Okay, so I am bee-phobic, and I had a wasp land on me the other day.

I was sitting under a tree, and I saw this big bug flying vaguely toward me. It was SO big that it didn't even occur to me that it might be a bee or wasp--I didn't even know that we HAD wasps that big in West Virginia. Apparently, we do. It landed on the sleeve of my white t-shirt, and I freaked. the. hell. out. Screaming "Get it off of me! Get it off of me!", dancing around, beating at my shirt sleeve, the whole drill. ThinkBlue1966 and I usually have a deal--I deal with her spiders, and she deals with my bees. But this thing was so huge and scary that even SHE recoiled from it. She actually hit me with her cane (she has a bad case of tarsal tunnel syndrome at the moment) because she was too afraid to actually brush it off with her hand. Her hitting me with the cane is funny *now* (like something from a cartoon, sheesh) but I was kinda pissed when it happened.
I was like, "Forget the damned cane, GET IT OFF OF ME!" :rofl:

It eventually flew down to the ground, where ThinkBlue1966 promptly stepped on it--and so help me God(dess) it audibly CRUNCHED. Ugh.

I have lived in this city in West Virginia for the vast majority of my life, and I have NEVER seen a wasp as big as that one. Our County Extension Agent wrote a column a week or so ago about some extremely large wasps that were hanging around, called Cicada Killer Wasps. I think this was one of those--it was about 2 inches long, and this is definitely cicada time in West Virginia. I don't know if they've always lived here and I'd just never seen one or whether they've recently arrived, but holy hell. There was another one on campus a couple of weeks ago, too, but it was already dead and had been squished, so we had thought it was just some freak-of-nature yellowjacket. I didn't know that there would be MORE of them. *shudder*

I think it might have been the fruity-smelling shampoo and lotion that I use; according to Google, adult Cicada Killer Wasps feed on sap and nectar, so maybe it thought that I was lunch. I'm thinking it might be time to re-evaluate my summer fragrance choices, ya know?

I'm not posting a pic, because even the pictures are scary to me, but if you want to see one, just GIS "Cicada Killer Wasp."

I leave them be, they leave us alone, so we're doing okay. They *terrified* Dropkid until we looked them up, they're really VERY interesting creatures.

I googled. I found a hand holding two of them. They. Are. Huge. :scared:

Bless you and may it never happen again. Start using Paul Mitchell's Tea Tree shampoo. If your shampoo makes your eyes water and clears your sinuses, imagine what it'll do to approaching wasps!

And I am not going to post a pic

<shudder>

but don't have much oomph as far as a sting goes, and are disinclined to sting unless roughly handled. Their stings are extremely fine, adapted precisely to pinpoint and target the nerve ganglia in the cicada. Generally, their stings can only pierce soft skin.

If it happens again, just coax it onto a stick and move it.

TP