A wolf wasp carries a honey bee it captured in Surrey - Jon Hawkins/TwoPointO Media I have only once in adulthood been stung (on my right wrist) by a wasp. Three years ago. It wouldn’t go away and had finally to be smote to the ground and stamped dead with a certain emphasis. I recalled enough school chemistry – “bee for bicarbonate; vinegar for vespa” – to nip inside and splash my alkaline wound with a generous dose of Sarson’s.