped off my shirt and daubed me all over with something called 'dolly blue' - an antiseptic substance now long gone.
Dolly blue or not, for the next few years I would scarper if a wasp so much as buzzed anywhere near me. My second close encounter came about 10 years ago when I made the mistake of investigating an active wasps' nest in the attic.
Not quite sure where it was, I finally lifted up an old piece of carpet and the wasps rose en masse to greet me. Although I was only stung once, my pride was sorely injured, especially as my partner never stopped giggling for three days. Apparently, the sight of me fending off wasps while dextrously trying not to crash through the ceiling was the funniest thing she had ever seen. Oh, how I laughed.
Fortunately for me, neither incident brought on what seems to be an increasingly common condition these days - anaphylactic shock. This is where an allergic reaction occurs to a bite or sting and victims go into a state of shock, sometimes so severe that an injection of adrenaline is needed to save their lives.
Ticks, meanwhile, are said to be a growing menace in the countryside but it's a pest I've not fallen victim to so far. Although tiny when they attach themselves, these blood-sucking spider-like creatures can swell to the size of a baked bean. They can also carry disease so must be taken seriously.
Found in woods and grassland they are none too choosy about their hosts and attach themselves to any passing animal - including us. Medical experts advise using tweezers to remove them, rocking the body back and forth to ease the head free. If this snaps off, the area is more likely to become infected.
Finally, bees and ants have never given me any great problems, though I've been stung and bitten by both. But then I've never upset a whole bees' nest or encountered the wood ant at close quarters. This ant carries an extra surprise in its armoury. If you crouch down to prod it, you're liable to get a squirt of formic acid in your eye from its abdomen. Charming.

DAVID KAVANAGH

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