I was cutting the grass last night in shorts and something stung me on my ankle something fierce. I looked down and checked my socks and shoe and didn't see anything. I got stung on my thumb last year by a paper wasp and this was right up there, maybe worse considing the nerves in the thumb compared to the number in the ankle.

My Googlefu comes up with velvet ant as likely culprit. Pain lasted a solid 10mins, no itch today yet but I took some Zyrtec last night.

Never heard of that variety of wasp. IME, when growing up in the Upper Midwest stings while mowing were ground wasps, and the mower went over their entrance which angered them.

We have very aggressive red paper wasps here. They are hard working and always trying to build nests on eaves, in bushes, etc. I'm normally a live and let live with pollinators, but they're mean so I give them no quarter. Couple years ago, I went through 1.5 cans of wasp spray trying to do the fall trimming of the hedges.

Mrs. Scuba goes after the paper wasp nests with a mix of dish soap and water in a spray bottle, the soapy water covers them and they die in seconds because they can't breath. The initial spray usually knocks them down. I was doing that last year and one flanked me and got my thumb on the hand that was spraying with. Felt like a hammer to my thumb.

Hurt something fierce, didn't see 'anything'...Must've been a velvet ant! Are these known to be on your property? Unless you're leaving out some critical info, kind of a jump there don't you think?

Well...I saw no paper wasps or anything else flying and from what the interwebs say, bites originating from cutting the grass around your ankles are usually velvet ants. The females sting and have no wings. Only thing I'm reading up that high up on the pain index is velvet ant. I had never heard of them before but evidently Iowa has them.

Here in South Texas it is always fire ants. How such a small creature can hurt so much I will never know. I think anything in comparison is just an annoyance. But, it has been decades since I have been stung bu flying insects.

We have Velvet Ants at the gun club my wife and I are members at, lots of them.

We would see them all the time and were told they were nicknamed cow killers because of how painful their sting is.

Because of this, when we saw them we went as far away from them as possible.

Up until a few years ago I was on the grounds crew at the club. Luckily having worked around the the property as much as I did I was never stung by one.

I see some every year and steer clear. Very hard to squish, I'm told they squeak if you try.

Not seen any velvet ants but we have plenty of Fire Ants, little suckers are very aggressive, step on a mound and you will be immediately attacked, and end up with multiple painful bites, sometimes resulting in pain and itching for days.

I knew a guy named Velvet Jones. Does that count?

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
I see some every year and steer clear. Very hard to squish, I'm told they squeak if you try.

They totally are! It's like trying to squish Superman. They just KEEP getting back up.

My youngest daughter stepped on one while barefoot when she was younger. She saw it walking away. It was about an inch long. (Florida Panhandle)

Lit her up. She's pretty tough, but she was in some pain for about half an hour.

She used ice and took Benadryl.

I see one on a rare occasion here. Definitely uncommon, I've maybe seen a dozen in 30 years.
Cow killer ants is what we knew them as.
They're definitely tough buggers

I haven't been personally stung, however, I had a cousin that got nailed by one when we were kids. We were messing around with it and got him. His reaction told me all I needed to know about bad the sting was.

I've got them by the ton here in central Florida. If it's dry out, you will see them where grass is sparse.

I stepped on one several years ago when we lived a few miles South of San Antonio.

It hurt more than a yellow jacket or red wasp sting.

They call them Cow Killers here they are a ground wasp. Very painful and the sting will blister