Bee/Wasp/Hornet Stings

[jusbnme]

What's up my Sly Bros?  The "Spider" thread got me thinking about how many times I've been stung by bees and wasps.  Quite a bit.  But my wife has never been stung in her life.  She's scared to death too because she doesn't know if she's allergic.  Who else has been stung and who hasn't?  Plus do you know if you are allergic to stings or not? 

[JDog]

Good topic Lance.

I am severely allergic to bee stings and have had a few trips to the hospital over the years from them. Fingers crossed I havent been stung in about 8 years.

[PianoMan]

I'm allergic to bee stings as well, and have an epi pen in case I do get stung.  I found out I was allergic after getting stung in the back of the neck.  I swelled up fast and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. 

[don]

I am terrified of bees and wasps but fortunately I've never been stung in all my 51 years.When they do come near me I stay perfectly still but I'm scared.I'm not really too much of the outdoor type so I don't get too much exposure. My cousin once got stung by a wasp and he said it felt like scissors going into his chest.Horrible. Personally I'd like to wipe those pests off the face of the earth.The scary thing is that I don't know if I'm allergic or not.

[buddha]

I had never been stung until I was 38 years old. Got stung in the AC area in the bend of the right elbow. Had minor swelling in my right hand. My wife is afraid that I'm anaphylactic but in the number of times I've been stung it has never affected my breathing/swallowing and swelling has always been minor.
The thing that has saved me more than a few times in the last couple of years has been learning how to pluck them out of the air with chopsticks before they can land on me. Then I bite their little heads off and release them. They fly around in circles and crash into things. Kinda fun to watch. When they begin to bore me I squash their guts out.

[TheSlyBear]

Ah, you haven't lived until you are riding along on your motorcycle in heavy traffic and a yellow jacket flies into your helmet and stings you on the ear.

What fun!

[Paul]

I've gotten quite a few bee stings over the years and had absolutely no reaction.  Little ice on it and all was good.    Once while trimming the hedges though I cut through a hornets nest with the electric hedge trimmers and those buggers chased me, stinging me all the way to the house.   We have a hornet in the U.P. called the bald faced hornet, big as a bumble bee with a white head.  One of those gets you in the head or face it will knock a grown man out.

[nomad]

I've been stung a few times over the years and no major reaction just some minor swelling at times. We used to play with them when I was a kid, looking back its a wonder that I haven't been stung much more.

[Mikekoz13]

I've been stung hundreds of times in my life. Never bothered me. Bees don't bother me but the wife and kids are terrified of them.

Here's a story for you:

Last Summer i noticed a rock about the size of a golf ball covered in bees in our front flower garden about 2 feet from the front porch. So I got a can of spray and sprayed them.killed them immediately and I picked the rock up to throw into the woods.... and I notoced a little tunnel with wasps going in and out.

So I told the wife to put the kids in the house and i went and got a shovel. I dug the shovel about 8 inchees into the ground just beyond the tunnel entrance and quickly flipped the shovel full of dirt over. Well there was an underground hive about a foot across and 18 inches deep. Hundreds of bees came flying out as I yelled "Run to the wife and I headed for the garage. never got stung.... went and bought six cans of spray and empired it into the nest. Killed hundreds and hundreds of wasps.

By chance I had a bee guy coming the next morning to spray behind the siding in one corner of my house. I saw dozens and dozens of wasps going in and out behind the siding but I didn't have the tools I needed to get spray back in there. So he comes and sprays behind the siding and my wife mentions the in ground nest from the night before. Well he asked to see it and the first thing he said was Holy sh*t that's one of the biggest ones I've ever seen. He also told her there is always a second chamber. he found it and sprayed it. He told her that he had professional guys that worked for him that would have been leery messing with that nest. He told her" You're husband has balls...... ask him if he'll work for me on weekends... I'll pay him well".

All in days work here on the mountain.......

[Marz]

I have been stung a bunch, bees and wasps. Thank god I am not allergic.

One day driving home on a summer day, window down, sleeveless shirt on, arm out the window.. la la la.. then I felt a little sting on my back. When I  went to scratch it and there was a wasp in my shirt, stung me 2 more times before I killed it.

Once at an A's game I was just sitting there watching the game and I got stung right below my hat and right above the ear, that one hurt.

They seem to always want to hover around me and stuff... pisses me off.

[Marz]

So I told the wife to put the kids in the house and i went and got a shovel. I dug the shovel about 8 inchees into the ground just beyond the tunnel entrance and quickly flipped the shovel full of dirt over. Well there was an underground hive about a foot across and 18 inches deep. Hundreds of bees came flying out as I yelled "Run to the wife and I headed for the garage. never got stung.... went and bought six cans of spray and empired it into the nest. Killed hundreds and hundreds of wasps.

I had one of those once, I sprayed the hell out of it and ran like a little girl.

You do have balls those things were pissed when I started spraying. By my reaction you would think they were recluse spiders or something...

[tomgallagher]

Recluse spiders...wow, you don't want to get bitten by one of those.

[JDog]

HAHA Damn Mike, I bet word got around town within the wasp community in your town not to start a nest on your property!!

[don]

One time my aunt's sister in law pulled a dress in from the clothesline and put it right on. She then felt something pinchy right above her hip and she said,"What the hell is there a pin in this dress" When she took the dress off she found a dead smashed yellow jacket inside.It was inside her dress when it stung her.She should have shaken it as soon as she pulled it in.The only reply she gave when she realized what happened was,"Sonofabitch"LOL. Also her elderly aunt was bitten by a wasp that got into her bedroom.She was bitten on the finger and the arm.She was so upset that she could,nt sleep all night. God,I hate those things.

[BaldRob]

I was stung quite a bit as a kid... stepped on one of those ground nests in the UP and had about 15 stings on me.

As an adult, I've only been stung a few times.  Minor swelling in the area but hurts and itches like hell for a few days!