Ground hornets! [emoji2962]

[Dftodd]

If you got whacked 3 times, it wasn’t a bee. They have barbed “single use” stingers.
Was probably a nasty yellow jacket or one of his cousins

I pulled out a big ol bumble bee.

 

[Dftodd]

Yipes! Guy was lucky to only have some extra work, no injury. Must have been very porous soil to have the oxygen to support such a fast burn/explosion.

Thinking Florida where it has sugar sand.

 

[Jstpssng]

I pulled out a big ol bumble bee.

I did the same thing except it went down my motorcycle helmet. I was never sure what it was, but got stung once in the temple before I got my finger in there and mashed him.

 

[WinterDeere]

If you got whacked 3 times, it wasn’t a bee. They have barbed “single use” stingers.
Was probably a nasty yellow jacket or one of his cousins

Yeah, their stingers are designed to pull off, but I've read that they often don't lose their stinger on the first hit, and can hit more than once.

 

[camshawn]

While riding my motorcycle, had some kind of bee hit me in the shoulder, popped up and landed down in between my helmet and the collar of my leather jacket. Had a few stings in the back of the neck. I couldn’t get my bike stopped and my jacket open quick enough. To add insult to injury, I was 200 yards from home.

 

[Richard]

I suppose we've all had our own close calls with the little devils. Hopefully you all know this but if you don't (like I didn't) you can acquire an allergy to these little buggers. 20 years ago, November 30, was cold outside. These little buggers are VERY lethargic because of the cooler weather. A paper wasp had crawled up my leg, onto my sock... when I moved, it nailed me on the calf. I ended up in the ER for four hours with 5-6 viles of stuff being injected into me. Later, went to an Alleregist to see about shots. Upon being tested, the wasp was my least reactive.... and I was off the charts with the vespids (yellow jackets / hornets). Implicitly, had it been a vespid that stung me verses the lowly wasp, my story could have been different.

Spent five years going to allergist EVERY SINGLE WEEK for the shots. Living rural, there's no way I won't get stung again. Maybe three years later, I was doing something, a yellow jacket had gotten under my shirt and nailed me on the chest. I immediately went inside, had phone handy, had epi-pen handy, took a swig of benedryl and waited for the first inkling of a sign..... 2-hours later, nothing. So the trips to the Allergist for five years, had done their job. I've been stung since then....still get really nervous and immediately go into protection mode....but so far.... nothing.

Side story, when I "graduated" from the Allergist five years later, he congratulated me. He said I was one of VERY few that actually went through the whole shots program.

So know that just because you got stung and it hurt.... doesn't mean that you aren't now, allergic to said sting and next time you could land in the hospital or worse. I didn't realize you could acquire the allergy by being stung.

When I'm starting fires, I don't use a match nor a zippo. I usually toss my MAP torch onto the backhoe and use it. It has the trigger pull on it so pop trigger and it's burning.

Doesn't take much to get something lit with a bit of a larger flame like that.

 

[masseyrider]

I've been stung numerous times before and since but only once did I have a scary reaction.
A yellow jacket got me on the back of the wrist.
Started out normal. The stab followed by the burn.
Then my arm started to swell up from the bite site.
I was on the verge of calling an ambulance when it got to my shoulder. But then it just slowly dissipated.
No negative effects that I'm aware of.

 

[Jstpssng]

I had a foreman (Scott) years ago who was allergic to bees. He didn't carry an EpiPen because they cost too much. He had started the desensitization shots but stopped because they cost too much, although apparently they did slow the reaction.

We were out on a power line one day when he got into a nest. We only had one truck and he couldn't leave us there running chainsaws so the day was done. He started driving to the hospital, with 3 of us looking at each other thinking WTF? None of us knew what to expect, the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Finally I started talking to the guy next to me about some unimportant thing... at which point Scott pulled over and said that somebody else had better drive.
I took over and as we drove past the motel he told me to stop so that he could change his clothes. Again, WTF?!?
I dropped him off at the hospital and we waited while he got treated. I don't recall if he stayed there overnight. I have always wondered how much that cost the company.

 

[Dftodd]

I've been stung numerous times before and since but only once did I have a scary reaction.
A yellow jacket got me on the back of the wrist.
Started out normal. The stab followed by the burn.
Then my arm started to swell up from the bite site.
I was on the verge of calling an ambulance when it got to my shoulder. But then it just slowly dissipated.
No negative effects that I'm aware of.

If it happens again, pop benadryl, liquid benadryl is better.

I swell up, and get a reaction, but it's not life threatening. So I keep benadryl in my backpack that goes with me everywhere.

I never had a reaction either, until I got into a ground yellow jacket nest. Ended up with 34 stings on my legs. Ankle swelled up almost to the size of my thigh.

I pop benadryl and pay close attention to any adverse reaction to the sting.

I also asked my doctor what dosage I can safely take if I get stung.

 

[BackRoad]

Found this short clip on Yellow Jacket harvesting for medical purposes. Just Wow!