Did some research. Best I can tell is it's a ****oo wasp?
They don't seem common. I don't think I've ever seen one. Located in north Texas.

Op I'm not familiar with that one. But Saturday I moved a tractor/mower thru a seldom used gate with a pipe lock protector. It had a large yellow jacket nest inside. I hate/fear wasp but my 18 year old has no fear. He got my gloves to remove the nest while I filmed from the tractor cab.

Yes 100%

Mas89 said:

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Op I'm not familiar with that one. But Saturday I moved a tractor/mower thru a seldom used gate with a pipe lock protector. It had a large yellow jacket nest inside. I hate/fear wasp but my 18 year old has no fear. He got my gloves to remove the nest while I filmed from the tractor cab.

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How many times he get lit up?

Edit: Did he spray first?


The spray we used my dad got from the oilfield supply places in the 70's would have eliminated anything in the cover with ease and I would have done that back then, but with today's crap, nope. Pear burner and no paint first.

Amazingly, he shook the gate good while it was still locked and then grabbed the nest after some had flown off. I couldn't believe he actually opened the lock without getting bit. I'm sure some hit the Stihl leather gloves without penetrating.

No, we didn't have any spray.

I got lit up this weekend moving a wooden tv box. Damn red wasps.

Somehow I don't think I've ever been hit by a red wasp. How does it compare to a yellow jacket?

I'd guess red wasp sting is 3x worse than yellow jackets. They really hurt.

Yellow jacket < red wasp
Fire ant < red ant

Yellow jackets ain't **** compared to a red wasp.

I'd agree 3x worse.

That's what I meant. Red wasp is way worse than a yellow jacket just like a red ant is way worse than a fire ant for perspective. Although yellow jackets on top of the head don't feel good either.

We got Apache wasps here.

I relish the act of spraying wasps. Todays spray, 3', I don't give a ***** F- them all.

When I'm not booked for Charters I work on trailers. There was a huge red wasp nest on the underneath side of my floor jack. I lifted the trailer I was working on, got on my back right next to it and they stung my shoulder. Got hit three times. In the same area. That sucked. I nuked em with some spray....15 red wasps. Never ever seen a nest on the underside of a floor jack.

Like the red harvester ant (Texas Red Ant?)

up-n-aTm said:

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I'd guess red wasp sting is 3x worse than yellow jackets. They really hurt.

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I laughed at my BIL when he got stung by a red wasp. I just thought he had a low pain tolerance.

Many years later I got stung and it felt like someone was holding a lit match to my skin.

Those red wasps like to make a nest in a bush, very low to the ground. At least that is where I find most of them.

edit to add: as a kid and young adult, I got stung a lot by many other wasps, and scorpions, and ants. The red wasp was the worst, followed by one particular scorpion sting where I was barefoot and stepped right on the scorpion. He got me good right before he died. Many other scorpion stings were not that bad.

For bad wasp stings or ant bites, pour a cup of bleach in a cold bathtub of water and it diminishes the toxin pretty quickly if you sit in the tub for 10-15 minutes.

Our son was 2 years old and was playing under a tree that was full asps. He was lit up all over his body. Neighbor was a MD and told us the bleach trick and it has worked for us for everything.

Mas89 said:

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Op I'm not familiar with that one. But Saturday I moved a tractor/mower thru a seldom used gate with a pipe lock protector. It had a large yellow jacket nest inside. I hate/fear wasp but my 18 year old has no fear. He got my gloves to remove the nest while I filmed from the tractor cab.

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In my experience, not all red wasp stings are the same. I've been stung where I hardly could tell and also been stung where I thought I was getting electrocuted. This weekend I got lit up on my chin and it was the latter. Very painful and a lot of swelling.

Being electrocuted aint bad?

maverick12 said:

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In my experience, not all red wasp stings are the same. I've been stung where I hardly could tell and also been stung where I thought I was getting electrocuted. This weekend I got lit up on my chin and it was the latter. Very painful and a lot of swelling.

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I've been stung many times by wasps and bees. A red wasp was the only one that I have had an allergic reaction to. It took a trip to the ER as fast as I could get there because my breathing was shutting down.

I had an allergist test me since and I didn't react. Definitely different venom properties among them, I think.

Scorpions are almost nothing, honeybees are slightly worse than a fire ant, texas yellowjackets (actually paper wasps) are a shade worse than a bee, female carpenter bees are pretty similar to a paper wasp type yellowjacket, Red wasps are pretty bad and a big jump up from the carpenter bee... ground hornets (actual yellowjackets) are much worse than red wasps and cow killer ants (velvet ants) are the worst sting I've ever had. Felt like I got stabbed with a hot poker in the bottom of my foot.

maverick12 said:

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In my experience, not all red wasp stings are the same. I've been stung where I hardly could tell and also been stung where I thought I was getting electrocuted. This weekend I got lit up on my chin and it was the latter. Very painful and a lot of swelling.

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That's exactly what I thought was happening last time I was stung by one. It was winter and I was up in the attic rewiring a couple of ungrounded circuits at home. Following an old 1950s wire run I put my hand down and could have sworn I got shocked. Maybe I found a spot where mice had chewed off the insulation, look down and nope, it's one of those a*shole red wasps that must be holed up for the winter in the attic. Wire cutters made short work of that POS but I was a lot more careful running wire after that in case some of its buddies were also up there.

From an entomological perspective, I fully agree with this.

I was stung by red wasp around 30 times growing up and the first time I got stung by a bee I was expecting the same, thankfully not.

How are you going to lump all scorpions into the same category??

CactusThomas said:

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How are you going to lump all scorpions into the same category??

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They all belong in the "bugs that are *******s" category

I agree not all red Wasps are the same. I got one last week on my hip but through my t shirt. Certainly felt it, but wasn't too bad. Crazy thing was I sprayed the nest and took it down. It was full of larva and oozed like something else when I stepped on it. All day long, more wasps kept coming back to that spot. It was right by my pool so kept them away from kids for hours.

Badace52 said:

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Scorpions are almost nothing, honeybees are slightly worse than a fire ant, texas yellowjackets (actually paper wasps) are a shade worse than a bee, female carpenter bees are pretty similar to a paper wasp type yellowjacket, Red wasps are pretty bad and a big jump up from the carpenter bee... ground hornets (actual yellowjackets) are much worse than red wasps and cow killer ants (velvet ants) are the worst sting I've ever had. Felt like I got stabbed with a hot poker in the bottom of my foot.

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Wonder where cicada killers fall on that hierarchy. They never seemed to give a crap about me except for one just one time when I was mowing the grass in my teens. No joke I still have a visible scar on my shoulder from it.

Badace52 said:

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Scorpions are almost nothing, honeybees are slightly worse than a fire ant, texas yellowjackets (actually paper wasps) are a shade worse than a bee, female carpenter bees are pretty similar to a paper wasp type yellowjacket, Red wasps are pretty bad and a big jump up from the carpenter bee... ground hornets (actual yellowjackets) are much worse than red wasps and cow killer ants (velvet ants) are the worst sting I've ever had. Felt like I got stabbed with a hot poker in the bottom of my foot.

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Velvet ant was the worst sting I've experienced

The Fife said:

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CactusThomas said:

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How are you going to lump all scorpions into the same category??

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They all belong in the "bugs that are *******s" category

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Scorpion stings are nothing like snake bites are nothing.

tk111 said:

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Badace52 said:

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Scorpions are almost nothing, honeybees are slightly worse than a fire ant, texas yellowjackets (actually paper wasps) are a shade worse than a bee, female carpenter bees are pretty similar to a paper wasp type yellowjacket, Red wasps are pretty bad and a big jump up from the carpenter bee... ground hornets (actual yellowjackets) are much worse than red wasps and cow killer ants (velvet ants) are the worst sting I've ever had. Felt like I got stabbed with a hot poker in the bottom of my foot.

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Wonder where cicada killers fall on that hierarchy. They never seemed to give a crap about me except for one just one time when I was mowing the grass in my teens. No joke I still have a visible scar on my shoulder from it.

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ranked a 1.5 on the Schmidt Index. It isn't on this diagram, but I looked it up

When I was doing field work in grad school, got lit up by some ground hornets. 27 stings later….. dang. Was 5 miles from the truck, so just kept on doing our vegetation surveys.

zooguy96 said:

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When I was doing field work in grad school, got lit up by some ground hornets. 27 stings later….. dang. Was 5 miles from the truck, so just kept on doing our vegetation surveys.

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Yikes!

dubi said:

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zooguy96 said:

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When I was doing field work in grad school, got lit up by some ground hornets. 27 stings later….. dang. Was 5 miles from the truck, so just kept on doing our vegetation surveys.

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Yikes!

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My left arm got 12 stings by itself.

Luckily, I must have been somewhat immune. Got stung all the time by fire ants, wasps, etc when I was younger. Also luckily we had some Benadryl.

I'll muddy the wasp water here……

Growing up in Bell County, we had four distinct types of "paper wasps":

• Little yellow jackets ("Guinea wasps" my grandad called them). 60 or 80 on a nest at the end of summer is not unusual. The sting is darn sure worse than a bee, but not as bad as its cousins. Semi docile in places where you see them, they see you, and you don't Jack with them.
• Black wasps - red front, black butt. Can make nests with 20 or so. Sting along the lines of a little yellow jacket. Not as docile.
• Big yellow jackets. They're the size of red or black wasps, seem to love bushes, and pack a wallop second only to the reds. Their temperament is similar to reds.
• Red wasps. Nothing I write here does justice to the nasty temperament and wallop these little peddlers of pain posess. #@$& them!

Any entomologists care to elaborate?