Dive-Bombed by Yellow Jackets

[sojii]

I debated about even posting this thread because it's so bizarre. Who knows; maybe it has nothing to do with morgellon's and they didn't like the expression on my face or something.

Thursday a friend and I visited a rural area where an intentional community farms and sells handmade items. It's a beautiful property; doesn't even look like Texas. There were lots of flowers, yellow jackets and wasps. I wasn't alone so it wasn't my imagination; my friend saw it and so did a tourist group standing nearby. Twice I was literally dive-bed by big fat yellowjackets.
We were walking under trees where they might have had nests. On two separate occasions, a yellowjacket dove right at my head, hit me and flew away. I always seem to have flying things on me or buzzing me whenever I'm outdoors. It's embarrassing. But I've never been divebed. What the heck does this mean? Does anybody have any idea why this would happen to someone with morgellon's? What attracts them to us? And what makes them aggressive? Has anyone noticed a progression? This is becoming just a little worrisome. If it's going to get worse, maybe I need to invest in bee handler gear or something.

[tcmgpt13]

Once some years ago I was walking behind another person in the woods when we came across a fallen log. The friend I was with climbed over the log unscathed but evidently stirred up a nest of yellow jackets. Meanwhile blithely unaware of this I followed and wow, what an attack. As the article mentions you do not want to make them angry. And yes, they love to dive b o m b when protecting their territory or turf. Good thing I was not allergic to their stings.

Anyway here's more about yellow jackets. I truly do not think they just pick on those with Morgellons:

Wasps (yellow jackets) generate fear in people usually when they are seen hovering around a garden or an outdoor activity. This is particularly true of people who have previously experienced a sting or those who have developed a sensitivity to the sting. Outdoor gatherings are usually visited by yellow jackets because of their attraction to meats and sweet foods. Stings often occur when people or animals disturb wasps while they are hunting for food or protecting the nest. Yellow jackets may also attack people or animals when unprovoked.

Yellow jacket wasps live in nests. Problems usually occur when the wasp or its nest is disturbed. They have the ability to sting as a means of ensuring survival. A hollow stinger is located at the rear of the yellow jacket’s body. Upon penetrating the skin, a venom is injected through the stinger. These stings can be quite painful. They can also be very dangerous to people who have developed an allergy to the stings. Unlike the bee, a yellow jacket can sting more than once. Yellow jackets and other wasps are not killed when they sting and can and will sting over and over. When swatted or harmed, they give off a signal to other nearby hive-mates that will bring others to their defense. If a person is unfortunate enough to stumble onto a nest, he may be stung multiple times before being able to get away.

They usually nest in the ground, but will nest also in railroad ties, wall voids, and other above ground locations. In the spring, most yellow jackets will feed on insects. Many homeowners see”bees” flying around their hedges. These “bees” are usually yellow jackets and are there to eat insects on the foliage. Spraying the hedges with an appropriate insecticide will kill the food source of the yellow jackets, and they will soon leave the area.

In the fall, wasp colonies become the largest and foraging workers may be a serious nuisance as they search for food people eat or discarded food.

If a colony is disturbed, they can become very aggressive and sting. For most a sting is temporary, but painful, but for allergic individuals as single sting may result in a serious reaction, requiring medical treatment. Yellow jacket stings can be extremely painful and may take days to heal. Applying ice to the site may reduce the pain and swelling. Other recommended emergency treatments may include applying a paste of meat tenderizer directly to the site, or ammonia, vinegar or baking soda, all of which may help. If you are unable to get to any of these, try a little mud applied directly to the sting. An over-the-counter oral antihistamine may help if taken right away, especially in children. These may also have a calming affect on the frightened child.

Yellow jackets are a particularly vicious kind of wasps that closely resemble honey bees in appearance, but are entirely different in nature and habits. Yellow jackets and wasps have a very narrow waist which distinguishes them from bees. They eat other insects, but are also attracted to picnic sites, garbage cans or other “people food”, especially sweets and meat. They are extremely territorial and often make their nests in unseen holes in the ground. If disturbed, they will attack the offending person or animal without mercy. When walking in wooded areas, take note if you see yellow jackets hovering, they will often be near the ground. Although they often nest in undeveloped wooded areas, it is not uncommon to find their nests in a yard, near houses and where children play.

If you determine that you have a yellow jacket nest in your yard, you will need to closely observe their comings and goings to see where they are entering the ground. Your best chance to destroy them is to wait until dusk, when they return to the nest for the night. Advance preparation will be necessary, so you may want to observe them one evening to see their pattern and return the following evening to kill the nest. Dress in long, thick pants, long sleeves, socks, boots and gloves. Protect your face and head as much as possible, as these are primary targets of yellow jackets.

If you have ever had an allergic reaction to bee sting, you will need to seek medical attention immediately. Symptoms of an allergic reaction can include hives, shortness of breath, dizziness, swelling of the face or tongue or nausea and can strike very quickly, sometimes cutting off the air passages, causing suffocation. For those with allergies to bee or wasp stings, they can be more deadly than snake bites if not treated quickly. If you or someone in your family has a history of allergic reaction to bee stings, consult your doctor who may be able to give you a prescription for an injectable antidote, which you should carry with you at all times. It is easily administered and may save a life.

Warn your family that these wasps can be found in the ground and that they should never, ever investigate if they see one entering a nest. Where there is one, there may be hundreds!

Yellow jackets are an important part of the food chain, but can be very dangerous to people. If you find you need to destroy them to keep your home safe, be sure you do it effectively. You definitely don’t want to make them mad!

You definitely don’t want to make them mad! = Which is exactly what i did yesterday when it just so happened that i accidently ran over their huge ground nest while mowing the yard, only to be stung over and over b4 realizing what was happening. Those little ****ers hurt and swoll me up worse than when I got a small powered monitor speaker smashed up against my face!

from audio mind us blog.

[sojii]

Thankfully I wasn't stung. Just struck. I wonder why it was me and no one else. It was the darnedest thing.

[Jo]

Sojii - I've had this happen. Also with ladybugs (we call them ladybirds in uk).
My gut feeling is that they are after food - insect eggs. Can't prove this though.

Jo

[sojii]

Here's a thought: I've been following another thread about people with morgellon's and flourescence. I'm buzzed by one kind of flying insects or another every time I go outside. Others have said they're magnets for insects, too. If it's true that people w/morgs flouresce maybe the insects register the ultraviolet more intensely or see ultraviolet as either an attraction or as a sign of danger?

Just a thought...

[Baraka Obam]

I know what happened Sojii, I was thinking about you and contacted by telepathy some of my bee friends I told them to give you a visit.

I told them not to bee to rough, get it, BEE too rough.

Maybe they were bad boy bees and they found you attractive. they felt you had a nice BEE hind, LOL.

I saw a wasp attack once that was un bee lievable, one day me and my friend went down to a lake by my home on our bikes, we saw a huge gray wasp nest probably 4 foot long and it was huge.

My friend bee ing a pex bad boy decided he would get a big long stick and smash swat the thing, he did, and when he did the nest fell right at his feet.

I could not hardly see him for a second then he started to run, a huge pile of black, three times his size and black as night was on him he could not run or turn faster then that pile of wasps.

He was trying mind you, I never saw a person run so fast and change direction, he surly would have died, if he did not jump into the lake.

It looked just like in a cartoon, when the bees hit the water it looked like a big pointer, then they just went everywhere, I was surrounded but was not stug once.

The home wrecker however had some 100 plus stings, he ran to his bike did not say diddly to me and took off, I just sat there thinking how dam dumb can you be, and was glad I was not as dam dumb that day. LOL

It was horrible but if I had a video you would have to laugh

[sojii]

That sounds like it was pretty funny to watch. That'll teach him.

I don't know why I didn't remember this; I've certainly watched enough crime shows where they've found body fluids with UV light. Some body fluids, including perspiration, flouresce when under UV light. blood doesn't, but it gets darker. Maybe it's not morgie stuff; maybe it's just plain ol' fluorescent sweat:

http://www.labino.com/pdf/Crime%20-%...y%20fluids.pdf

[sojii]

Oh, forgot to include this in the previous post: I don't have a link for this, thought I'd saved but guess not. Bees and wasps and some other flying insects (maybe yellowjackets, too) can see in the ultraviolet range. When they see UV, they interpret it as sunlight or sky, which is the only place they'd get it naturally, and think it means they have a clear path.

Without commenting on how empty and full of air my head is, Baraka, maybe they didn't dive-b me at all. Maybe they ran into me full steam accidentally, like we've all done with clean sliding glass doors. All that flourescent sweat on my forehead blinded 'em.

Works for me.

[JimDoe]

Soji, not being mean to anyone just a first hand account. And nothing some, know not, swarmed up from google search that has no clue. But can only say things like (I Found This on the net some odd where) Proabally a 4 minute search and an athourity already. No not me I experienced it.
Of course most here know I had bugs in skin and I know the kind to. But as for being attacked and not snuck up on with invasion of skin with them. They still mutilated me with intense bobmbarmant everytime outside in warm weather. I had one do (for lack of a worse worse word) a bee line straight at a 90 degree angle curve to smack me right into the core of my ear. Its hurt was so hard a smack. Gnats freckeled my hair constantly while outside. House flys dived and popped and freckeled my hair and even went under hair some. I would smack and pull them out. Parasitic wasps would be more patient and wait until I at least turned my back then dive b my hair. To lay an egg I,m certian. Never had an episode with yellow jackets though. But have not had any arround that I know of much, at least no nests. Soji get well or get used to bugs, ( not meant in a bad way) where a ball cap. For me it was the only way then. I feel cured in all senses of this disease but even today at a friends house today, the gnats were swarming closer to me than they were him. I don,t think any touched down though.
Soji I wish you would awnser this question. Is your hair brittle and breaking off when you rake it rub it or even scratch around it? If you even do that? I did lots.Is it?

[tcmgpt13]

IMHO yellow jackets are attracted to people by sweet smells. Since most us now use more natural beauty products I am sure that fragrances from these types of shampoos, deodorants and other personal care products attract them to us. There is a theory out there that the reason some folks are bitten more frequently by mosquitoes is because they have an inherently sweeter smell to their bodies. Maybe from the way foods in general are digested by some people or by the type of diet which is eaten. Perhaps even the sweat itself smells sweeter in some people.

Plus in the case of yellow jackets who are extremely territorial insects proximity to their home matters greatly. They will attack without provocation if someone ventures too close to their nest.

A bit more that science has found out about the attraction of smell as it effects mosquitoes. I imagine that yellow jackets who are infamous in their attraction to picnic tables laden with meat and sweet treats and sodas are no different in finding certain odors extremely attractive to them. I think that genetics may play a role in why some people are more attractive to insects than are others:

One current theory of why mosquitoes bite some people more than others is that diet makes one more or less attractive. Dr Randolph Morgan, director of the Insectarium at the Cincinnati Zoo, claimed that regular intake of some materials (such as yeast), which ultimately are exuded through one's pores, changes our smell and has proven effective in deterring mosquito bites. More recent thinking is that substances in perfumes, soap residues, facial make-up, deodorants, and other compounds on the skin resulted in someone becoming more or less attractive to mosquitoes.

According to the American Mosquito Control Association of Mount Laurel, New Jersey there are over 400 such magnetic compounds. It appears that some compounds come from within the body and some from without.

Recently, researchers have found that masking odorsare given off by the potential victim which prevents mosquitoes from finding them.

James Logan, a research student at the Rothamsted Research in Herfordshire and Professor Jenny Mordue of the University of Aberdeen, found that unattractive individuals give off different chemical signals compared with individuals. They tested the behavioural reaction of yellow fever mosquitoes to the odour of volunteers.

According to the January 2005 BBSRC Business, in one experiment, the mosquitoes were placed into a y-shaped tube and given the choice of moving upwind down one of two branches. The air flowing down one branch was laced with odour from the volunteer's hands. The other was without this odour. Their results suggest that differential attractiveness is due to compounds in unattractive individuals that switch off attraction either by acting as repellents or by masking the attractant components of human odour.

This theory differs from that of other research groups who have suggested that unattractive individuals lack the attractive components. The researchers are now testing these theories further using foil sleeping bags to collect whole body odours from volunteers.

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