A lot of people have pets such as dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, turtles and some even have snakes and lizards, but how many times have you known or heard of someone that has a pet wasp? Now before I continue I want to stress, that some people are very allergic to the sting of a bee or wasp, in fact some people can die from them, while others just scream for a few moments from the pain. So if you get any ideas from this article, you do so at your own risk, I will not be held responsible for any injuries or other such negative outcomes.

Every since I was a young child I have always feared bees and wasps, in fact I would rather have a rattlesnake or a copperhead in the room with me, then to have a bee or wasp flying around. I think my fear of bees and wasps comes from getting stung by them while growing up. There are two incidents that happened to me as a child, that I still remember in detail to this day. One time years back when I lived on a farm, we had an old shed near the back of our barn, that was used to store tractors in. I had just received a plastic bowl and arrow, archery set as a gift, and was trying to find targets to shoot at.

As I was walking in front of this shed, I noticed that through an open area near the roof, there was a large bee nest of some type, I carefully aimed and fired, and my plastic arrow glided perfectly and landed, right in the middle of the nest. I stood there and watched a bit, as a few bees swarmed around the nest, then suddenly one of the bees, a yellow jacket, flew down and landed on my right arm, before I could react it stung me. I screamed and cried in pain, and danced around like I was a professional break-dancer. Needless to say, after that incident I was more careful in picking out any targets to shoot my remaining arrows at.

Some time later, during a warm summer evening, I was lying in bed, on top of my blanket in my underwear, reading a comic book before going to sleep. Then all of a sudden a wasp started flying around my bedroom, bouncing against the ceiling. I slowly reached over and turned off my ceiling light, as soon as I did, the wasp must of dropped, because it stung me right in my upper thigh, near the family jewels. I screamed in pain, and cried, and my upper thigh swelled up like it had a pancake under the skin.

After getting stung like this a few times, I truly feared bees and wasps as a child, every time I entered one of the spare rooms, or ascended to stairs in our old farmhouse I would look around for any bees that were hiding, waiting to attack me.

As I grew older, my fear of bees and wasps diminished a lot, I still dislike them but I don't scream in terror and run, will, maybe some. Back in the 1990's I was married and my wife and I lived in an apartment in Town. One day I was out in the living room watching TV when I saw a blue wasp flying around, bouncing against the ceiling. My wife jumped up and grabbed the fly swatter and headed towards the wasp. For some strange reason, I told her to stop and I would take care of it. I stood still and held out the index finger on my right hand and told the wasp to land on my finger. No sooner did I say that, when it flew down and landed on the tip of my out-stretched finger. I stood as still as I could, since I figured I would get stung at any moment.

I gently flicked my finger and the wasp flew off and started bouncing against the ceiling again, and then flew over and landed on top of a curtain. I told my wife, I think the little fellow is friendly, lets not kill him, she agreed and hung the fly swatter back up. Needless to say, that blue wasp stayed inside our house for a good week or so, occasionally flying around the room, giving the cats something to look at. One day I stood up and said, " Ok, wasp land on my finger again ", I stretched out my finger and down came the wasp, and it landed on my finger. I walked around the apartment with the wasp sitting there, twitching a little. I decided to call my new pet, ' Waspee ', ' Waspee the Blue Wasp '.

My wife thought it was kinda neat, she always loved insects and animals anyway, and the idea of a pet wasp didn't seem to insane to her. Waspee, flew around the apartment for almost 3 weeks, then one time I was in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet when I heard the sound of a loud slap, and my wife holler, ' Ouch! '. I finished my human duties, and went into the room where she was to see what had happened, she was sitting there rubbing her leg, and she said ' Your pet wasp flew down and stung me! And I killed it'. I looked over on the floor, and sure enough there was Waspee, as dead as could be.

I gently picked him up by sweeping him onto a piece of paper, and dropped him in the trash can. In my mind I think my wife became a little jealous of all the attention I was giving to Waspee, instead of her, but she said she acted out of sudden instinct, and when she got stung, she slapped him. Now I must admit, most bees and wasps will sting anyone if they land on them, and I don't recommend anyone to try keeping a bee or wasp as a pet. This is a true incident that happened years ago, maybe it was just a special wasp, I don't know, but to this day, whenever I see a blue wasp, I still think of Waspee, and I have a desire to hold my index finger out, to see if it will land on it.

There is a website that describes numerous activities and other methods to help eliminate the Winter Blues, this website is called: Winter Activities - and it may be found at this url: http://www.winter-activities.com

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