I beg to differ! Been stung by Polistes metricus and Polistes dorsalis. They hurt for several hours. Also been stung by yellowjackets. The P. metricus flew up the back of my shirt and I swatted it thinking it was a mosquito. It stung my back and my hand. I hate that this species are always getting up in your face and trying to enter the building when you open the door. I actively avoid this species (like even go in a different door) if I see them near a nest. The P. dorsalis I didn’t see its nest attached to tall grass that I was walking through. They are generally pretty mellow, so I must have moved the grass it was attached to. Yellowjackets just get a few feet from their nest (underground so you don’t see it) and they come after you. Never been stung by a bee, but I haven’t been around any honeybee hives ever so maybe that’s why?
You and I must have different Polistes species.
I’m not a doctor, but the reaction you describe to bees sounds like a sign of an allergic reaction
I’ve been stung on the finger by Polistes fuscatus, and it hurt a lot for probably 30 mins, with residual pain lasting a couple days. I find yellowjacket (these were Vespula maculifrons) less painful, but the soreness at the sting site after the initial pain goes away lasts like a week
The problem with Vespula maculifrons is the way they swarm, I stepped on a nest, was chased 80 yards back to the car receiving over a dozen stings, some got in the car and had to be killed one by one, while others surrounded the car pinging against the windows trying to get in, and then followed the car as we drove (speed limit was 20 mph)
Whereas with the Polistes I put my finger next to a nest and one stung my finger
Humans might be potential predators to tigers, though I don’t think they’re fooled by false eyes.
I used to be stung by Polistes frequently as a kid (maybe P. exclamans? inat says that’s the most observed species where I lived) and I remember it hurting quite a long time, the spot being puffy for days afterwards.
They’re pretty scary, though!
Entomologists have actually written papers comparing the painfulness of insect stings on a scale where 2 is a typical honeybee or yellowjacket, 1 is more mild (eg a single fire ant), 3 is more severe than a typical bee (eg large velvet ants) and 4 is the worst (eg bullet ant). Polistes were rated 2-3 depending on species https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6669698/ so it makes sense that you would find them to be quite painful (however different people react differently and it also depends where you are stung
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I don’t want a spider
What does that say? I don’t speak Spanish and I just know it says it’s some insect and that it’s 1 green or something.
What’s that?
An insect.
What kind?
A green one.
Yes, but what’s its name?
Juan.
Why would it be named Juan? It looks like a stinkbug.
that’s the joke, the person asking the name is expecting the type of insect and the person responding instead gives a response as if the insect’s personal name is juan
I think so, this is P. dominula and P. gallicus. I can generally get right up to the nest for photos, and at worst a few will fly to the camera, and then just sit there and do nothing.
Yes and anti-histamines within a couple of hours do make it much less bad, those reactions only started a few years ago.
New fear unlocked!
Research grade!
Yeah, my sister many years ago and a friend a few years back both got a whole swarm of Vespula going after them and several stings. When I got stung I knew that was a possibility so I booked it out of there as soon as I saw what species had stung me. I ran away down the trail but eventually had to loop back around and see if they were still disturbed and where exactly the nest was since I was trying to retrieve the SD card from my trail cam when I got stung. I managed to get to the camera the second time without getting stung and took the camera down and moved it to a different location.