Should you wasp spray instead of bear spray?

I recently heard a self-defense teacher tell her students that they should keep a can of wasp spray by their bed if they couldn’t afford bear spray and they could also carry a can of wasp spray with them to help with self-defense.

But we’d like to discourage you from doing this for 2 very important reasons.

The active ingredient in most sprays are derived from plants and intended to penetrate the nervous systems of insects and kill them. Wasp sprays have not been formulated to work as self-defense on humans has not been tested and it could make a human sick, but may not stop a person who is trying to attack you. The main ingredient in wasp spray is pyrethrin and its toxic, it may make your assailant sick, but it won’t stop them from attacking you.

And using wasp spray on a bear is going to have the same reaction. It might make the bear more angry, but it isn’t going to stop him.
The other reason is that if you read on the can of wasp spray, you will see that it is illegal in most states to use wasp spray for self-defense. It is also a federal crime as well, “It is a violation of federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling.”

The biggest train of thought was that wasp spray could spray and go shoot farther than bear spray, but that isn’t true either. Read the package insert on your bear spray or visit our website and you will see that UDAP Bear Spray is very effective and can spray up to 35 feet. So no more wasp spray!