Last week I was cutting my grass one evening. It’s been so hot lately that cutting my grass has been a multiple day process. I was mowing the side yard when all of a sudden I felt something bite me on my right big toe. [Yes, I mow my yard in flip flops, and I probably should not, but it's not like I'm putting my feet under the blade of the mower] It was like a nail being driven through my toe. I let go of the mower and said a bad word, then flopped to the ground like I had been shot. I looked around but did not see anything that would be the likely culprit for this pain. I looked at my toe and saw the bite, and it kind of looked like an ant bite, but it felt a lot worse.
I went inside and washed my toe, and googled to see if what bit me could have been a spider. I see spiders all the time in my yard, but they always run before the mower goes over them. I was bitten when I was walking behind my mower, so maybe it came from the side. I was comforted by the pain subsiding and not seeing fang marks, because apparently some spiders leave those.
I went back outside to at least finish the spot I was mowing, and looked at my neighbors’ fence. Between one of the boards for the gate and a post, I saw a wasp nest. There were about 4 or 5 wasps hanging out, and this was right near where I got stung. I went back inside and grabbed some Raid and then sprayed down the wasp nest. They have really advanced the technology of the killing power, because I remember my parents trying to kill wasps with spray and having to run as soon as they sprayed it because the deaths were not instantaneous. They are now, but it’s still nice to have the spray go more than a couple of feet.
I finished up in the yard, and googled some remedies for wasp stings. I found one talking about putting an onion slice on the bite area and holding it there for 20 minutes. Incidentally, this website also came in useful during my grad school class in the spring. I happened to have an onion in my fridge, so I sliced off the bottom and held it to my toe. It was not instant pain relief, but after a while the pain was just about gone, and the bite never swelled up.
So next time you find yourself mowing your lawn in flip flops, or anytime for that matter, and you get stung by a wasp, put an onion on it.







