Yellow and black insects

I found out I was allergic (deathly) to yellow and black striped insects the summer I was 28. I had asked my husband to fill the hole near the hose nozzle that these insects live in. He didn't and one night when I went to turn off the hose the little pecker heads stung me.
What happened next was comical (after it stopped being scary). I started to itch and swell. I managed to get my rings off and then proceeded to scratch the hives that started to cover my body. I said that I felt like I was swelling up and my husband said he couldn't tell (thanks a lot asshole) but we proceeded to the walk in clinic just in case. Before you ask me why the walk in clinic and not the ER I will just say we lived in a community where you could probably die waiting to see someone in the ER and I had never had an allergic reaction so how was I supposed to know they were so dangerous? Anyway by the time I made it to the walk in clinic my eyes were swollen shut.. They took one look at me, injected me with an epi pen (funny legs shaking) and sent me off to the hospital. 

Note to self - if possible don't give into the scratching when you are having an allergic reaction - it hurts a lot afterwards and was swollen for days. At the ER I had some steroids and was forced to wait to make sure it didn't happen again. I negotiated myself down 4 hours from the 8 they wanted to keep me and went home to sleep.
It was scary!

For years I thought I was allergic to wasps. Only after allergy testing did I find out that I was in fact allergic to Hornets and Yellow Jacket.

But really  - they all look the same and I carry an epi pen in the summer months just in case


I now have started a series of allergy injections to try and lessen the severity of the reaction but that is a topic for another day

Yellow Jacket



Hornet