It don’t matter if it is a wasp, a yellow jacket, a black jacket, a carpenter bee or a honey bee. And now most recently a sweat bee. A bee is a bee is a bee! I do not like bees and I avoid them as much as I can. I had a recent run in, LITERALLY with sweat bees and now I am even more scared of them if that is possible.
We let Coco Chanel, our tortie kitten, who is starting to become a cat, outside to play. We have kitty doors where our other two cats, Porche, and Georgio Armani come and go as they please. Until Cocoa figures out how to use them she has supervised outdoor playtime. So far she is proving not to be a bright as the other two and has yet to figure it out. She was playing outside while my husband and I were having dinner on the back porch as we often do. We try to keep her in the backyard where we can keep an eye on her. Sometimes she can be a little toot though and wanders off where we can’t see her, or into the woods which was the case on this particular evening. Ken went to fetch her. All of a sudden he comes running and screaming that he is being attacked by bees. we got him into the house and got all the bees off him. He had several stings which I proceeded to treat with essential oils. More on that in a bit.
He lost his glasses in the process and asked me to go look for them. I did but could not find them. He came out with me to sort of point me in the area. All of a sudden I was being stung. I did not see the bees I did not hear the bees. Later, after administering to our wounds, we did some research and figured out that they were sweat bees.
Most sweat bees nest in the ground, though a few nest in wood and are active only at dusk or in the early evening. Who knew! The next day my husband did some further investigating and sure enough, there nest was in an old rotted log. He took care of them. Me, not going anywhere near there!
I got the worst of the bee wrath. Ken got stung a few times but I got stung several times more than he did. He got stung on the arms and legs and one on the back of his neck. Me not so lucky. I got stung several times on my butt! It looked like they had a party back there. Not only on by butt, but also high on my inner thigh really close to my you know what! How they ever got in my pants I have no ideal! I also had stings on my legs and arm.
Thank goodness for my essential oils. With a quick bit of research, I made a paste of baking soda, lavender and roman chamomile essential oils. It helped! A lot. Granted, even though the essential oil recipe helped, I was still in lots of pain for most of the night. I couldn’t sit very well either! I can’t remember exactly how much I used of each. Maybe about 3 drops each of the essential oils with a tablespoon of baking soda and enough water to make a paste. Another recipe I found is a Bee Sting Blend.
Ingredients
- 2 drops of lavender essential oil
- 1 drop of chamomile essential oil
- 1 drop of peppermint essential oil
- 1 drop of vetiver essential oil
Directions
- Mix all the above oils in a small non-reactive, non-food use bowl and apply to the bee sting area using a cotton swab.
- Apply every few hours for complete relief.
After the bee attack incident, I decided it was time to make something to deter any bee from ever stinging me again. I have not yet tried the following recipe but will be doing so soon.
I also read that soapy water can get rid of bees. I will add a few drops of dawn dishwashing detergent to the recipe. I can then again enjoy the outdoors…hopefully!!
ta, ta ‘til later,
Cheryl