Nasty hornet/wasp sting

[DavyZ]

Dang! Y'all in the South have some very large insects, and not very nice ones at that.

 

On Sunday I was walking through some of my bushes getting to the garden hose when I suddenly felt like what was 110 volts through the side of left leg---I think I jumped two feet in the air (white men can't jump, so that's high for me) that crap hurts! Some knarly, large stinging wasp like thing stung me BAD. I normally don't yell or cry (ok, sometimes I do) when I get hurt, but this was a sting I have never felt; it's much worse than a bee sting IMO: like bee sting x 5.

 

 

It has been getting steadily worse since Sunday and I am now dealing with a speading infection and having to take antibiotics *finally*. Hey, the nurse was impressed with the infection

 

So, what's the worse sting or bite you have had and what was the final outcome? I'm sure some of you guys have had scorpion stings, spider bites, etc. Be a man and reply to my thread

 

Davy

[Careless]

so at the age of 9, while in florence, italy... i was staying at my mother's sister's farm house for a week or two.

 

my brother and I were waiting a couple of hours to go to see the leaning tower of pisa. during that time, we were attracted to this concrete wall that was hollow and had a hole/crack in the top. HORNETS were spewing out of this thing...

 

we knew they lived in there. so my brother and I got the hose... set it to HOT, and waited until the water was white with steam, and then we shoved the hose end into the crack.

 

hundreds of orange and bright yellow, double-assed hornets started to pour out of the top and quickly melt on the pavement below.

 

"Francesco... Raffaele, lets go!"

 

so we shut the water off, and quickly boarded the propane powered fiat punto, on our way to the leaning tower. construction limited us to other buildings, so we cut the trip short.

 

upon our return, we happily fiddled with the stereo in the car while my parents and my uncle made their way back into the house... we decided fun time was over and we were hungry, so we shut the radio off and ventured back into the house.

 

Greeted by this eerily familiar woman with a somewhat heart shaped face, red and purple in colour, and somewhat soggy due to what looked to be tears, my brother asks "Dad, who's this?"

 

... with the all-too-familiar look of devastation and strangle-itis in his face, he quietly and deeply said "your aunt".

 

turns out a hornet or two stung her square on the nose or chin. too hard to tell since it was REALLY the shape of a heart, cheek to cheek.

 

Sorry, Zia

[DavyZ]

...with the all-too-familiar look of devastation and strangle-itis in his face, he quietly and deeply said "your aunt".

 

Ouch. I'd feel horrible about that, but I wouldn't have said anything...

 

Davy

[proxlamus©]

I believe wasps bite .. only bee's sting

 

 

??

[JMortensen]

Wasps do both, and they don't drop their stinger so they can sting you over and over again.

[tannji]

Worst bite I ever got was the Black Widow variety, while in Colorado. Was cleaning a storeroom at work as a favor to the manager I was turning it over to, and a spider got into my loafer and bit the top of my foot. I ignored it, as it didn't hurt all THAT much... but as the day progressed, so did the pain... up my leg and into the groin. By the afternoon, I was having stomach cramps and it felt like just like someone was kicking me in the "nether delectis", repeatedly. I spent hours in the ER getting morphine and Vicodin shots. I now religiously kill the widows. They are sneaky and bad-tempered, and I don't sleep well around them anymore = )

I also caught a wasp in a butterfly net, as a boy in Texas. These things were iridescent black and about 2 inches long, and the locals called them "Cicada Killers" because they would sting a Cicada (Locust) and then fly off with the thing like Rutan's mother ship. Well, I caught one, then watched in horror as it rapidly chewed it's way through the net....! Just then I remembered that these things were supposedly deadly to people as well as Cicadas... so I sicced my loyal shepherd on it and ran like the wind. The dog did a very respectful and careful sliceNdice and chased me down to collect his due for saving my life. I never tried that again, if you can believe it. I tried to Google it, seems it might be also known as a Tarantula Hawk, for obvious reasons = )

[Challenger]

Ahhhhh! That thing is huge!

[Careless]

so it can take down a human, but sickin' a dog after it is ok?

make no bones about it, your dog would'a dropped like a sack of yams.

[Dragonfly]

My most painful was from a jelly fish when I was 16, the pain lasted for over a week (I would have never guessed at that time what the cure for a jelly fish sting was...). #2 was a scorpion sting on the bottom of my foot when I was 17, he crawled onto my foot while I was asleep, the tickle woke me up and he got me as I went to scratch my foot. Scariest but least painful was a spider bite when I was about 10, I don't know what kind of spider it was because I squished it to mush as soon as I felt it bite my finger... I still to this day have an extreamely small red spot on my finger where he got me. I have also been bitten by a few different snakes with the most painful being a garter snake (on each snake bite it was a case of dumb a$$ kid playing with a snake he knew was not poisonous).

 

My closest call was a few days ago while cleaning in the back yard I pulled my gloves off then a few seconds later felt a tickle on my hand... recognized the feel of a spider so I quickly flicked my hand, looked on the ground and there was a brown widow by my feet, she died very quickly and I was lucky.

 

Dragonfly

[Xnke]

Heh, we have this thing called a flying harpoon here...Sand Hornets. Wikipedia says they are an Eastern Cicada Killer, and don't attack humans. BULLSHIT!

 

They won't usually sting, but if you unwittingly piss one off, lookout. The stinger (as evidenced by stomping one, it causes the stinger to protrude) is nigh on 3/8" long!

[woldson]

You'all are lucky. I have shot down several bald head bees and many wasps off my fence. They use the ceader fencening for nests?

 

The ones that I wing in stomp on deeply, (daughter steped on one once).

 

Now the biggest have been roughy 3/4 of an inch. Those bigger ones might give me more of a 1 to 1 kill.

 

DavyZ, I hope you nailed that turd into the dirt!!!

[tannji]

so it can take down a human, but sickin' a dog after it is ok?

make no bones about it, your dog would'a dropped like a sack of yams.

 

No, not OK... but I was under extreme unction, or whatever the ex-hippie, protestant/semi-cult-member version is.... lol. I needed to delay that wasp, and my dog took things like that seriously... never mind the fact that he was far better equipped to deal with it than I was. I was consumed by guilt after the fact, but I was also about 12 years old... just getting into the swing of acting out before I had a chance to think it through. I was also bare-foot... the thought crossed my mind to stomp it like I would have an ant... but it was a brief thing, quickly over-ruled by a few thousand years of flight instinct and a powerful case of buyers remorse.

[Z-TARD]

Tarantual Hawk, from Wikipedia:

 

Sting

These wasps are usually not aggressive[1], but the sting, particularly of Pepsis formosa, is among the most painful of any insect. Commenting on his own experience, one researcher described the pain as "...immediate, excruciating pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except, perhaps, scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations."[2] In terms of scale, the wasp's sting is rated at the top of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, second only to that of the bullet ant.[2] Because of their extremely large stingers, very few animals are able to eat them; one of the few animals that can is the roadrunner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula_hawk

 

We had these all over the mountains in Arizona where I grew up. They sounded like an angry B-17 to me as a kid. The "Usually not aggressive" blurb quoted above: Complete B.S. I've been chased by these things many, many times, both on foot and on a bicycle. You may not believe it, but a Murray 20" BMX bike will do the better part of mach 5 when powered by fear and adrenaline......

 

My worst sting was when I was about 7 or 8, from a hornet. I walked through a patch of clover in our front yard, barefoot, and the little sucker nailed me right in the arch of my foot. I just screamed and dropped to the ground like a sack of wet cement. I spent the rest of the summer patroling the yard wearing my home built bee suit (Paper sack over head, snow suit, gloves, and boots) killing every bee, wasp, or hornet I could find.

[woldson]

a Murray 20" BMX bike will do the better part of mach 5 when powered by fear and adrenaline......

 

LOL!!!!

[mark]

Welcome to the south!

 

Dang! Y'all in the South have some very large insects, and not very nice ones at that.

 

On Sunday I was walking through some of my bushes getting to the garden hose when I suddenly felt like what was 110 volts through the side of left leg---I think I jumped two feet in the air (white men can't jump, so that's high for me) that crap hurts! Some knarly, large stinging wasp like thing stung me BAD. I normally don't yell or cry (ok, sometimes I do) when I get hurt, but this was a sting I have never felt; it's much worse than a bee sting IMO: like bee sting x 5.

 

It has been getting steadily worse since Sunday and I am now dealing with a speading infection and having to take antibiotics *finally*. Hey, the nurse was impressed with the infection

 

So, what's the worse sting or bite you have had and what was the final outcome? I'm sure some of you guys have had scorpion stings, spider bites, etc. Be a man and reply to my thread

 

Davy

[dsommer]

Yellow Jackets. Those are some mean somebeeches. They attack...wait SWARM you and sting you to oblivion.

 

I was pressure washing the pool deck of a house we just bought and never saw the little bastards. First one I caught a glimpse of made a bee line for my upper thigh, it didn't mosey around either. It must have landed with its stinger headed toward my leg.

 

At this time I'm beginng to take aim at them with the almighty pressure washer, not the best defensive posture but hey use what you've got. After warding off several of them it was time to make my escape, I jumped into the pool and ducked under water several times before they gave up.

 

The whole crew got theirs later when I returned with the wasp and flying insect spray, oh and a little gas.

[Tony D]

My brother and his friend thought they would be 'funny' in the waning-light hours of a hot U.P. summer afternoon after a day of fishing, and as they passed a bee's nest they beat the hell out of it and shook the limb it was on to really rile up those bees. They took off, leaving older brother carrying the poles up the trail to deal with 'angry bees'...

 

But older brother is WISE and keeps his eyes open and does not walk in the woods with his head down...and saw little brother in the act.

 

So I watched the bees make their telltale spiral as they left the hive... but it was getting dark. I mean, if it would have been later and the sun a bit lower, there would have been NO WAY for me to see the bees swarming.

 

So I bide my time. The bees go back inside their little paper house. They don't like to be out after dark, and older brother knows this. In the meantime I strip a piece of birchbark. Not peeling it deeply, just pulling off a little loose strip curled along the trunk.

 

From this, I fashion a tapered plug. I then walk up to aforementioned bees nest, and stick said constructed plug into the hole (door) of the bees house (hive). Bees do not like someone blocking their door. And I can hear the bees saying LET US OUT! WE WANT YOUR FLESH!!!

 

I break off the branch, and take the poles, as well as the hive up the trail with me. Shaking it and making the bees buzz so harshly I can actually feel the branch the hive is on vibrate and resonate. These bees are pi$$ed!

 

As I break the treeline my brother and his jovial little friend see me and jump inside the car, laughing. They lock the doors, manually, click click! But the rear window is kinda down 1", and by now the hive is directly behind me.

 

"Hey Nick, let me in, dude!"

 

What took you so long? Did you have some trouble with bees or something Tony? (snicker snicker)

 

"Bees? What bees?"

 

(Brother's friend stupidly opens door)

 

At this point, I kind of gruffly rasp: "You mean THESE BEES?!?!?!" While at the same time heaving the hive (about the size of a basketball, slightly larger) onto the dashboard/windshield juncture where it promptly BURSTS open spilling bees ALL OVER the interior of the car.

 

Now, the rest of this is like slow motion. I slam the passenger's door shut and hold it closed. Brother's friend says "What is tha...."

 

Brother goes "What is thaaa..."

 

Then come the screams. Brother's friend tries to open the door, but I'm there, with 340# of angry payback rage holding it shut. They are in a panic. My brother is momentarily at a loss, and is getting stung BIGTIME.

 

I count to 10 and then RUN LIKE A PIG (hey, let's not lie here....) to a 'safe distance' as they both play "Tommy Boy" and roll out of the car clutching at themselves, and screaming. The bees are exacting their revenge for the two distrubances they had that evening.

 

As they come up to me STUNG like you wouldn't believe, before they can even comment, I say, calmly: "Shaking that limb wasn't funny, guys. Throwing the hive into a car with two unsuspecting idiots...thats funny! Word to you both: don't screw with me, if you think you know practical jokes, you don't know how far I will go to extract revenge!"

 

My brother sheepishly says "Dude, he's right. I shoulda known better, he always gets me back!"

 

Er...waitaminit, sorry, I didn't get stung. Darn, maybe you guys can ask my brother what it felt like. I think he was stung something like 48 times before he got 'free' from the 'bee zone'.

 

Me, whenever I hear of stings, I think of how perfect that little payback/turnaround went.

 

Next time I'm up there, fishing again with lil bro, the same friend and a few other guys one of them starts making noises about doing something 'funny' to 'Nicks fat brother' and the kid that was with him during the Bee incident says "Dude, don't even try! You think you got him, and the next thing you know you're trapped in a car full of bees with no way to get out wondering why you ever thought you would get away with it. The guy's an evil genius when it comes to that kind of crap. He's like the devil. Don't mess with him...."

 

Some time later, some guy walks up to me out of the blue in the Kingsford/Iron Mountain Wal Mart and says "You're Nick's older brother, aren't you? The guy who throws beehives?"

 

ROMFALOL

 

Nice to be remembered!

[NCchris]

So, what's the worse sting or bite you have had and what was the final outcome?

 

Davy

 

Well prob not the worse but we (and you since you are just down the road) have yellowjackets. They build nests in the ground and can swarm out on a moments notice. Their sting continues to hurt several hours/days afterwards. You won't get just one. I usually find them with my lawnmower.

[Chaparral2f]

When I lived in Tulsa, one of the guys I worked with was bitten by a brown recluse spider. They ended up having to amputate his leg. The worst thing I ever got was stung by a centipede. I really liked Oklahoma but it seemed that all the animals and insects are out to get you. Its much nicer here, all we have to worry about are a few snakes, and the occasional bear or mountain lion.

[Challenger]

Ok some of you will say "how didnt you notice this" but honestly nobody in my family saw it. My dad was lucky I didnt find it first because it would have been 1. set on fire or 2. blown to smitherines by my potato gun or explosives.

 

 

Its about a 1ft ball. We are going to put some poison on it and hopefully we can save the nest. Ill try to get pics tonight of what it looks like up close without tons of black hornets.