Where does Apiphobia come from and how to get rid of the fear of wasps and bees?

Slava Profina 06/20/2018 no comments

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There are many irrational fears that cannot be explained logically. You cannot use arguments to convince a person with a fear of flying that airplanes are safe: he will still panic. Apiphobia is the fear of wasps and bees. The patient may be afraid of contact with insects and their bites. The phobia becomes more severe over time.

What attracts?

Wasps have a real sweet tooth, so they often fly into the windows of houses where jam is being prepared. They love insects and fresh fruits (fruits, berries). They are especially attracted by the aromas of melons, watermelons, apricots, grapes, and apples.

Wasps also have other preferences:

• honey and sugar syrup;
• juices and fermented jam;
• fermented drinks - kvass, beer;
• yeast starter.

Both fish and meat attract these stinging insects. They are especially attracted by the smell of spoiled food.

- So tasty!…

If the socket is not available

Sometimes the independent destruction of unwanted neighbors is complicated by the fact that the wasp's nest may be located in an extremely inconvenient place and be inaccessible.

In such cases, it is recommended to adhere to the following tips:

1. Follow the route of wasps; for example, they can crawl in large numbers under wall cladding or slate on the roof. Then it is necessary to treat the surface around their loophole with toxic substances, if possible pour as much of the drug inside as possible, usually the effect of such an event is the same as when baiting the nest itself.
2. Earthen nests also belong to the class of hard-to-reach shelters; they can be burned, watered, or poisonous drugs poured inside. At the same time, it is strictly forbidden to excavate underground dwellings, since this can be an extremely dangerous idea.
3. Place the poisoned bait in the immediate vicinity of the place through which the wasps pass to get into their nest.
4. Some people remove wasps from the most difficult to reach places using a regular vacuum cleaner. But it is worth noting that this technique is the most dangerous, moreover, in most cases it gives only temporary results, but it also takes a certain amount of time.

How to scare insects away from their resting place?

The taste preferences of insects are often used in homemade traps. But to prevent wasps from annoying you during your vacation, you should think about how to scare them away. There are several ways to solve this problem - insects can be driven away with special devices, chemicals and improvised means.

To minimize the invasion of wasps on your site, it is recommended to promptly remove and dispose of rotting fruits, the smell of fermentation of which insects pick up at considerable distances.

Repelling wasps in residential areas

Much fewer products are suitable for repelling wasps in residential areas. After all, the method should not only be safe, but also not disturb comfort. For example, you can use:

• pine essential oils for lighting the aroma lamp;
• geranium planted on the windowsill;
• ultrasonic devices;
• small traps with sweet bait.

The most reliable way to prevent wasps from appearing in your home is to cut off their entry routes. Therefore, windows and (if necessary) doors must be protected with mosquito nets, and cracks and crevices in the walls of the house and window frames must be carefully sealed.

Another method to repel wasps is to use special repellents sold in the store. They are produced in the form of sprays for application to the skin and repellents with bright odors. Of all the possible measures to help repel insects, you can choose the most suitable ones.

Use of chemicals

Insecticides are often used to control insects. These drugs are often used to treat the area to kill pests. But using them as a wasp and bee repeller will not give the desired effect.

You can indeed use flammable substances (solvent, kerosene, gasoline, diesel fuel), since insects do not like their smell, but when they burn, they release toxins that are harmful to humans. Based on this and for fire safety purposes, it is better to use flammable substances away from recreational areas and residential premises.

Anaphylactic shock. First aid

If after the bite the person’s condition begins to deteriorate, call an ambulance immediately. Especially if there are several bites.

While you are waiting for the medical team, do not waste time (if you know how to provide first aid).

1. If the victim is conscious, give him an antiallergic medicine (for example, suprastin, cetirizine, ketotifen, loratadine).
2. Place 5-6 drops of a vasoconstrictor (for example, naphazoline) into each nostril. This will help maintain blood pressure until doctors arrive.
3. If a person has lost consciousness, but a pulse is palpable in the carotid artery, then place him on his side.
4. If the victim is not breathing and there is no pulse in the carotid artery, you should immediately begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation (provided you know how to do this).
5. You can remove the sting from the skin with tweezers or try to scrape it off with a fingernail, a plastic card, the blunt side of a knife - whatever is at hand.
6. Apply something cold to the bite site and head, this will help reduce the rate of development of anaphylactic shock.

Before the ambulance arrives, carefully monitor the victim’s condition in order to then provide the most accurate information to the doctors.

Traditional methods

In the open air, you can ward off wasps using improvised means, focusing on the insects’ perception of certain odors.

Smoke

If you light a fire in your area, you will notice that its smoke is good at repelling wasps. Insects do not like the pungent odor they emit. Coniferous tree branches thrown into a fire will enhance the repellent effect. As they burn, they emit a resinous aroma.

Smoke

fly agaric

Almost everyone knows about the poisonous properties of this type of mushroom. They do not like fly agaric and wasps. Therefore, summer residents sometimes protect their plots by placing containers with poison around the perimeter. It is prepared like this:

• medium-sized mushrooms (5 pcs.) cut into slices;
• pour thick honey (100 g);
• add 1 liter of water and place on low heat.

The mixture is simmered on the stove for about an hour. Then, after cooling, puree and place in small containers. If the area is small, it is enough to place jars of poison in its corners.

Attention! The insects will not reach you, distracted by the smell of honey, but having tasted the “treat”, they will be poisoned by the poison of the fly agaric and die.

fly agaric

Machine oil

This method is sometimes used if a wasp nest is found on the site. The product is used not so much to repel insects as to destroy the nest itself. A piece of rag is soaked in oil, and then this rag is inserted into the hole in the socket. Within a day, not a single living individual will remain inside.

Machine oil

Hot pepper

The spicy smell is so strong that wasps will avoid it. To scare insects away from your home, just hang a bunch of hot pepper pods near an open window. It will be effective both fresh and dried.

Attention! Wasps will fly around the area if you plant hot pepper bushes on it.

Hot pepper

Plants

Knowing what wasps are afraid of, it is easier to choose repellents using herbal ingredients. Flowers and herbs that emit ethereal aromas give a good effect:

• basil;
• mint and lemon balm;
• wormwood;
• lavender;
• all varieties of geraniums.

With the help of these herbs you can drive wasps out of rooms. In the fresh air, just light a fire and throw a bunch of aromatic herbs into it.

You can scare away wasps from your summer cottage if you plant spicy crops and essential oil plants in the garden in advance.

On a note! When going on a picnic, it would be a good idea to lubricate your body with a concentrated decoction of one of these herbs. This will repel not only wasps, but also other insects.

To prevent pests from entering the premises from the street, you can lubricate window and door frames with decoctions of herbs that have a repellent odor.

Lavender

Should you be afraid of bees?

Incredible stories are sometimes told about bees. They allegedly attack people, sting animals, and even describe a case where bees caused armed soldiers to stampede.

Nature has indeed endowed honey bees with formidable weapons - a sting and a powerful poison. Just one sting kills any insect, and hundreds of them sometimes kill an animal.

Bee stings are quite painful and cause swelling, which in some people, especially those who are stung for the first time, can last for 2-3 days. It is quite natural that many people are afraid of bees.

No matter how strange it may seem, bees are peace-loving insects. Perhaps everyone has been in a blooming garden or admired the colorful meadow grasses. Thousands of bees work on flowers at this time. No one pays attention to you. They are busy getting food. If you want to catch a bee, it will try to fly away to a safe place as quickly as possible. No bee collecting nectar or pollen will harm anyone.

Bees needed such a powerful tool as a sting to reliably protect their homes and the treasures hidden there. And many sweet lovers go to the treasure trove of the priceless wealth of bees - honey: insects - flies, butterflies, wasps, ants, bumblebees, including alien thieving bees, and such dangerous predators as martens and bears. The bear even got its name from the words “honey” and “to know.” In other words, a honey scout. This sensitive animal with a sweet tooth very quickly detects a hollow with bees by smell and sound and will not miss the opportunity to destroy it in order to eat honey. Bears often enter taiga apiaries at night and, if they succeed, break the hives or take them into the forest and feast on fragrant honey there. They say the bear has nine songs, all about honey.

Honeyeater birds also love honey. And one of them is a honey guide. She easily finds a nest of bees and, with her cry and behavior, shows the way to it to a person or even a bear, who, it turns out, understands her well. The bird is usually content with the leftover honey. It is against these enemies that the bees use their formidable “combat equipment.”

Man also had and still has to experience the effects of this powerful means of protection. After all, he also invades the territory of the bees, which they protect, not sparing their lives - after being stung, the bee bleeds and dies. Its stinging apparatus comes off along with its poisonous reservoirs. Any injury to a bee is fatal. Her blood does not clot and cannot close the wound. But the detached sting, on its own, without the bee, automatically continues its action. Its strong muscles, contracting, drive the sharp sting deeper and push out all the poison into the enemy’s body.

If bees, being far from their home, try to get away from danger, then near the nest, on the contrary, they are very decisive. unnoticed. They apparently perceive this as a danger to their nest. Therefore, their defensive reaction is natural.

All sudden movements also embitter the bees - running around the apiary, swatting away an approaching insect, nervous behavior. Obviously, they see this as a threat. By the way, the eyes of bees are designed in such a way that they instantly perceive the slightest vibrations and immediately react to them.

If the bees are angry, then even a sharp movement of a finger will not escape them, and they will attack a person to sting.

Bees are irritated by hair, fur, and black clothing. After all, their nests were often invaded by bears and martens, which have thick fur. Obviously, the fight against them developed such an intolerant attitude. Therefore, beekeepers cover their heads and wear a white robe or light overalls. White color, on the contrary, calms the bees.

Bees get angry from the smell of sweat, perfume, garlic and other unnatural, unpleasant odors that are harsh for them. After all, they have a very subtle sense of smell. Their extremely mobile, as if on hinges, antennae contain a huge number of olfactory pits - locators (6 thousand on each), which are capable of capturing the most insignificant scents of aromas, inaccessible to humans. A bee cannot fail to notice a beekeeper who smells of onions. It will not fly past the sloppy Man.

Bees are especially sensitive to the smell of their own poison. A transparent, slightly yellowish tiny drop (0.3 mg) with a sharp candy-sweet odor, injected into the body of the iraga, acts as a signal to attack. As soon as one bee stings, others rush here, following the inviting smell of poison.

We must remember the rule: it is much easier to prevent bees from becoming angry than to pacify them when they have already begun to sting.

Sometimes they say that bees know their master, punish the evil ones and leave the good ones alone. This is, of course, not true. If a bee does not touch the owner, but stings a stranger who comes to the apiary, then this is because the beekeeper knows the character of the bees and knows how to behave with them, and the guest, with his behavior, obviously irritates them. Their defensive reaction is completely justified. A bee will not touch an experienced beekeeper. The same applies to a kind, calmer person, and an angry, almost always nervous person.

There is the most important condition, without which it is impossible to successfully work with bees - careful handling of them. Watch an experienced beekeeper while working with bees. They sit on his arms, on his face, if it is not covered, they curl around him, and they are not at all angry and angry. He works calmly, leisurely, not paying attention to the bees. You can see right away that he knows how to get along with a bee.

Let the bee hover near your face. Don't touch it, don't drive it away, even if it hangs around your nose. Having made sure that you are not at all dangerous for her, she will fly away, or even sit on your clothes and begin to clean her antennae, completely forgetting about it. you

You can only walk around the apiary at a calm pace, even if something very urgent needs to be done. Hand movements should be smooth, especially over the nest when it is open.

And even if a bee stings, because the one who is not stung is not a beekeeper, one must endure the pain with fortitude, especially since it does not last long. At first, however, not everyone succeeds. You may not immediately learn to control yourself, but then, over time, everything will be as it should be. The human body gets used to bee venom, it develops immunity, the stings are not as painful as at first, and a tumor does not form.

The poison even has a good effect on people who are often stung. But if the pain is unbearable, you need to remove the sting and lubricate the sting site with alcohol tincture of calendula or a 10-12 percent solution of ammonia. A 5% tincture of acetic acid also helps. These products must be kept in the first aid kit at the apiary. You can apply dandelion milky juice to the wound. Cold water also reduces pain. In case of an allergic reaction, which happens very rarely, you need to take a diphenhydramine tablet.

It is very important to be clean, tidy, neat, and attentive. Bees do not touch such people.

To avoid being stung in the face, use a special tulle net. It's safe, easy to see, cool. It is inconvenient to work with bees while wearing gloves. Beekeepers usually do not use them.

There is one, perhaps the most powerful means of pacifying bees - smoke. If he is introduced into the hive, then instantly the family becomes very excited. The bees, sensing danger, greedily pounce on the honey, get drunk, become heavier, become less irritable, and, having poor control of their full bellies, almost do not sting. The smoke makes them obedient. Any work can be done in the nest. By the way, a swarm whose bees carry a lot of honey with them is also peaceful and therefore not at all dangerous to catch.

The effect of smoke to make bees docile has been noted for a long time. Hunters for wild honey, in order to penetrate hollows with bees, used a set fire to a piece of rotten wood, which, while smoldering, gave off a lot of thick smoke. Nowadays a smoker is used for this purpose.

Especially often do you have to resort to smoke when working with angry bees, whose excitability is increased?

Usually, before exposing the nest, they blow two or three portions of smoke into the entrance and, after waiting a little for the bees to drink honey, they open the hive. Light smoke from above calms them down and does everything they need to do. If necessary, smoke suppression is also used. They smoke carefully and not very much. Excessive use of smoke makes bees angry. And it’s unpleasant to be in the smoke yourself.

Unskilled and; rough interference in the nest embitters the bees so much that they attack the beekeeper, neighbors, nearby animals and do not calm down for a long time. In apiaries where bees are constantly irritable and sting for no reason, the culprit is the beekeeper who has not learned to work with them. He either very often bothers them with all kinds of inspections, or he does it rudely, carelessly and not at the best time for this. After all, the same family in the morning, when the bulk of the bees are still in the hive, or by the end of the day, when they are going home again, reacts to an invasion much more sharply than during the day. During “working hours” many forage for food and do not participate in protecting the nest.

Bees also become embittered when dismantling the nest in cloudy, windy or rainy weather. They become especially irritable during the lean season, when there is no nectar or pollen in nature and when thieving bees persistently try to penetrate them.

The family endures any, even the most insignificant, interference in the nest painfully. The rhythm of all work is disrupted: nurse bees interrupt feeding the larvae, groups of construction bees break up, the queen stops laying eggs for some time, the activity of food providers decreases, and the security of the entrance is weakened. This condition may not last long if the nest is partially exposed for a short time. The very next day the bees behave normally. But when the examination is delayed for the sake of simple curiosity, their viciousness sometimes persists for several days. Such angry bees, as beekeepers say, don’t even take a smoke.

With proper care, bees, even angry ones, behave calmly and sting rarely, and it is a pleasure to work with them.

In conclusion, I would like to say: if you are afraid of stings, do not keep bees.

Inspecting a bee nest is the most common job in an apiary. It is carried out for a specific purpose - to establish the state of the family. This is necessary in order to properly care for the bees.

First of all, prepare for this operation - wash your hands well, put on a white robe and face net, take a chisel, brush, portable box, light a smoker.

Convenient; It takes two people to disassemble the nest. To avoid disturbing the bees, stand on the sides of the hive. Blow 2-3 streams of smoke into the entrance to pacify the bees. Then remove the roof (put it on the ground with the roof down), remove the insulation pad, lift the ceiling with a chisel or unscrew the cover sheet, slightly fumigating the bees with Smoke and driving them down.

Using a chisel, tear off the outer frame, move it aside if there is free space in the hive, or take it out and place it in a portable box, after shaking off the bees onto the nest with a sharp jerky movement and brushing off the rest with a brush. Now the frames can be easily removed and inspected.

Hold the frame over the socket by the shoulders, turning it so that the bottom bar is not at the top. The honeycomb cannot be held flat - honey will leak out of it.

When examining, determine the strength of the family - how many combs it occupies, specify the amount of honey and beebread, fresh, still unripe honey, open and printed brood - bee and trdanian, find the queen, the eggs that she laid, cells with queen larvae.

Inspecting the nest will show whether it needs to be expanded or whether you can still wait to see if food needs to be replenished. Based on the brood, its quantity and density, determine the quality of the queen - is it good or requires replacement. Sometimes it is enough to examine 2-3 frames to clarify all the issues.

Write down all information about the state of the family and the measures taken in a notebook (all families must have numbers).

Simultaneously with disassembling the nest, perform the necessary work (expand the nest with wax, empty or low-copper honeycombs, a housing or a magazine). Everything should! be prepared in advance.

To inspect a nest in a multi-hull hive, separate the upper body from the lower one or from the bottom if the colony occupies one building. To do this, insert a chisel with the sharp end between the bodies at the back of the hive. Lift the upper body slightly by pressing the chisel like a lever. Blow several streams of smoke into the gap to drive away the bees. Tilt the housing from the back so that you can see the lower bars of the frames. Drive away the bees with smoke. From below you can see how many frames have brood and what kind, whether there are queen cells, whether the colony needs to expand the nest or move the bodies. Detailed disassembly of the nest in this hive is not required.

If a bee stings, you need to pick off the sting with your fingernail, pacify the bees with smoke and calmly continue to work.

Disassemble the nest slowly, but carefully and quickly.

Tips and tricks on how to scare away correctly

Having discovered a wasp nest near a home, they usually try to get rid of it (destroy it) immediately. But this is not always possible, since stinging insects often locate their houses in hard-to-reach places. In this case, there is nothing left to do but resort to various methods of scaring away.

It is necessary to get rid of wasps in compliance with safety measures, otherwise you can provoke insects to attack:

1. Before you start destroying a wasp nest, you need to put on a protective suit made of thick fabric. It will save you from bites, in addition, clothes will muffle the smell of sweat emanating from the body. And wasps and bees are attracted to this kind of amber.
2. To scare away insects from the area, do not wave your arms. This will only anger the wasps, provoking them to attack.
3. Killing one individual will not scare away wasps, but, on the contrary, will attract a whole swarm to the area. Insects that sense danger secrete a specific substance, to the smell of which their relatives react aggressively.

Diagnostics

Knowing what the fear of bees or pathological fear of wasps is called, a person will be able to independently make a diagnosis. However, it is recommended to seek professional help. A consultation with a psychotherapist is necessary first of all to understand the reasons for such fear, which are not always obvious. In addition, the doctor will help to exclude secondary psycho-neurological pathologies that could potentially lead to an aggravation of the nervous system’s reaction to a stimulus, in this case to insects.

To make a diagnosis, the doctor simply needs to talk with the patient, ask questions and analyze the reaction. The whole procedure does not take much time. The consultation will cost approximately 500-1000 rubles, depending on the region of residence. After the first conversation, the doctor will offer several treatment methods to choose from. The cost of further therapy is calculated individually, depending on the severity of the disorder, the number of sessions required and intermediate treatment results. Some patients overcome their fear of bees fairly quickly, while other people may require long-term therapy.