I find myself in what feels like an increasingly smaller minority whenever the subject of bee stings comes up. I have a fear that borders on paranoia about being stung, and it’s probably because I don’t know what it feels like. I’ve never been stung by a bee (or anything else) that I’m aware of. When the topic comes up, people always seem surprised. “Never? Really??”
So is it just me?
Have you ever been stung (by any flying insect)?
If so, what do you remember about your first experience being stung? How serious an effect did it have on you, both physically and psychologically?
1) Have you ever been stung (by any flying insect)? Yes, I have been stung numerous times, by many insects all over the world.
**2) If so, what do you remember about your first experience being stung? ** Not really in detail, but I was stung by a bee when I was little and ran all the way home crying.
How serious an effect did it have on you, both physically and psychologically? None now because I have been stung so many times, especially when I did jungle training in various jungles.
3) How many times have you been stung overall? Counting those huge ants in Australia, a few hundred times probably.
The first time I was stung, a bee flew into my sandal while I was walking in a park. Yeow! Just some minor swelling, no psychological trauma.
The most painful (and amusing to some) sting I got was when I was laying out and a bee had, unbeknownst to me, crawled up my inner thigh very close to my nether regions. I moved my legs and zowie! That one really hurt. But still no psychological side effects.
In an amusing side note, a friend of mine is 6’11", 300+ pounds and pathologically afraid of bees. He runs screaming like a little girl and flailing his arms whenever one comes within 3 feet of him.
My first time I ever got stung by a flying insect, I was 5 and it was at a friend’s birthday party. It was outside on their back patio. I was sitting with my friends at the picnic table and a bee stung me on my big toe. It hurt like you wouldn’t believe and hurt for the rest of the afternoon. I remember my toe swelling up and having ice put on it for awhile.
Physically it didn’t really have any effect on me. I’m not deathly allergic to bee stings or anything like that, but psychologically I have to really keep myself from running like a bat out of hell when I am around a bee or a wasp.
In my lifetime I’ve been stung 4 times. The last time was 17 years ago.
The first time was horrible. I was in second grade, and we were all outside, saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I felt a tickle on my right cheek, so I rubbed my cheek against my shoulder, since my hand was occupied with my heart.
Then I screamed really, really loudly.
They rushed my into the nurse’s office, and then to the hospital when my cheek started swelling. They were certain I was allergic.
Turns out, the bee managed to hit a blood vessel, resulting in massive swelling. I was fine, if terrified.
The second time, I stepped on a bee in my backyard. I said “ow.” That was about the extent of it. As long as you’re not allergic (or stung in a blood vessel), it’s not a big deal.
I’ve been stung by ants, and some of them can be painful; and I’ve been stung by a Portuguese man-of-war, which is not an insect, but which is extremely painful.
Probably almost once per summer for most of my life. Usually wasps (yellowjackets).
I don’t remember the first time, but I remember the worts time - I was attacked by a swarm of wasps when I was trying to remove a football-sized nest that I thought was inactive; they stung me many times, all the way up my legs a lot and a bit on my arms, also a few stings on my torso right though my shirt. I was quite ill for the rest of the day and this incident left me with a visceral heightened mistrust/wariness of wasps, which I cannot really control - for example, I cannot sit down if there is a wasp in the room - I need to be ready to move.
I have been stung lots of times although not in the last many years.
I rank them as follows from lowest to highest hurt factor:
Yellow jackets
Bees
Red Wasps
They all fell somewhat similar but the severity differs a great deal. They certainly don’t feel good but it won’t be the worst pain you ever experience. They feel sort of like getting a shot from the doctor with radiating pain out from the sting. It feels vaguely hot in a way. Within a few minutes, it aches, burns, and feels like a pinch all at one time. The pain can last hours to days.
The last time I got stung badly, it was by three red wasps in quick succession. Within minutes, I started having an allergic reaction and had trouble breathing. My parents rushed me to the hospital and a few hours of IV’s fixed me up. I have avoided those things since.
I got stung by a scorpion when I was little and that truly did hurt badly and much worse than the flying stingers.
Have you ever been stung (by any flying insect)?
Yes
2a) If so, what do you remember about your first experience being stung?
It hurt.
2b) How serious an effect did it have on you, both physically and psychologically?
Long term? None. Short term? It hurt.
How many times have you been stung overall?
Maybe 5 times
My 7 year old son has been stung well over a dozen times.
We don’t know why, but wasps/yellowjackets/whatevertheyare head right to him. It hurts. He loves bugs so I think it’s more of the betrayal than anything that bothers him
I was stung by a bee inside my ear once while riding the school bus to school. That was very much in the Not Fun category. The worst part wasn’t the sting, but the now dead bee stuck in my ear. And the oogie factor was very high.
Worse, though, was the wasp. Big honkin’ dangling leg type. Opening the hatch on the boat, I disturbed a wasp’s nest that no one knew was there. A wasp came out and stung me repeatedly on the very tip of my nose, at least half a dozen times. I ended up spending the night in the hospital for that one, because they were worried about me developing a dangerous reaction to it (I was 12, I think, so I don’t remember the details.) I looked like Karl Malden.
2.) I remember that it hurt. I was about four at the time, and I was crying pretty badly. Though it was a bee that stung me, I don’t really have a thing about bees. I mean, I don’t like them swarming my food, but they don’t ook me. Wasps, on the other hand. . .::shudders::
3.) I’ve been stung three times. The first was just below my ear; poor thing got caught in my hair, and the last thing it saw was the bottom of my mom’s shoe. The second time was on my left thumb; I remember it hurting, but also being annoying. The third time, it was on my right middle finger, which swelled badly enough that I couldn’t move it. Of course, being in my early teens at the time, I thought this was freakin’ hilarious. It hurt all three times, but seemed less bad as I got older.
If so, what do you remember about your first experience being stung? How serious an effect did it have on you, both physically and psychologically?
I don’t remember the first time, so obviously it didn’t have that great an effect. I do remember walking into a pile of fire ants up to my ankles and being stung rather a lot. I was covered in welts for some time. It made me very, very careful about stepping in ant piles.
Most recently I was bitten or stung by something on my leg, which swelled up and got infected and all kinds of crazy ugly things. I am now on my second round of antibiotics for it, and am crossing my fingers. My father thinks it was a spider bite.
How many times have you been stung overall?
I don’t know, probably thousands if you count mosquitoes and chiggers and no-see-um’s and so on. I was a curious child and always out of doors, usually in wooded areas. I have never, for whatever reason, been bitten by a tick although by rights I should have been.
I have been stung once. I was on a backpacking trip when I was about 9 and was stung on the upper lip by a bumblebee. It hurt, made my lip swell so it was hard to eat and made me sick. It also made me very afraid of bees for years.
1) Have you ever been stung (by any flying insect)?
Yes, by wasps.
2) If so, what do you remember about your first experience being stung? How serious an effect did it have on you, both physically and psychologically?
Growing up, I had a huge fear of bees and wasps. I think the part about how sometimes you have to pull out the stinger was so gross that it pushed me over the edge. Seriously, I was mental about bees, and would run and cry hysterically if there was a bee or wasp anywhere near me. Thus, I avoided being stung until I was about 11(?) when I was playing in the woods with some friends and one of them stepped on a wasps’ nest.
I got the business end of a wasp a few times, and it definitely hurt, but I was somewhat surprised, even at the time, that it hurt, but that I didn’t drop dead of pain or anything like that. Another thing that was surprising was that the area continued to be pretty sore for a few days – I guess in my mind, I was so convinced I was going to drop dead immediately that I never gave too much thought to what happened after (I was really not the brightest kid ever).
Psychologically, it was a good thing in the end, because then it wasn’t such a big deal. I’m not going to become a beekeeper, but still, after being stung the first time, I stopped freaking out about it.
3) How many times have you been stung overall?
Maybe three times? Fortunately, none of the times other than the first was at all memorable.
They love me too, and I really loved bugs as a kid (also snakes, frogs, crayfish, um, you know, I am pretty much responsibe fro my mother developing Nerves Of Steel. For me she initiated the “empty your own pockets” rule of putting clothes in the laundry.)
What you ahve to do is explain to him why they sting/bite. My did did such a good job of this that I admired them for attacking me.
