According to Ecological Entomology, wasps are universally disliked by people. The universal dislike of wasps is primarily because wasps can sting people, and many of us are allergic to them.
The venom released from wasps can be deadly. Just one sting from a wasp while you sleep can be enough to kill someone, which increases the dislike people have for them.
For these reasons, most people do whatever they can to avoid getting near wasps. However, some people aren’t bothered by wasps and could sleep with a wasp in their bedroom.
No matter which category you fall into, sleeping with a wasp in your room isn’t recommended.
Why is There a Wasp in My Room at Night?
Wasps are usually more active during the day than at night. During the night, you may still see the occasional wasp flying around, but it’s usually because they’re tending to their nests or foraging for food.
According to Entomology – Insect Biology and Management, wasps are attracted to lights, which is why you might find a wasp hovering around your porch light at night or making its way inside your home.
Wasps aren’t on a mission to find you and sting you when they enter your bedroom, even though that may be how it seems when you discover they’ve entered your personal space. They’re simply following the light to wherever it leads them.
How Did a Wasp Get into My Room?
Even if all your windows and doors are shut and secure, wasps can still find their way inside. Wasps will come in through any opening they can find. Due to their small size, they can get in just about anywhere.
A common way wasps will get into your home is through vents. You may not even realize how many vents are in your home. They’re often in areas such as:
- Bathrooms
- Kitchens
- Chimneys
- Basements
- Attics
Any gaps around your windows or windowsills and holes and cracks in the walls are all possible entry points for wasps.
No matter where the wasp entered your home, once it’s in, it has free reign over your entire house. Eventually, it will make its way into your bedroom.
You may not notice it’s there until you’ve settled into bed and can hear it buzzing around the room.
How Long Will A Wasp Stay in My Room?
Wasps can live in your room for up to a week, sometimes longer, depending on if they can find a food source. You can be sure the wasp will be your roommate for a few days, at the very least.
How long a wasp can live indoors depends mostly on the kind of wasp, if there’s a viable food source, and whether it can build a nest in your home.
To be safe, if you see a wasp in your room, you might want to check around your bedroom and other rooms for wasps or a nest.
Wasps build nests inside walls, under beds, and in attics and garages. They also build nests in the eaves of homes, roof overhangs, trees, playground equipment, and even barbeque grills.
Is It Safe to Sleep with A Wasp in The Room?
The wasp isn’t likely to sting you unless it feels threatened. If you’re sleeping, the chances are that it’ll just fly around the room all night.
However, there’s the chance that the wasp could land on your face, body, or bed while you’re sleeping. If you roll over on it, get it twisted in the sheets, or accidentally swat it in your sleep, it’ll sting you.
If you know you’re not allergic to wasps, you may feel brave enough to let it stay in the room while you sleep and risk being stung.
If you’re allergic to wasps or don’t know if you’re allergic, sleeping in the room with it buzzing around wouldn’t be the best decision.
According to the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, & Psychiatry, allergic reactions to wasp stings are usually minor and start within minutes to hours in 76-96% of people stung. However, there are many reports of delayed reactions after being stung.
If you decide to sleep with a wasp in your bedroom and risk getting stung, especially if you know you’re allergic, you’re taking an unnecessary risk.
How Dangerous Are Wasp Stings?
Allergic reactions aren’t the only complication that can come from getting stung by a wasp. Other potential health problems include:
Ischemic Stroke
According to The Journal of Emergency Medicine, a 44-year-old man was stung by a wasp and developed a case of right middle cerebral artery (MCA) territory ischemic stroke. He had partial weakness on the left side of his body and face and slurred speech.
Neurological problems such as an ischemic stroke are rare after a wasp sting, but they’re possible.
Acute Kidney Injury
Pediatric Nephrology stated that a 9-year-old boy was stung multiple times by a wasp and developed acute kidney injury (AKI), which evolved into renal failure. After several sessions of hemodialysis, his renal function returned to normal.
The boy didn’t immediately react to the wasp stings, and the AKI didn’t onset until days later. This type of health complication is unusual but life-threatening.
Paralysis
The Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, & Psychiatry stated that an 18-year-old male developed impaired consciousness and quadriplegia from a wasp sting he’d received on his cheek 16 days earlier.
Over time his condition improved, but he didn’t fully recover. Three months later, he was discharged from the hospital with residual paraplegia and urinary and fecal incontinence.
Will a Wasp Sting You for No Reason?
Normally, wasps won’t sting you for no reason. Have you ever had a wasp fly very close to you, circle around you a few times, maybe even land on you and fly away?
That wasp had every chance to sting you, but it didn’t. It didn’t sting you because it didn’t feel threatened by you. Now, if you’d walked up on it instead of allowing it to come to you, it may have stung you.
Social wasps will sting you if you come too close to them or their nest. These wasps are very protective over their nests and their colony.
When they sting, they send out a scent that alerts other wasps. When the other wasps smell that scent, they’ll follow it, which is how you could get attacked by a swarm of wasps.
Solitary wasps are less aggressive and will usually only sting you if you swat at them or otherwise make them feel unsafe.
Other Reasons Wasps Sting You
Knowing why a wasp might sting you may help you avoid being stung. If nothing else, you can eliminate the things that may attract wasps to you and your home.
End of Summer
Wasps stings happen the most near the end of summer. At this point, wasps are preparing for the winter.
The queen wasp has probably already moved on to find a place to hibernate for the winter. The wasps in their nest start to die, and no more worker wasps are being produced.
This can throw the remaining wasps in a loop and make them panic because their food source is diminishing, and there aren’t enough worker wasps to replenish it.
This sends them on a frantic search for other food sources. If you get in their way, you may get stung.
Scents
Wasps have strong senses of smell. They’re often attracted to sweet, flowery smells but could also be drawn to the scents of cooking or cooked food.
If your doors or windows are open, wasps could invite themselves to eat with you. You may also find wasps near your garbage cans.
Wasps may be drawn to the scent of perfume, soap, or lotion.
Threatening Sounds or Movements
Do you remember being told to stand completely still when a wasp is buzzing in circles around you? That’s because sudden movements and sounds can make a wasp feel threatened enough to sting you.
What To Do With A Wasp in Your Room
You see a wasp flying around your bedroom, and you have no idea where it came from, but you want it gone so that you can sleep. So, how do you get it out of your room?
Your first thought will probably be to try to kill it, but there’s a problem.
You’re in an enclosed space, and if you try to hit it with something and miss, it’ll get mad and come after you with its stinger blazing.
If you try to kill it with an insect spray, you’ll be harmed by the fumes. So, only use wasp spray as a last resort, as you shouldn’t leave your windows open while sleeping.
One thing you can try to get rid of the wasp is to blow it out of the room using a fan, a hair dryer, or some other fast-moving air. Wasps can’t fly easily in strong winds, so they’ll want to get away.
Because winds are a natural force, wasps aren’t threatened by them. So, blowing them out of the room is the best chance you have of getting rid of wasps without getting stung.
