# Anyone ever been stung by a HORNET or a VELVET ANT? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 11, 2001, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864 "2001-10-11T19:45:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/21 "2001-10-13T01:32:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally Posted by plnnr > I was stung a number of times, the worst of which was by the hornet THAT GOT STUCK BEHIND MY GLASSES AND STUNG ME IN THE EYE. I was stung there by a hornet also. It was the only time in my life that I was even stung, and I do not want to do that again. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/22 "2001-10-13T02:00:01Z")
Try a HARVESTER ANT on for size. **O** fucking **W**. I put up a bird feeder and next thing you know, I’ve got these cute little black and red ants, industriously carrying the seeds across the yard to their nest. One day I’m out watering and MAJOR PAIN. Ended up with bruises on my leg. Didn’t know what it was. Few days later, I’m out barefoot and get stung on the big toe. Toe was swollen for days. I asked our resident bug expert on the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board and he suggested it could be HARVESTER ANTS, who he said had a similar poison to taipan snakes or something. Looked em up on the internet: [Most Toxic Insect Venom](http://ufbir.ifas.ufl.edu/Chap23.htm): Insects in the order Hymenoptera were recorded as early as the 26th century BC as possessing a venom toxic to vertebrates. Harvester ants in the genus Pogonomyrmex have the most toxic venom based on mice LD50 values, with P. maricopa venom being the most toxic. The LD50 value for this species is 0.12 mg/kg injected intravenously in mice, equivalent to 12 stings killing a 2 kg (4.4 lb) rat. A Pogonomyrmex sp. sting produces intense pain in humans that lasts up to 4 hours. How come I never heard of or came across these things before? Kind of a moot point as they are _all dead now_ [Edited by JillGat on 10-12-2001 at 09:02 PM] ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/23 "2001-10-13T02:46:03Z")
I usually get stung about once per summer, if not more. I have been stung by honey bees, bumble bees, wasps, hornets, and yellow-jackets. I have determined yellow-jackets to be the worst. I remember one time I was ten or eleven, I was playing in some woods behind my house. I jumped off a log right onto an underground yellow-jacket nest. Many flew out, and I got stung three times before I even knew what was going on. By the time I got back to the house I had a couple more stings. Ouch. ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/24 "2001-10-13T03:51:13Z")
I’ve been bitten by a yellow jacket. I know it wasnt a sting because it wasnt excruciating, but it felt like a really hard pinch. Not a fun experience. I’ve also seen tarantula hawks in person. Those things are so big and they really are scary, because you know they can probably pack a good sting. Fortunately where i saw them, they were more interested in hovering near some native milk weed instead of bothering us. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/25 "2001-10-13T06:00:29Z")
Simply because of their small size compared to their big sting I think the Fire Ant should be given an honorable mention. Maybe one bite isn’t two bad, but whoever heard of one fire ant biting someone? ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/26 "2001-10-13T06:04:56Z")
Change that to “too”. ---
**Author:** ![Fosfero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/82dd89/32.png) [@Fosfero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fosfero)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/27 "2001-10-13T16:52:01Z")
/slight hijack-but long post/ I was stung by a little itty bitty ant while living in Venezuela and I swear I thought it was a deadly scorpion or something. It hurt like someone had stabbed me with a flaming serrated icepick dipped in acid! OWEEEE! Prior to that, I was stung repeatedly by a yellow jacket that had somehow gotten trapped in my sleeve. That was no fun, but not really that bad. About ten years ago I was attacked by a hive of plain old honey bees while walking by a lake with my cousin. I saw the hive but didn’t think anything of it because I was about 20-30 ft away. Anyway, they attacked me w/o warning and had me covered from waist to the tippy top of my head in seconds. I thought if I stood still, they wouldn’t sting me. What a dumbass! I got off lucky-they only stung me about thirty times. Meanwhile, I’m howling like a banshee, trying to make my way to the water, and I run into some bushes.(I was scared to keep my eyes open) Guess what…they were sticker bushes! AAARGH! So I’m rolling on the ground, rubbing myself with dirt, trying to squash the little f\*ckers and it occurs to me that my cousin is probably in the same boat. I open my eyes to find him and there he was. My blood relation, supposedly my best friend, paralyzed about 10 feet away, completely incapacitated with laughter. Not a bee on him. They finally ended their assault and I walked home, periodically punching my cousin in the head whenever he was overtaken by the giggles. Oddly enough, some time later I became a beekeeper in Venezuela where the bees are all “africanized”. Same venom, just about a million times more likely to sting and sting en masse. I wore the bee suit which kept me a comfy 1,000,000 degrees warm in the tropical sun and got stung a gajillion times anyway. The honey was so worth it. Honey…(Drools) -Fosfero ---
**Author:** ![\_Uigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/e9a140/32.png) [@\_Uigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Uigi)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/28 "2001-10-13T22:26:45Z")
I’ve seen velvet ants at my Grandparents (RIP) house in Georgia, but the local label of “cow-killer” ants made me really damned wary of this rather beautiful insect. On the other hand (and at the same site mentioned above), I did manage to get tagged by 28 yellow-jackets from an underground nest while mowing grannies property on a riding mower. I was about 14 yrs old; these nasty little bastards caused MUCH pain and swelling. Nearest doctor was half an hour away and by that time I was very swollen and very stiff (ala “Gumby”). Couple hours later I’d recovered enough to burn the nest with gas. I dug it up, and found a nest of about eight to ten layers almost the size of a basketball. ---
**Author:** ![Lodrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@Lodrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lodrain)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/29 "2001-10-14T00:55:58Z")
I once walked, semi-intentionally, into a cloud of greyish bees, screaming and flailing my arms. Needless to say, I never did that again… ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/30 "2001-10-15T22:35:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kniz \* > \*\*Simply because of their small size compared to their big sting I think the Fire Ant should be given an honorable mention. Maybe one bite isn’t two bad, but whoever heard of one fire ant biting someone? \*\* Right. That’s what I thought got me to begin with: a fire ant. Harvester ants are related to them, but the fire ants are especially bad because they attack en mass. Harvester ants don’t need no steenkin gang. They do enough damage as loner pendejos. ---
**Author:** ![Speleophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@Speleophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speleophile)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/31 "2001-10-16T01:12:35Z")
I can see I’m clearly in the minority, but I’ve been stung several times by yellowjackets, and while their reputation for ferocity is well deserved, their sting does not seem to me to be nearly as bad as everyone here has made them out to be. Worse than a honeybee, yeah, but not nearly so painful as a paper wasp. I got stung by one of those things about six years ago and that sucker hurt BAD for many minutes, and dully for several hours. The yellowjacket stings stop hurting pretty quickly. It is common to get several, though, if you get any. Also about six years ago, I got stung - or bitten - by some unknown insect. I was in Breaks Interstate Park on the Kentucky/Virginia border and saw several wasps nesting in a handrail pipe at an overlook. Quickly gave them wide berth, but about 30 seconds later felt a severe burning on my left arm. I attributed it to the wasps and left the area, but unlike a wasp sting, this thing did not heal for some four or five months, and to this day I have a small white scar. It almost seemed like the tissure around the sting (or bite) was necrotic. Any guesses on what might have gotten me? Some spider? I slapped at my arm when I felt the pain, but didn’t contact anything… ---
**Author:** ![tapioca\_tundra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@tapioca\_tundra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapioca_tundra)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/32 "2001-10-16T01:39:37Z")
```auto bottle rockets into their nest...it did hurt I have a thing about paper wasps, I don't try to kill them anymore ``` ---
**Author:** ![vex77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c4cdca/32.png) [@vex77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vex77)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/33 "2001-10-16T01:42:20Z")
Growing up in Central Virginia in a small apple orchard I had to put up with Velvet Ants (what we called SheepKillers) and European Hornets (we called Japanese Hornets.) I tell you what, nothing scatters people like a European Hornet buzzing into the middle of a gathering. On a medic call once I lost a patient twice on the way to the hospital that had been stung by one and they only had a mild allergy to bees. This web site says that the European Hornet is the only “true” hornet in North America. > **[European Hornets | NC State Extension Publications](https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/european-hornets)** > > This Entomology Insect Note discusses the behavior and control of European hornets. Vex ---
**Author:** ![El\_Zagna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@El\_Zagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Zagna)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/34 "2001-10-16T02:12:08Z")
Let’s not forget [Bull Nettle](http://www.noble.org/imagegallery/Forbhtml/BullNettle.html). Worse than fire ants, and bees but not as bad as yellow jackets and scorpions. ---
**Author:** ![Heath\_Doolin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Heath\_Doolin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heath_Doolin)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/35 "2001-10-16T05:33:57Z")
I got a topper…but it did not happen to me My cousin…got stung…by a yellow jacket…in his sack It flew up his shorts and jammed it…god I was not there but I heard the piercing scream and saw the bulge of the swelling…ever seen those pics with the guys that got elephantitus of the nuts? Just like that. Feeling it guys? ---
**Author:** ![Von\_Erich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@Von\_Erich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Von_Erich)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/36 "2001-10-16T14:41:29Z")
I was drinking a Dr. Pepper out of a can one summer while out fishing at the lake. I made the mistake of not checking the can before I drank it. I thought the soda was just very cold and had began to freeze when I felt something crunchy in my mouth. I began to chew on what I thought was frozen soda when the bee stung my upper lip. Luckily I did not swallow him, and in return for the sting he got chewed to death before I realized what it was and spit him out. My lip turned to into a large mass of what felt like rubber. To describe the size of Cow Killer Ants my friend says he once saw one in his yard and threw a hammer at it, the ant picked up the hammer and threw it back at him. ---
**Author:** ![justinh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@justinh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justinh)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/37 "2001-10-16T14:59:12Z")
paper wasp,yellow jackets, bumble bees,wood bees, harvester ants, big black ants, big red ants, hornets, red wasp, wasp killers. these are names of things that we have around here but are they the same critters you have there? can someone find a site with pictures of these nasties so we can talk about the same time. like the velvet ant one. by the way, if you want to talk about pain then catapillars have the worse. ---
**Author:** ![Tixenfleaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9a140/32.png) [@Tixenfleaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tixenfleaz)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/38 "2001-10-16T15:33:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by justinh \* > \*\*by the way, if you want to talk about pain then catapillars have the worse. \*\* Ugh. Saddleback stings look and feel like someone took a lit cigarette to your skin. In South Florida, even the cute bugs will sting the shit out of you. ---
**Author:** ![justinh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@justinh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justinh)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864/39 "2001-10-16T16:47:16Z")
ASP (some kind of catapillar) sting like hell and you can feel the toxin move around your body. stung me on the forearm. first my hands when hot then cold then number then my elbow starting aching then my shoulder then my glands under my arm. entire arm was sore that night (the skin was sensitive and painful) - no sleep. they are a brown furry leaf about an inch long. this is why we need pictures. hell I will look them up if someone gives me a site. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-been-stung-by-a-hornet-or-a-velvet-ant/86864.md?page=1)