To fall straight into the house: you can die from one wasp sting, but that chance is very small. You are probably very allergic or have other underlying diseases, explains allergist Hanneke Oude Elberink. She specializes in wasp allergies and has a special bee and wasp clinic at the UMCG in Groningen.
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It is not known exactly how many wasps director Scheepmaker put into it. “That in there the article “attack” suggests that it is not a single wasp sting and if someone is allergic, it makes quite a difference whether he is stung by one or 50 wasps, “says Oude Elberink.
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Every year between five and ten people in the Netherlands die from the effects of a wasp sting. Those people do not necessarily all have to be allergic, according to Oude Elberink. “The venom of a wasp is very toxic and dangerous because it is injected directly into the body through your skin.”
Toxic proteins
“The wasp’s poisonous bag contains a lot of toxic proteins. These work in all kinds of places in the body, for example in your kidneys and liver, but the poison can also cause neurological complaints.” according to Oude Elberink, such toxic reactions do not arise from one but at least a hundred stitches. Then it often takes several days before someone dies. Sometimes dialysis can save a person’s life.
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About 1 in 100 people worldwide are allergic to wasps. Of course, if you’ve never been stung, you also don’t know if you’re allergic, but if you’ve been stung by a wasp once, you can get tested.
Am I allergic?
“You may have had allergic complaints before after a stitch and this does not include significant swelling around the site of the stitch itself,” says Oude Elberink. A stuffed hand when you are stuck there does not count. “You are probably allergic if, for example, you get hives all over your body, vomit, or go into shock.”
It does not matter for a test how long it has been since you had an allergic reaction. “Even if the stitch was 20 years ago, we can still test you for an allergy.” If you have been stabbed before and have never had allergies, testing is not necessary.
Turns out you have an allergy? Then there are two options: a treatment in which the wasp venom is injected with a trick to help your immune system, or an epipen. You have to carry it with you in case you get stung.
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Is there already a wasp infestation?
It may seem that there were a lot of wasps already, but there is no pest yet. “Wasps are more present every year in August than in the months before,” says Wageningen professor of entomology Marcel Dicke. According to him, there were no more wasps this year than in other years.
Then why are there always more wasps in August? That has to do with the life course of wasps. “Wasps are social insects that live in a nest in which sterile workers take care of the larva. Wasps are animals that catch and feed other insects to their offspring. As a reward, the larvae produce a sugary secretion that supplies energy to the adult wasps (workers). “
The larvae are fully grown around the end of July, beginning of August. “Then the workers no longer have to feed the larvae and they look elsewhere for sugar sources as an energy source. That is why we now see more wasps than a month ago, because with the nice weather there are many sugary treats in people.”
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