How many times have you been stung?

[exoticimports]

My single event record is 44 for yellow jackets and 18 for bald-faced hornet, but I suspect the baldfaced was higher because I couldn't accurately count the stings-on-stings.

The first bug I actually caught at about four years old was a bumble bee. He was trapped in the garage, so I (with great trepedition) captured him in a jar without a sting.

I remember being about 4 or 5, my mother and grandmother took me to a side room in the summer cottage to put on a dress shirt. There was a black mud dauber buzzing against the window trying to gain freedom, and I was afraid. They told me to pay no mind to it, put my shirt on. It was white shirt with blue cross hatching. I gave in to whatever grievance I had, and was donning the shirt, when the dauber stung me. Somehow it got from the window to my shirt. That was probably my first righteous anti-establishment protest "I told you so."

About that same age my father caught for me a cicada. He wanted me to take it, but my mother threw a fit claiming it would sting me. With great fear I tried to take it from my father's hand, but alas it escaped my fearful grasp and flew away. I was devastated. My father and uncle, using binoculars (ahem), searched for another to satisfy my sad pleading. Ever after I questioned my mother's ability for logic and reason, often with good cause, but sometimes with ill effect.

As a youth chasing all sorts of bugs it became expeditious to simply reach in the net, draw the stinging wasp out, and throw it in the killing container. I'd become accustomed to stings in fingers and hand.

While in highschool (~16 YO) I volunteered to lead a hike of younger kids on a two hour bug finding expedition. As I boarded the bus a school administrator handed me a box with syringes meant for a child who had previously experienced a reaction. Looking back on this now I am near in shock- sure, give the 16 YO kid a couple syringes in case a 10 YO goes into Anaphylactic shock. Seriously? Of course today it's gone so far nutcase that they'd give me anti-peanut pills.

In Ecuador they seasoned us with a story of a powerful young Adonis-like German entomologist who'd been stung by a bullet ant and fell out of a tree, then spent two days in bed. Truly a scary story. After two stings I understood the agony, but it did not decommission me as the purported Adonis.

In the Solomons I was one with the stinging ants. They would sting me in bed at night (in the hotel!). Those little pissants would be on my toothbrush and sting my lips. In the bush they'd wait until my sweat encapsulated many, then use some phermone to signal an attack. Inevitably, and inexplicitly, I always got stung in the left eye, not the right. Where they stung often my body developed great boils, which lasted for years. Then there were the larger red ants, which also stung, but they were less common; while rendering greater discomfort, they would offer only a half dozen stings rather than the thirty or forty of the pissants.

It amazes me when people claim to have never suffered a sting. I think- how many? Three thousand? Four thousand? I have no idea. It would be less had we not tried to use firecrackers to blow up hornet nests.

While that was to be the end of my story, it dredged up other memories.

As a teen tasked with mowing the cottage lawn I stumbled across a ground nest of yellow jackets. Hmmmm... Let me tell you, a half gallon of gasoline from the outboard motor tank in a ground hole is quite impressive, throwing up a cloud of dirt when lit.

Revisiting the bald face hornets. I was probably mid-thirties at the time and had volunteered to lead a bug-search hike in a local park. Dressed impressively with combat boots and field vest, I explained to the sizeable crowd that in our area we have no venomous snakes, spiders, or anything else, and in fact one would be hard pressed to be killed by nature. That said, we ventured into a field, and within two minutes I walked straight into the second ever ground level bald faced hornet nest. They kicked my rear. I ran off screaming "run run get away" while stripping off my vest and swatting at my body. 18 stings later we finished the hike, though the soccer moms and baseball dads were less than confident in my trust of nature.

A friend had a yellow jacket nest inside the house siding. I suggested a professional exterminator. He had another idea (he's a brilliant engineer.) Exploiting my knowledge of wasp behavior, he put a bug zapper a few feet from the nest and plugged it in just before dusk. I wish he'd put the video on YouTube, because (to me) it's so farging hilarious I laughed until I had tears in my eyes. Those buggers just kept coming- it was a mini Blitzkrieg. He had to stop and dump the zapper once to clear the bodies. Buzz! Zapp! Zapp! Blast! The video is non-stop Vespa smoking. Revenge indeed.

So yeah. Stings in my world are a part of day-to-day life. I have to stop when others remark about getting stung as if it's an occasion or milestone. To me, it's just part of daily events, like cleaning the bathroom. Oh scheisse, the bathroom cleaning is overdue. I gotta go.

Chuck

[Paul K]

I've been stung many times ( not so many as Chuck though ) by different type of wasps and ants, but not as painful as once in the forest of Thailand in Punjen Hideaway Resort. I stepped onto the ants pathway without noticing their presence wearing just a flip flops. In less then a second I started to feel across my foot the pain so hot as I would actually step into a molten lava. The venom made so hot and deep pain.
The ants were of a black colour and about 15mm long.
After dealing with my pain, I went back to collect the specimen so I would know what species of ants they were, but to my disappointment they were all gone!

Paul

[Deleted]

I've lost count of how many times I've been stung by various bees and wasps but one really stands out in my mind as the absolute worse one in my life. When I was a kid I was running around barefoot and stepped on a velvet ant "cow killer" Dasymutilla occidentalis. My foot swelled up so bad I had to use crutches for a week and the top would shake like jello when I moved it. I stepped on a 16 penny nail and it went all the way through my foot and was sticking out of the top of my shoe one time and I think it actually hurt less than the sting.

[58chevy]

When I was young I used to get stung regularly, but over the years I learned to avoid the stings. They usually occurred in inopportune places. Once I was climbing the ladder of a small water tower when I got nailed by a yellow jacket. Another time I was on a ladder, painting the side of a house, barefooted. I had placed a bucket of paint on top of the ladder. I stuck my foot into some bushes that were growing on the side of the house and was attacked by a swarm of yellow jackets. I jumped off the ladder, fell about 6 feet, and the paint went everywhere. It took 3 hours to clean up the mess. Once when visiting my grandparents I caught a big cicada killer (Sphecius speciosus). My grandfather offered to help me get it out of the net. I told him to be careful because it could deliver a powerful sting. He stuck his hand in the net, got stung, and the wasp flew away. He tried not to show pain, but I could tell it hurt. A kid who lived down the street from me said a wasp flew into his coke bottle. Not knowing it was there, he took a drink and it stung him several times in his mouth and throat. When my son was about 3 years old, I took him out in the field with me. I picked him up and carried him through some high grass. I spotted a butterfly, put him down and told him not to move. I chased after the butterfly, but it got away. When I got back to my son, he was crying. I picked him up and immediately knew why. His legs were covered with fire ants. I had placed him right on top of a fire ant mound. I'm sure he'd like to do the same thing to me.

[T.C.]

I have been stung lots of times. However if I had been stung as many times as you guys, I would not be alive today. I am dangerously allergic, which is not good for someone into the insect keeping hobby. I have luckily never been stung on my face or near my neck, however if I was by something like a wasp, it would be a race to the ER. Last summer I was watching kids at a park, and a wasp flew from a bottom of the slide and stung my back leg. I swelled up so bad, I was not able to walk for a week. The swelling spread from my calf all the way to my toes and it was almost double the size of my other leg.

FUN FACT: I was stung for the first time by a "bumble bee" about two years ago when we were going down the road, and it came in the window. I went crazy but it landed on my face and stung me. So we turned the vehicle around and was hospital bound. However there was no swelling? Apparently people don't swell on there first sting with a new species? I was so happy.

[leptraps]

Fire Ants are no fun. While living in Florida, it was a constant fight with them in my lawn. During the dry season I would spread a granular fire ant insecticide. I would wipe them out, but once the rains began, you could not win that fight no matter how hard you tried.

While working near Homestead, Florida, I would visit the IFAS Station (Institute of Food and Agricultural Science) near Redlands on my lunch hour. The fire ants were absolutely terrible. You had to watch your every step. I set a Light Trap along the edge of a Slash Pine area and a citrus grove. When I returned the next morning for the Light Trap, there were fire ants in and around the Light Trap. When I pick up the Light Trap to get it away from the fire ants, I learned I had set the trap on a small fire ant mound. I poured some ethyl acetate on the mound and flicked a match to it. It only burned for a few minutes and I stamped out the smoldering pile before leaving. When I returned again several days later to the same spot. It was mound city and millions of fire ants.

Several weeks later I returned to the IFAS Station and it air smelled like an insecticide. There was nothing flying. I stopped in the Station Field House to inquire about the Insecticide, I learned the fire ants had gotten so bad that they sprayed the entire research facility with a chemical especially designed to kill the fire ant (And in my humble opinion, everything else). Several weeks later everything appeared to be normal, but the fire ants were gone, or I thought they were. Several months later they were back with a vengeance.

The citrus growers in Dade County pour the insecticide to the fire ants. They disappear for a period of time and then they reappear and I think they bring the family.

[58chevy]

TC's comment reminds me of another episode, involving 2 bumblebees. I was about 10 years old. I had a bumblebee in my collection. I caught another one, put it in the killing jar, waited until it was dead, then decided to glue the two bees together to make a giant one. As you can probably guess, the new one wasn't dead. It was one of the most painful stings I've had.

[tv]

Worst personal sting was when I was 9-10 and used a pine cone to knock down a small wasp nest under the eve of the house. I think it was about 2 seconds from when the pine cone left my hand until I got nailed right dead center in the chest. Ended up with 2 or 3 stings. Thought I'd been shot. Other than that, haven't really been stung much, even though I used to catch velvet ants all the time when I was growing up.

My family a couple years back had a rash of stings one summer. Like 10 or so over the course of a few days. It had been super hot (105 F+) for that whole time and for some reason the wasps were not playing nice. All the stings were unprovoked when they were entering or leaving buildings. In most cases the nests were at least 15 or 20 feet away from the doors. Not sure if the heat was the reason, but they've never had the problem before and haven't since.

[bandrow]

Greetings,

I can't begin to compete with Chuck, and have no desire to do so, but I have had some of my own memorable stings.

My first sting was when I was around 8 or 9 - I was playing "army" with my cousin and ran across the yard yelling "charge!!". A bumblebee flew right into my mouth and stung me under the tongue. Ouch. But it did get me ice cream, and the evil pleasure of watching my cousin do without - since it was not a treat, but rather "first aid".

Around age 14, I was riding bikes with my little brother along a forest trail. He was in front, and rode under an overhanging branch with a small bald-faced hornet's nest, swatting it with his hand as he passed. As I went under behind him, two hornets went down my shirt and each stung about 3 times in a band across my chest.

While beating palmetto in Florida, I disturbed a vespid nest hanging under a palm frond and got swarmed. Took about 8 stings in the face and neck.

At work, we had a live honeybee hive - I got "volunteered" to be the beekeeper and ended up stung now and then during hive maintenance. After about 4 events, I noticed the effect growing worse each time. The penultimate time I broke out in a rash about 3" in diameter. On the last time, I got stung on the inside of the wrist had a red streak run all the way up my inner arm to my elbow. That was the end of my beekeeping days.

Last summer, our porch light burned out and I went to replace the bulb. I reached up into the enclosure and ZAP!! I thought at first I had gotten shocked, but turns out a small nest of the imported Polistes dominulus had taken up residence and were protecting their home.

HOWEVER - the worst pain I've ever experienced was from the bite of a wheel bug, Arilus cristatus. I picked one up by the "crest" - keeping my fingers clear of the head - but learned quickly that they can pivot the head around and bite backwards over their pronotum. I took a shot on the end of my thumb. It was an excruciatingly painful burning sensation for nearly 6 hours, and then it felt bruised for several days. Oddly, it never reddened or swelled - there was no evidence of the bite other than pain.

Live and learn!
Bandrow

[exoticimports]

Dec 20, 2016 19:20:00 GMT -8 bandrow said:

HOWEVER - the worst pain I've ever experienced was from the bite of a wheel bug, Arilus cristatus. I picked one up by the "crest" - keeping my fingers clear of the head - but learned quickly that they can pivot the head around and bite backwards over their pronotum. I took a shot on the end of my thumb. It was an excruciatingly painful burning sensation for nearly 6 hours, and then it felt bruised for several days. Oddly, it never reddened or swelled - there was no evidence of the bite other than pain.

Live and learn!
Bandrow

Thanks for the heads up! I didn't know that they could turn around like that.

Chuck

[timmsyrj]

Many many times I have been stung in the field both collecting and fishing, though the most painful sting is a couple of deals where I've not recieved what I paid for or sent specimens to swap with a so called "fellow entomologist", needless to say they never see anything from me anymore, money or swaps..
Insects you can squash easily other pests not so easy.

Rich

[mothman27]

1 bald faced hornet. (At a bait trap)
4 honey bees.Surprisingly low considering we keep honeybees. My first was on the tip of my nose.
1 yellow jacket.Bait trap again) 
Not sure if this counts but I have been 'stung' by Automeris zephyria caterpillars too.

[Adam Cotton]

I still have the scar from a Provespa sting back in the mid 1980s. These brown nocturnal wasps come to light traps, and one landed on my wrist, got its abdomen trapped under my watch strap and stung me as a result. The whole area of the sting went necrotic black and became a hole in my wrist for some time.

Adam.

[jshuey]

Too many to remember. Working in dry forests in northern Belize, there are lots of "paper wasps" that build small nests under low palm leaves. They are very quick to point out that you just shook their world. They hit you without warning - one or two quick smacks on the arms or face usually.

The thing that always amazes me, is that these stings hurt really bad for about 10-20 seconds. After a minute you barely feel them. But during that first few seconds, you get the hell away from there, and I think that's their point!

John

[jhyatt]

My most memorable wasp occasion is one in which I managed by some miracle not to be stung. I hung a bait trap at the edge of some woods in south Georgia. Came back the next day to find that I must have hung it near to a white-faced hornet nest (which I never did see). The trap was absolutely full of the things - many dozens! And of course this was the one time I had no wasp spray with me, and I was miles from anywhere.

I managed to carefully drop the trap to the ground, let the top collapse on the bottom tray, and for about 5 minutes did a dance stomping on the whole thing. No stings at all - I may not have smashed all the wasps, but any left alive were apparently to shocked to attack. I let the remains dry or a few days, shook them out, got a new bait tray, and moved to a different location.

I'm just glad no one drove up that dirt road to see me jumping up and down on the ground at the edge of the woods!

Cheers,
jh