Summer fun doesn’t come without dangers. When the sun comes out,
so do a lot of
stingers.

“While many bee pollinators are active only in early spring,
honeybees and bumblebees
are active all summer,” said Keith Delaplane, a University of
Georgia Extension
Service entomologist.

In Georgia, it’s not bees you have to watch out for. It’s
wasps.

“Most people call any stinging insect a bee,” Delaplane
said. “True bees are valuable
pollinators and rarely warrant control. A live-and-let-live
approach is far better.”

Wasps and yellow jackets are another matter.

“They become more numerous and problematic toward the end of
summer,” Delaplane
said. “The best control is to treat individual nests. The
earlier in summer the better.”

Commercial sprays are best for controlling wasps and yellow
jackets.

How do you avoid being stung?

“Walking barefoot in clover is a risk,” Delaplane said. “If you
encounter bees on
flowers, simply leave them alone and enjoy watching them. If you
see a bumblebee
nest, avoid it. It will die out in the fall.”

Don’t swat at stinging insects. Swatting a bee just agitates it
more. Delaplane
recommends you walk — or run — away and don’t waste time with
fruitless and
dangerous swatting.

In spite of folk tales, most stinging insects are equally
potent.

“It depends more on the individual than the bee,” Delaplane
said. “For some
beekeepers, honeybee stings are practically nothing. But for
those same people, a wasp
sting can be very painful.”

Some people may have bad reactions to any bee sting.

“If you swell and feel pain at a sting site, it’s not an
allergic reaction,” he said. “It’s a
normal reaction. An allergic reaction includes sweating,
dizziness, light-headedness,
shaking, convulsions and more serious symptoms — reactions
suffered by a very small
fraction of the population.”

If you are allergic to bee stings, carry a sting kit at all
times. Most other stings can be
treated with a topical ointment such as Benadryl.

Think bees are the only summer stingers? Think again.

“Fire ants inflict pain,” said UGA entomologist Beverly
Sparks. “They actually bite (to
hold on) and then sting — that’s the part that hurts.”

A fire ant sting is different from other ants.

“Its sting burns for a few minutes, then starts itching,” Sparks
said. “Then a white
pustule forms within several hours of a sting.”

Not all ant stings are as painful as a fire ant’s.

“Many ants are the shape and size of a fire ant, and unless you
have a good hand lens
or microscope it’s hard to tell these ants apart,” Sparks
said.

It’s their behavior that gives them away.

“If you see a large, turtle-shaped mound with no obvious entry
point and when you
disturb the mound, hundreds of ants respond very quickly, you
can be sure they’re fire
ants,” Sparks said.

If fire ants sting you, treat the area with an approved insect-
bite remedy that not only
deadens pain but provides infection protection. Sting-Kill
External Anesthetic, which
contains benzocaine, is one such product.

“Some people react severely to fire ant stings,” Sparks
said. “They should see a
physician immediately.”

Allergic reactions to fire ant stings may include chest pains,
nausea or lapsing into a
coma.