Top Stinging Pests Around the Home

There’s nothing more annoying than a pest with a stinger! Dealing with a fly buzzing around your ears is one thing, but when that fly turns into a bee, you can start to panic. Getting stung by a stinging pest can mean anything from an annoying and itchy bite to a life-threatening problem if you happen to be allergic.

This article is going to pull back the curtain on stinging pests that don’t just plague the outdoors but can also get inside the home as well. We are going to look at why they sting humans and different ways to act around the bugs, so you reduce your chances of getting stung.

Hornets

For most people, a bee is a bee. It’s a fuzzy, annoying yellow insect that is instrumental in honey-making but also possesses a stinger. Bees, wasps, and hornets tend to get lumped into the same category, but they are quite different. One of the most common hornets is the European hornet, which is also the largest wasp that is native to Europe!

Hornets are the biggest of the bee family and are reddish-brown rather than yellow. They are relatively easy to spot, and you can find them in several exposed and empty areas. For example, they make their hives in tree branches and underneath dead shrubs. 

Unlike bees, which die once they sting you and will only sting when it is life or death, hornets don’t have that problem. Instead, they can sting you repeatedly, and their stings can hurt! 

In order to avoid a hornet sting, you shouldn’t provoke it by swatting at it or getting too close. Instead, move in the other direction and just keep your eyes peeled for it.

Wasps

Wasps are much smaller than hornets and also yellow in color, and they also tend to travel alone rather than in groups like bees and hornets do. Unlike bees, wasps are predators and love to go after human food, so if you are eating outside, expect a wasp to start buzzing around you or any crumbs you leave behind.

Wasps don’t die when they sting you but also won’t sting unless you get too close to their nest or swat at them. Keeping your calm and gently moving away from a wasp will prevent it from seeing you as a threat that needs to be stung. If a wasp has landed on you, either wait for it to go away or attempt to brush it off gently.

Bees

Bees are the least likely to sting you since they do end up dying when they lose their stinger. Instead, they are perfectly content just to bumble along. Bees like to build their hives in hollow areas such as tree trunks and can keep close to flowers. Most bee stings cause redness and swelling, and the venom from the stinger can continue to irritate your skin until it gets removed. 

After you deal with the sting’s initial pain, the most important thing to do is grab a pair of tweezers and attempt to gently pull the sting out to prevent increased exposure to the venom.

As long as you give the bee its space and stay away from the hive, you don’t have to worry about getting stung by them! You might even be able to get bigger flowers out of having a beehive so close, as your garden is what they pollinate first.

Fire Ants

Fire ants, much like hornets, are the more prominent and redder cousins of the typical ants. In order to identify fire ants, you need to look for two bumps between the thorax and the abdomen, and they are much larger than typical ants. 

Fire ants are very aggressive and will almost instantly swarm the area if you disturb their nest. To test if an anthill mound that you’ve found is a fire ant nest, lightly poke at it with a stick, and see how fast the ants respond to the damage.

Their bites use venom from their thoraxes once they pierce your skin, and this causes the bites to burn most people. To avoid being stung by fire ants, make sure to avoid the areas around their nests, and don’t aggravate them if you do see a colony marching around.

Scorpions 

Thankfully, scorpions in Mississippi are very easy to recognize due to their large size and their long tails that end in a stinger. Only about 25 species of scorpions have enough venom inside of them to kill a human, and most of them are not a threat to humans even if you get stung.

Scorpion stings only cause redness and swelling in the stung area, and if you see a scorpion, the best defense is to give it space. They are not a threat to your home or garden and can be beneficial by preying on pests that might cause damage to your plants. 

Velvet Ants

Velvet ants are not ants at all, but instead, they are a type of wasp that looks like a large hairy ant. The females of the species cannot fly, but they also have a long needle-like stinger that they will use. Velvet ants are not aggressive and often run away from danger, only stinging as a last resort. Give them space, and you won’t need to worry about getting stung.

They are very uncommon and don’t have a lot of treatments available to get rid of them, and much like scorpions, they can go after harmful animals that will damage your garden and irritate you. 

Avoid Them, and They Won’t Sting

For almost all stinging insects, they only sting if they are defending themselves from a perceived threat or going after an aggressor. If you are purposefully trying to swat or disturb a stinging pest, then they may attack you or defend themselves. Giving these creatures space and not presenting yourself as an aggressor is enough to get them to leave you alone.

You can either learn to coexist with the stinging pests or seek out ways to treat them in order to prevent further problems.  For highly allergic individuals at risk of anaphylaxis, a single wasp or any type of stinging pest is one too many.

If you’re looking for the right team to handle the issue for you, Synergy² is here to help. We provide trusted services throughout the area, so contact us for the best pest control services around.