Bee Sting? Here's What To Do.

This weekend I went into the side door of my horse trailer for a lead line that I had stored.

I didn't notice the big grey ball right beside the door.  Then realized I was getting stung!!!  I ran for the back door and quickly realized I would get stung a LOT more times while I fiddled with getting it unlatched.  So I quickly turned and ran past the hive again to get out the front door.

 

They got me three times: on the wrist, hand, and upper arm.  You could see right where the stinger went in and it was swelling fast.  

The first thing to do (after getting away from the bees - and losing your glasses in the process while you run madly like a wild woman!) is to look for broadleaf plantain.

This plant is magical.

"Plantains have wide-ranging antimicrobial properties besides being anti-inflammatory and analgesic. It can not only soothe insect bites and superficial wounds but prevent infections and accelerate healing. An active biochemical aucubin is mainly responsible for the antimicrobial action of the herb. Another substance allantoin in the herb helps with skin tissue regeneration."
 Source: https://www.naturallivingideas.com/plantain-benefits-uses/

If you look around any untreated lawn you'll find plantain.

Pick a couple of leaves and rub them around in your hands until they're kind of mushy (I've heard people will chew them and spit out the mush to use - I haven't done that.  Blecch.).  I rub them around until they look kind of wet.

Lie the leaves flat over the stung area like a poultice.

Leave them on for ten minutes or so.

I iced the area for five or ten minutes after I removed the plantain and by the end of the day there was a tiny mark where the stingers had gone in with no swelling at all - and by the next day, there was no sign of being stung!

I've done this with honey bee stings and other insect bites with the same excellent results.

If you're a person who likes to work and play outside, the broadleaf plantain is a very good plant to get to know!

Bees and Berries and Mow and.....

What do you do when you realize it's been a looooong time since you last blogged?  You just start blogging again!

So much to catch up on and it won't happen today because here is my "tentative" plan for the day....

bees

berries

mow

house

ride

So I hope to take a look at the bees, pick the bursting crop of blueberries and raspberries, mow some of the yard, pick up and vacuum the house, and brush and ride my horses.  Not much.  I know that it's not really realistic that it will all get done either.

The blueberry bushes are loaded! 

This is my "fight the Japanese beetles" plan.  Every year the beetles show up just about the time the berries are getting ripe and decimate my crop.  This year a put the sheerest row covers I could find over the plants and had no beetle destroyed berries.

(The dark shape is my labrador retriever, Daisy.  She finds a little shade by the row covers.  She has to be close to me but the old girl is really suffering from the heat)

I wait until the berries are bursting with sweetness and sometimes there are berries that get mushy.  Those go into a bucket for the chickens... or they're pitched over my shoulder into the turkey pen as the turkeys gobble at me and wait for these little treats to fall from the sky.

Time to get to it!