| Pages:
1
2
3 |
shari
Select Nomad
Posts: 13050
Registered: 3-10-2006
Location: bahia asuncion, baja sur
Member Is Offline
Mood: there is no reality except the one contained within us "Herman Hesse"
|
|
beware of getting stung by a matavenado
A couple days ago, my sister in law got stung by a matavenado which is a very small wasp, kind of reddish brown in color and about an inch and a half
long...almost looks like a big flying ant. These critters kill deer and she was in very rough shape for a couple days but luckily she got to the
hospital right after she was stung where they gave her antivenom and some other injections and had her on IV all day. It was very painful and
dangerous. she thought it was a black widow spider bite as it was very painful and swelled up and was tingly but they found the wasp that stung her.
After only a few minutes she had trouble breathing as she was stung in a vein on her left arm. So if you get stung, make sure you get to a hospital
immediately...don't be macho!
|
|
|
Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
Member Is Offline
Mood: undecided
|
|
Jeez!! That's one bad bug. Hope she makes a full recovery! Wish I knew what they looked like
in order to avoid 'em.
|
|
|
Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
Member Is Offline
Mood: undecided
|
|
Thanks for the info Summanus! Eight legs! It isn't a wasp.
|
|
|
Bajagypsy
Super Nomad
Posts: 1416
Registered: 8-31-2006
Location: BahÃa Asuncion BCS
Member Is Offline
Mood: Living the dream
|
|
Oh my hope all is well with your sister in law, what a horrid thing to have happen.
|
|
|
Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
Member Is Offline
|
|
Shari, could be a wasp, Avispa, a hornet, vitachi but most likely a Tarantula Hawk. Ask some of you Mexican neighbors to make you up some Guaco in a
jar with tequila, mezcal or alcohol (the drinking kind). There's always a jar under our sink and it has saved us pain and trouble on every insect
bite. Some wasps down here are deadly -- on one bite I almost passed out, the next one was a breeze cause by then I had some Guaco.
|
|
|
pargo
Nomad
Posts: 162
Registered: 9-14-2006
Location: Burbank Ca.
Member Is Offline
Mood: Baja Nomas
|
|
Yeah, I know the wasp Shari speaks of. I could be wrong but that wasp is not the Matavenado. It is the black tarantula hawk or something along that
line. It is quite aggressive and produces a loud buzz when in flight which makes it even more terrifying. They,re big and probably have killed a
dear(venado) or two.The Matavenado I know of is not a wasp at all. It is a relative of the scorpion non venemous and quite harmless to humans. Known
here in the U.S. as whipscorpion.
www.desertmuseum.org
|
|
|
Natalie Ann
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2819
Registered: 8-22-2003
Location: Berkeley
Member Is Offline
|
|
matavenado
http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=17467#pid1507...
and also:
http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=3608#pid26802
[Edited on 1-2-2007 by Natalie Ann]
Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.
.....Oscar Wilde
|
|
|
Dave
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6005
Registered: 11-5-2002
Member Is Offline
|
|
Shari, has she ever had the same symptoms from a bee or wasp sting? Sounds like a classic anaphylactic reaction. If so, it can happen again and she
needs to carry an adrenalin syringe or inhaler.
|
|
|
pargo
Nomad
Posts: 162
Registered: 9-14-2006
Location: Burbank Ca.
Member Is Offline
Mood: Baja Nomas
|
|
Yes Summanus, that is the critter that chased me!
[Edited on 1-2-2007 by pargo]
|
|
|
Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
Member Is Offline
Mood: undecided
|
|
Black Tarantula Hawks must be real potent! Some folks are more sensitive than
others to insect bites.
|
|
|
FARASHA
Senior Nomad
Posts: 848
Registered: 6-3-2006
Member Is Offline
|
|
shari - DAVE is absolutly right, I think the quite serious reaction is pointing out a allergic reaction - can be found out by a simple bloodtest.
Better to have antihistamine stuff at hand as well for any case! Beside Adrenaline! Also a Oxygen Kit can be good, to have available.
|
|
|
zforbes
Nomad
Posts: 334
Registered: 4-11-2005
Location: Bahia Asuncion
Member Is Offline
Mood: Living the dream
|
|
Tarantula hawks and their admirers
I observed some wasps several years ago near Calle Elias that elgatoloco identified for me when I asked Nomads for help. Here is the story that
accompanied his identification. (And now I know why I should NOT have been going barefoot on the patio where I saw the wasp...where there are
tarantula hawks, there are also tarantulas...to step on!)
Hemipepsis spp. (from elgatoloco)
When I was a kid there would be years in our campo when the tarantula population would explode. At night we would put a kerosene lamp in the road in
front of the house and come back a bit later and it would be surrounded by 5-6-7-8-10 tarantulas. We would put them on a string and walk them thru
camp the next day to impress (scare) the girly girls. In the next months the population of a BIG shiny black flying bug with bright orange/red wings
would also explode. At the time I had no idea that the two events were connected. The Tarantula Hawks would slowly and what seemed awkwardly fly into
a group of people casually sitting on the porch enjoying the ocean view and everyone would leap out of there chairs and vacate the area. I was
fascinated by these bugs. One particularly bountiful year I collected 10-12 and made a hanging mobile out of them to compete in the 'driftwood' mobile
contest my mother had organized for the kids in the campo. My mom was the unofficial contest director, she had a sand castle building contest every
summer and a seashell decorating contest and a beach glass mosaic contest and kite flying contest and more, I think I got DQ'd from the contest
because I did not use driftwood but I freaked out a few of the girlie girls and I'm sure one was impressed enough that five years later she was
somewhat eager to go with me on that moonless night to the bluff outside camp to watch the submarine races and the next thing you know.........oops I
digress.
So the deal with the Tarantula Hawk is that it has one of the most interesting methods of reproducing. When it is ready to lay its eggs it finds a
tarantula and stings it, paralyzing it, drags it into its burrow and lays the eggs, the larvae hatch and eat the tarantula while it's alive! COOL!
The deal is no Tarantulas, no Tarantula Hawks. So next time you come across a tarantula in Baja let it go on its way so it may soon become a nice meal
for some larvae!
You can read all about the Tarantula Hawk and see photos by going to google and typing in Tarantula Wasp
Zoe, was this the insect you saw when you attended that wedding??
Have Fun!
|
|
|
Hook
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9011
Registered: 3-13-2004
Location: Sonora
Member Is Offline
Mood: Inquisitive
|
|
That form of reproduction complete with the first meal is rather common in many types of wasps. One of the most amazing evolutionary adaptation there
is, IMO.
Ranging over the desert southwest for many years (BTW, they also occur in coastal scrubland and savannah areas of SoCal), I have seen many a tarantula
hawk as I was told they were called. But we never really believed they attacked tarantulas UNTIL one day when we were driving around just outside of
Death Valley and came across a T-hawk dragging a tarantula along on the ground at a fairly good clip, really. We never doubted the name after that.
Easily the scariest flying insect in these parts, including those mondo moths that look like small mice with wings. Always saw lots of those in the
summer at Jack Murphy in the lights.
These things are in a class by themselves.
[Edited on 1-3-2007 by Hook]
|
|
|
Halboo
Nomad
Posts: 193
Registered: 2-19-2006
Location: 33°26\'00.15\"N 117°37\'09.84W
Member Is Offline
Mood: Bohemian
|
|
Several years ago I read an article in Outside magazine written by some crazy scientist type who had allowed himself to be bitten or stung by just
about all the scary/toxic bugs and snakes of North America.
His opinion was the pain of the sting from a Tarantula Hawk was number two on the list right behind the bite of a rattlesnake. 
Now THAT'S gotta hurt.
|
|
|
bajabum
Nomad
Posts: 144
Registered: 9-29-2003
Location: San Diego, Ca
Member Is Offline
|
|
Bad @ss Bugs...
I see them all over the place in Northern and middle baja buzzing around looking for whatever (tarantulas I guess). I have even seen them in San
Diego. Several years ago I was stung on the tip of my index finger by one and I gotta tell ya... This thing put me out of commision in seconds and the
pain kept me out of commision and rockin back and forth on the floor for hours holding my finger. The tip of my finger swelled up to about triple its
regular size and turned blue, looked like a cartoon finger. I have stiched myself up a few times, had my day with fire coral, been stung by sting rays
and even biten by a black widow spider...nothing compared to that demon!
Work is just something I do to keep me buzy between baja trips!
|
|
|
FARASHA
Senior Nomad
Posts: 848
Registered: 6-3-2006
Member Is Offline
|
|
bajabum - you are one Lucky Guy.  gosh - wouldn't want to walk in your
shoes!
|
|
|
Frank
Senior Nomad
Posts: 861
Registered: 6-5-2005
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
Mood: Is it time to leave yet?
|
|
My son and I fought this one all day in the heat of the East Cape @ Verdugos. Only the cheering from the bar area kept us going.......
He now lives in a foodsaver bag on the wall of memories, Baja section.
|
|
|
bajabum
Nomad
Posts: 144
Registered: 9-29-2003
Location: San Diego, Ca
Member Is Offline
|
|
At least I was able to kill the little bugger before it drug me off to its nest to feed to its young!
Work is just something I do to keep me buzy between baja trips!
|
|
|
Capt. George
Super Nomad
Posts: 2129
Registered: 8-21-2003
Member Is Offline
|
|
Deborah got hit with a Black Widow (male) Black Widower?
Bad news! Three days pain, with pain meds. pain traveled, foot, hand, arm, leg etc. etc. not nice.
watch out for those buggers.
\"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men\" Plato
|
|
|
zforbes
Nomad
Posts: 334
Registered: 4-11-2005
Location: Bahia Asuncion
Member Is Offline
Mood: Living the dream
|
|
Thanks to everyone who has given information. This is one of the best things about Nomads. There is so much practical advice and in depth knowledge
available and freely offered. The critters are fascinating, and so are Nomads!
|
|
|
| Pages:
1
2
3 |
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
