maybe were talking about the same thing, but can't "wasps" only stinbg you once.
or are you talking about hornets?
hornets are the BIG things that kind of hover when they fly and you can see their white stripes right?

I just killed three wasps in my house this week... they get in!
idk how though... through the windows I think.
(since we have no screens on them)

bees can only sting you once. Wasps can sting you as many times as they want until you kill them. I thinks hornets can sting you several times also but I'm not sure on that one.

A hornet is shaped more like a wasp, but it is black and yellow like a bee. There is also some kind with a red ring and when I see them I get far away as fast as I can.

Actually, isn't it the honey bee that can sting you only once. It's fairly bad because it actually leaves it stinger in the skin and the venom continues to flow.
However, after your stung by one they die, too.

Cuz, I'm pretty darn sure Killer Bees can sting you like 502090329487 times. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

In fact, the honey bee one can sting you once cuz your a mammal. Birds are the same. The barbed stinger lodges into the skin and break free from the bee's abdomen as it tries to fly away.

I have never been stung by a bee , wasp , or hornet. I'm very afraid of them. Like terrorfied of them. If a bee or wasp flies by me i start to shack and breath heavy. once a bee landed on me and i froze couldnt move at all. Another time this huge i don't know what it was bumble bee or something. It looked like a cross of one of those water bugs mixed with a bee. Anyways my apartment is weird i have a patio no backyard the wall where my door is also shares that wall with a sliding door. Well i don't know how it got in but it was stuck between my blinds and the glass and i just keep hearings its wings buzzing it was pretty loud. I was so scared to go threw my front door that i was almost an hour late to work. That sound scared the hell out of me. I was in a cold sweat the hole time.

African "killer" bees and European "honey" bees are the same species, sort of like different races. They cross-breed successfully. The problem is that when a batch of them hatch or wake up or whatever it is technically called, the first "queen" type goes around and kills all the other queen types. When you cross the 2 kinds of bees, there is something on the aggression gene that makes a queen hatch faster. That means a queen with the african gene always wakes up first and kills all the others with or without the gene. That means the gene can not be bred out in the wild.

The african bees are more robust, but the european bees make more honey. African bee honey can be gotten. I have 2 jars of it in my kitchen right now. I'm not sure if it is the bees or the pollen, but it tastes a lot different from any other honey I've ever had. It tastes more like maply syrup. It is from brazilian killer bees. I get most of my non-local honey from beefolks.com. They are out of MD and I see them every year at either the MD Ren fest or Potomac Celtic festival. They have the best varietal honey you could ever imagine. They are also in the process of starting a meadery. I also eat a lot of unfiltered unpasteurized local honey, especially during allergy season. You'd be amazed how good it works.

so basically, killer bees can also only sting you once, but you won't get stung once unless its the only one their. They have a much more aggressive swarm responce. isoamyl acetate is the chemical signal. If you make one mad or kill one, he secretes that stuff into the air, then all the others go kamikaze on you. It only takes an extremely small amount, so it is very very dangerous. So primative. So raw. It really is fascinating.

darkaether - you are quite correct. The african bees can sting you only once. The ones that particulars bother me are the white faced hornets. Not only can they sting many times they are much more painful than a normal bee, hornet, or wasp. Isoamyl acetate is some bad smelling stuff. I remember it from chem class. It is used to make fake banana scents among other things.

Snakes on an engine block are quite common. All the guides in africa have experienced it one time or another. Ususally at night when the engine is still warm they crawl in. Then during the morning when it is cold they seek a spot in the sun.

I would prefer wasps as a squatter to a snake.

Bees, wasps, hornets all smart a bit when they sting however, as Hornets go I hope The Asian giant hornet stays in Asia. You need more than a fly swater for this thing. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />

OMG if that thing landed on me i would DIE!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Doesn't sound like L4D would be interested in getting involved in Schmidt's research... Sting Pain Index

I saw something kinda like that one night when I was getting some gas out in the boonies. It liked the lights and flew directly into things like my car, the pump, the lights, and everything. It made me really wish I had my benelli and some birdshot. Since I have no idea what it was, I named it a Satan bug. It wouldn't have scared me as much if it stayed still but this thing was all over the place! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />