Have a Wasp Sting Home Remedy Ready This Summer

Homemade Vinegar and Other Kitchen Remedies For Wasp Stings

Have a Wasp Sting Home Remedy Ready This Summer

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When you spend most of your time outdoors, whether you’re in the garden or in the woods, you’ll want to have a wasp sting home remedy handy. Wasps include yellowjackets and hornets. While only the female wasps have stingers, they can sting multiple times, unlike bees that usually die after stinging a human. True story: bee stingers are meant for stinging bees, not humans! So a bee can sting another bee multiple times and not lose its stinger. But a bee that stings a human probably has more to worry about than the human who gets stung.

Still, getting stung by a wasp is no picnic, and the swelling and pain caused by a wasp sting can be uncomfortable at best, downright agonizing at worst. Home remedies for bug bites vary depending on the bug doing the biting, and knowing a good wasp sting home remedy can help ease the pain and discomfort and get you back outside where you want to be when the sun is shining and the breezes are blowing.

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Have a Wasp Sting Home Remedy at the Ready

Vinegar: Vinegar has a long list of healing properties. It works for all sorts of stomach upsets and gastric maladies, it’s a great remedy for sore throats, it can be used in fire cider as a remedy for colds and flu, and some research indicates it may even help regulate blood sugar levels. If you know how to make vinegar, homemade vinegars are even better for using as home remedies.

As a wasp sting home remedy, vinegar can be used as a way to neutralize a wasp sting. Soak a large cotton ball in vinegar and then soak the wasp sting in vinegar for 15 minutes to help relieve pain and inflammation from the venom.

Turmeric paste: Turmeric powder has just as many uses for home remedies and belongs in everyone’s home apothecary. In addition to its anti-cancer, antibacterial, warming, and drying properties, turmeric is also a great anti-inflammatory substance. We all know how turmeric tea can help jump-start your body’s immune system, heal a sore throat, and that turmeric powder can even help reduce inflammation from bruising or external injuries. As a home remedy for wasp stings, it’s these anti-inflammatory properties that make it so effective.

To use turmeric as a wasp sting home remedy, mix a tablespoon of turmeric powder with just enough warm (not hot) water to make a thick paste. Spread the paste on a clean piece of cheesecloth or sterile bandage material and apply it to the wasp sting for at least 15 minutes, or until the pain and swelling have gone down. You can repeat this as many times as needed until the pain and discomfort has subsided.

Copper pennies: Strange, but true! Holding a cool copper penny against a small wasp sting can help reduce the inflammation and pain. (Make sure it’s one of the old genuine copper pennies and not a new penny which is actually a combination of copper, zinc, and other metals.) We usually keep a couple of copper pennies in the cool pack when we’re out hiking or canoeing, and in a pinch, you can put a copper penny in the freezer for 5 minutes before applying it as a wasp sting home remedy.

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Basil leaves: If you’re growing basil in your herb garden as a tasty addition to tomato soup and sauces, you’ll be happy to know that this fresh herb also has many healing properties. Fresh basil is known to herbalists as a cooling, anti-inflammatory plant that has many of the same uses as medical marijuana, but thankfully is legal to grow in your backyard. Fresh basil leaves are anti-bacterial and can be used to disinfect skin surfaces if a wasp sting has caused irritation to the skin. Fresh basil also contains a healthy amount of antioxidants that can help protect against skin problems and even some types of cancer.

To use basil as a wasp sting remedy, pick a few whole fresh basil leaves from your herb garden and apply them one at a time to the site of the sting for at least 15 minutes. You can reapply fresh leaves every 15 minutes until the pain, redness, and swelling of the wasp sting have been relieved.

Sliced raw vegetables: If you have lots of fresh, raw vegetables from your garden handy when you need a wasp sting remedy, you can use slices of fresh raw garlic, potato, and cucumber to relieve the pain and swelling from a wasp sting.

Raw white potatoes are slightly astringent (drying) and cooling on the skin, and will help suck out any venom that may have been injected from a wasp sting. Cucumbers, as you may know, are great for moisturizing eyes and chapped lips, and their cooling effect will also help reduce pain and inflammation from a wasp sting. Garlic is drying and slightly warming, and a small slice of fresh garlic can help dry up a messy wasp sting.

You might not have any raw vegetables handy while you’re out hiking or in a canoe, but if you’re working around the house and garden and happen to be the unfortunate recipient of a wasp sting, these home remedies can help you relieve the pain and swelling quickly. Remember that if you or someone you know is allergic to hornets, wasps or yellow jackets, having an Epi Pen nearby is a good idea in case of an allergic reaction from a wasp sting.

Do you have a favorite wasp sting home remedy that you rely on for fast relief? Leave a comment here and share it with us!

10 thoughts on “Have a Wasp Sting Home Remedy Ready This Summer”
  1. tobacco made into a paste with water can also take sting out of wasp bites. I have used this several times in past years.

    1. When I was about 8 years old I was standing in a red ant hill. When they started stinging I started dancing and screaming. Mom came to my rescue. She mixed some of dads Garrett snuff into a paste and applied it to every part of my body that had a sting. It really helped with the pain.

  2. Chew up a plantain leaf and apply it to the sting. Make sure it hasn’t been sprayed with anything toxic!

  3. My Mom read a remedy in Readers Digest years ago. Take three tree leaves (best if one is an oak leaf) and crush them in your hand and add a few drops of water then hold it on the insect sting for about 20 minutes. Repeat if needed. The oak leaf has tannin in it which draws like a poltice. My Dad used this for his honey bee stings.

  4. I’ve used roll on deodorant (any brand) for any bites and poisoin ivy itches for years now. Last month I was stung by a wasp and grabbed the rollon deodorant. As soon as it touched my skin the sting quit hurting. I put the rollon deodorant on again after washing my hands. A couple days later still no pain but it started itching and the rollon was applied again as needed. I’m 73 years and stightly alergic to aunts and bee stings. This has helped over the past 13 years.

      1. LOL must learn to reread my post before hitting send. At this stage of life the only aunts are the bug ants. As the human ones have all passed away.
        Appreciate the smile you gave me.

  5. I use ammonia to quench a sting.
    When I was a kid and in the fields picking peas, an emergency remedy was to pee on the sting. Pee has ammonia in it.

  6. I can confirm what Jeanette Schandelmeier said about using a plantain leaf. Plantain (Plantago major) is a common weed found all over North America so Google the words “plantain major” so you can easily identify it. I’ve done like Jeanette and quickly chewed a leaf and put it on a sting. It’s amazing how quickly the pain goes and if done right away, there’s not even redness or swelling. (This is NOT effective though if you’re allergic to bees or wasps.)

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