the pan trap effect
This article about Abington United's new uniforms (team link) is interesting. Apparently one of their strikers, Anaclet Odhiambo, was stung by a wasp (a vespid, perhaps?) after the offending insect trapped herself under his new, bright yellow home jersey. The striker's hypothesis is that the wasp was attracted to the color of his shirt: "It's a little bit too yellow." (emphasis mine)
There's a reasonably long history of papers (here's my lazy Google Scholar search), student projects, and even current research (I'm looking at you, USDA SEL Hymenoptera team) aimed at exploring the effectiveness of various yellows (and other colors) at attracting Hymenoptera. I've even mentioned the sheer awesomeness of yellow pan trapping for my tiny hymenopteran taxa here before. Given my experience, I have to respectfully disagree with the statement that "...there is no evidence that wasps would be attracted to that." - unless "wasps" in this case refers to Vespidae, which I don't seem to collect them very often in my traps (and which are perfectly capable of getting under your shirt by accident and stinging you).
So Odhiambo's hypothesis actually isn't too wacky after all. My educated guess about what really happened, though, is more in line with this other quote: "...it was just the time of year when wasps are flying around." I.e., it was an accident, and there is no need to get the insecticide out!
