When Internet Video Game Bugs Cause Panic and Real Wasps Attack

I was standing in the middle of the hallway yesterday, hip-deep in a laundry basket full of unmatched tiny socks, staring down at my four-year-old’s sticky, peanut-butter-smudged iPad screen. He had left his browser open, and the search history said something about an infant hornet from that silksong game. My heart completely dropped into my stomach because living out here in rural Texas, my brain immediately went to the worst possible place. I thought a new species of murder wasp had dropped, or maybe some terrifying new TikTok playground challenge involving bugs was making the rounds. I literally dropped the basket, leaving my clean laundry for the dog to lay on, and frantically called my teenage nephew to ask if I needed to lock my kids indoors until the first frost.

My nephew just laughed at me for solid two minutes before explaining that the whole silksong bug situation is entirely digital. It's just some highly anticipated video game about cartoon insects, and the tiny hornet character is just part of the backstory. I hung up the phone feeling equal parts relieved and incredibly stupid. But I'm just gonna be real with you—the panic was justified, because while the internet is out there worrying about fictional animated bugs, I'm out here fighting for my life against actual, winged demons every single time my kids step off the porch.

Why my oldest child is a walking hazard

We need to talk about real wasps for a second, mostly because my oldest son—bless his deeply curious, entirely self-destructive heart—is the reason I've premature gray hair. He is my cautionary tale for literally everything. Last summer, he decided he was some kind of wilderness explorer and found a massive paper wasp nest hanging low in the old oak tree by our driveway. Instead of backing away slowly like a normal person with a functioning survival instinct, he found the longest, dirtiest stick in the yard and gave it a solid whack.

I was watching from the kitchen window with a coffee cup halfway to my mouth, and I swear the whole thing happened in slow motion. The wasps swarmed, he dropped the stick, and the screaming started. It wasn’t a normal cry either; it was that breathless, terrifying shriek that sends a mother into full adrenaline overdrive. Wasps don't lose their stingers like bees do, so they can just keep jabbing your poor kid repeatedly, which is exactly what happened to his little arm before I could scoop him up and drag him into the mudroom.

I tried that natural lemon eucalyptus spray on him once before this happened, and it just made him smell like industrial floor cleaner while completely failing to stop a single bug from coming near him, so we're absolutely not doing that again.

What Dr Davis actually told me to do

I threw him in the car and practically flew down the farm-to-market road to our pediatrician. Dr. Davis looked at me like I was a wild woman, which I was, and he muttered something about how serious allergic reactions only happen in roughly zero point four percent of kids, though I honestly couldn't tell you if that math is right because I was too busy staring at the massive red welts on my son's arm. He explained that a normal reaction is just a lot of localized swelling and a ridiculous amount of pain, but it doesn't mean their throat is closing up unless you see hives popping up somewhere else or they start throwing up.

My grandma always told me to slap a paste of baking soda or wet chewing tobacco on a bug bite to draw out the poison. I love that woman to death, but I'm not smearing tobacco on my toddler. Instead, you just have to drag them away from the swarm as fast as humanly possible, scrub the area with whatever mild soap is sitting by your sink so it doesn't get infected, and hold a cold washcloth on it while they scream in your ear for twenty minutes.

Dr. Davis also warned me that a lot of those over-the-counter anti-itch creams aren't actually safe for really young infants, so you pretty much just have to rely on infant Tylenol and the sheer willpower of a cold compress if your baby gets tagged by one of these things. It's a nightmare, but you get through it.

How to dress your kid so bugs ignore them

After the Great Wasp Incident of last year, I completely changed how I dress my kids for the outdoors. Instagram wants you to think your baby needs to be in bright, floral cottagecore outfits to look cute in the yard. Let me tell you, dressing your kid like a walking daisy is just asking every pollinator and angry stinging insect in a three-mile radius to come investigate. Wasps love bright colors, dark colors, and whatever sweet-smelling baby lotion you just slathered on their skin.

I've completely given up on flashy outdoor clothes. Now, I dress my youngest almost exclusively in the Sleeveless Organic Cotton Baby Bodysuit whenever we're outside on the porch. It's my absolute favorite piece of clothing we own because it comes in these dull, muted earth tones that bugs couldn't care less about. It makes my kid look like a cute little uninteresting potato to the local wildlife.

Besides the color trick, the fabric is just fantastic. It has this tiny bit of elastane in it so it stretches over his giant head without a fight, and it’s breathable enough that he doesn't sweat to death in the Texas heat. It's organic, which usually I roll my eyes at because everything claims to be organic these days, but this one actually feels different—it doesn't have any of those weird chemical dyes that make my baby's eczema flare up. I just throw it in the wash on cold and let it air dry so it doesn't shrink, and it has held up through so many dirt puddles and diaper blowouts I’ve lost count.

My terrible mistake with the aesthetic play space

Speaking of the outdoors, I need to confess something so you don't make the same stupid mistake I did. Last spring, the weather was honestly gorgeous for about five minutes, so I decided to be one of those aesthetic moms. I dragged our Rainbow Play Gym Set out onto the grass so the baby could do tummy time under the big tree while I drank iced tea.

Listen to me. Keep this thing inside. It's a beautiful, Montessori-inspired wooden gym with these adorable little animal toys that hang down, and my baby loves staring at the elephant and grabbing the wooden rings. But the second I set it on the ground outside, the dog came over and sniffed it, knocking it sideways into a mud patch. The beautiful natural wood got totally scuffed up by the gravel on our patio, and I spent twenty minutes frantically wiping dirt off the soft fabric shapes before they stained permanently.

It's a fantastic toy for your living room rug because it seriously blends in with normal adult furniture and doesn't scream "plastic baby invasion," but it's absolutely not meant to survive the rugged outdoors or the moisture of real grass. Leave it in the nursery where it belongs.

If you want to see what else you can keep safely indoors (or dull-colored clothing for the yard), browse through the organic clothing staples collection over at Kianao to save your sanity.

Surviving the indoor teething hours

Because I'm now terrified of wasps and refuse to ruin any more wooden toys in the dirt, we spend a lot of time inside during the buggy summer months. And being trapped inside with three kids is its own special kind of torture, especially when the youngest decides to start cutting a tooth. Teething is just a prolonged period of misery where your sweet baby turns into a feral little gremlin who drools on everything you love and screams for no apparent reason.

When we hit the molar phase, I was desperate and ended up trying the Baby Panda Teether. It’s honestly pretty okay. I’m not going to tell you it magically cured his pain and made him sleep through the night, because that’s a lie, but it definitely bought me twenty minutes of silence while I made dinner. It has these different textures on the bamboo part that he really seemed to like chewing on, and it’s flat enough that his chubby little hands could honestly grip it without dropping it on the floor every five seconds.

The best part about it's that you can just chuck it in the dishwasher. I don't have time to boil things on the stove like a pioneer woman. I just throw it in the top rack, and it comes out clean. Sometimes I stick it in the fridge for ten minutes when his gums look really swollen, and the cold silicone seems to numb the area just enough to stop the crying.

Parenting is basically just a series of panics. You panic over weird video game search terms, you panic over actual wasps, you panic over ruined aesthetic toys, and you panic over teething. But you just figure it out as you go, usually with a lot of coffee and very little grace.

Before you dive into my messy advice below, make sure you check out Kianao’s full lineup of silicone teethers and playtime gear so you're prepared for whatever fresh chaos your kids invent today.

Questions I get asked about bugs and panic

What's the fastest way to get swelling down from a real wasp sting?
From my tragic personal experience, ice is your best friend. Wrap an ice pack in a thin towel so you don't freeze their skin off, and just hold it there. Dr. Davis said cold helps restrict the blood flow or whatever, but all I know is that it numbs the pain enough to stop the screaming. Keep it on for about ten minutes if your kid will let you.

Should I be worried if my kid googled that silksong bug thing?
No, bless your heart, save your anxiety for the real world. It's just a highly anticipated video game about cartoon insects wandering around an underground kingdom. There's nothing weird or dangerous about it, except maybe that they've been waiting for the game to release for like five years and it's making the gamers crazy.

Do those ultrasonic bug repeller bracelets seriously work for babies?
I bought a three-pack of those things off the internet at 2 AM once, and I'm pretty sure they did absolutely nothing except make a tiny buzzing noise that annoyed the dog. A physical barrier like a breathable stroller net is the only thing that genuinely keeps bugs away from your baby without spraying them in chemicals.

How do I know if a bug bite needs a doctor visit?
Dr. Davis told me to look for things happening away from the actual bite. If they get stung on the leg but their face starts swelling, or they get hives on their stomach, or they start wheezing and throwing up, you need to call 911 immediately. If it's just red and puffy right where the bug got them, it's probably just a normal, miserable sting.

Can I wash the organic cotton bodysuit in hot water to kill outdoor germs?
I wouldn't risk it unless you want it to fit a doll. Organic cotton doesn't have all those synthetic plastic fibers holding it together, so hot water will probably shrink it. I just wash ours on cold with normal detergent and line dry it, and it gets perfectly clean without turning into a crop top.