Quick poll: Have you ever been stung?

In My Humble Opinion
61

Stung by one bee (in my armpit of all places) and about twenty times by wasps. Most of the wasp stings happened in one incident where I was dragging a dead branch down a hillside towards our campsite. I think I must have stood on a nest, but I got 14 seperate stings before I managed to flee the scene. I was trembling a bit afterwards, but that might have been because I got a fright rather than the venom.

Not a sting but a bite: Do not ever get bitten by what we call a cleg (some kind of horsefly, I think). I got bit on my stomach when I was a kid, and it was infected. The resulting boil was about the size of a golf ball. It burst the night before I was due to go and get it lanced. The scar is still visible thirty years later. Dirty vicious creatures. Ugh!

62

Several times, and I’m the type that really swells up when stung. The last time was on my ring finger when I had a cast on that arm. I go to the Emergency Room, and the doctors start debating about whether to take the cast off. They finally did when it started to crack from my swelling arm and my fingers were turning blue.

They gave me a shot, put a temporary splint on, and told me to come back to get another cast put on. I never did, and my arm is just fine, except for the scar where I was stung.

63

Twice.

Both times by a wasp. First time on my thumb second time on my big toe.

Second time was funny really, I was putting on a pair of socks that my wife had rolled up and the wasp was inside. Little sod must have been there a good while and he was mightily pissed off.

Neither time did it hurt all that much.

64

I have only been stung once, by what we always called a “sweat bee,” I don’t know the actual name. It was about a half inch long, yellow and striped with a very narrow body. I was maybe 12 years old. It didn’t hurt that bad, but my whole lower leg swelled up (it stung me on the calf). This has led me to think that I may be allergic to bee stings, and I am a bit paranoid about getting stung.

65

I have the same fear/paranoia as Asimovian. I was and still am anal about going out of my way to avoid stinging insects.

I’ve been stung twice. Once in college, I was throwing away a drink cup and a bee flew up the sleeve of my jacket and stung me on the back of my hand trying to get out. The other time I was stumbling around in the dark, and put my hand up to the wall to steady myself, not knowing there was a wasp right there waiting to sting my palm.

66

I have never been stung by anything - no bees, no wasps, nothing. So I’m terrified of getting stung by the ones who inhabit my garden - makes me very nervous and that’s why I haven’t done anything about the catmint that’s taking over. The bees love it.

67

I’ve been stung in the foot by a honey bee, in the head by a bumble bee (the critter got in the house while I was sleeping one afternoon, and dozy thing got tangled up in my hair. Sure woke me up real quick!) and in the forearm by a wasp at a beach (another freaky thing. The wasp got caught up between my torso and arm. Result - sharp jabbing sensation.)

The wasp sting happened back when I was still at school, on a field trip. The teachers freaked, worried that I’d go into allergic reaction or shock or something. I didn’t. As far as I know, I’m not allergic to stings.

68

I’ve been stung a few times by bees and wasps. None have been particularly memorable and have usually involved the hands or feet… 'cept one.

I was laying face down near the edge of our roof, hanging partially over the edge changing a floodlight. It was about 30 feet to concrete driveway below. Right about the time I’ve gotten the old light out and am screwing in the new light, the nest of wasps that had secreted themselves away in the eves come out to say howdy. I was stung in the ear.

69

1) Have you ever been stung (by any flying insect)?

Yes.

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?

I don’t remember ever being stung before I was eleven though I’m certain I had. When I was eleven I unwittingly stepped on a bee in the grass. Under the circumstances, I don’t blame it a bit for defending itself. Consider a giant creature about to step on you and see if you don’t use whatever defense you can!

Besides, I figure a bee’s sting hurts no more than getting a shot from your doctor. In fact, I think that odds are, the shot would probably hurt worse. Of course, you’re probably in trouble if you’re allergic to either the bee or the shot.

Anyway, I’ve always loved bees and anything beelike, including hornets and wasps. (OK, not so much for the hornets, which I’m getting to.) I find them fascinating! Every year I rescue several of the critters from inside of homes and even businesses using nothing but my bare hands! Never once have I been stung. OK, once. That was the hornet. Until then, I didn’t know what a hornet sting felt like.

It was thirty-plus years after the bee-in-the-grass incident. My youngest sister and her husband had just moved into the house they were just finishing building. Hundreds of ladybugs and a handful of hornets moved in as well to take advantage of the warmth over the winter. Our family had come over for dinner and I noticed that there was a hornet in the dining room trying to get out of the windows of the French doors. Well, I thought nothing of gently scooping it up in my bare hands. But then I had a problem. The French doors weren’t operational yet. They were taped to the door frame top and bottom.

So, with the little guy safely enclosed in my hands, I walked across the room to the front door. Which was also not operational yet. It didn’t have a doorknob and the hole where it should go was all taped up too. As I pondered my next move, the hornet lost its’ patience and bit me (it felt more like a bite than a sting) right in the middle of my right palm. I let it go and it flew under a nearby potted plant.

I have to say that I found the pain rather interesting. It was much more painful than a bee sting and it seemed to sink right down into the bones. But it wasn’t unbearable and, five or ten minutes later, it was pretty much a memory. No big deal. That said, I’ve known folks who have been stung by lots of hornets at once. Knowing how just one feels, I don’t envy them at all.

But bees and wasps, at least the kinds we have around here, are OK in my book. A few weeks ago, we were leaving a yard sale when I noticed what were probably wasps streaming out of a gap in a rock retaining wall. I stood with my face not more than three or four feet away for a few moments watching them exit. I would have loved to watch them longer but I knew with all the people around, someone might (a) think I was wierd or (b) freak out seeing so many wasps, which might lead to problems.

As I turned to leave, I noticed that the wasps were flying all around me, seemingly waiting to see if I was going to do them any harm. Since I didn’t and since I remained calm, they let me pass unstung.

I still feel sorry for them though. The folks putting on the yard sale noticed them because I stopped to look. I figure it was probably not long after that those wasps were introduced to a can of Raid. Poor things.

**3) How many times have you been stung overall? ** Twice that I remember. Maybe five or six times overall.

70

Bees, bluebottles (marine stingers with long tails that float on the surface), sea lice, and a “Spitfire” caterpillar.

None of them are much fun. If I had to choose one, I’d choose the bee. For those that have never been stung, a bee sting is the sort of thing that will make a child cry but not an adult (so that level of pain). And it’s much, much worse for the bee than it is for you. :smiley:

Bluebottles are nasty, and those are the ones that stung me the most as a kid. The worst is when they get you as you are wading in two feet of water on your way out to the deeper water or coming ashore. Then, the stinging tails can wrap around your legs several times, and you have to pull them off, so your fingers get stung too. Worse than a bee sting.

The sea lice (or whatever it was) was nasty. Only happened once. I went for a swim in the ocean in the evening, and the water had a strange flourescent quality to it. It was very beautiful. I don’t know if it was related, and at the time I put it down to the evening light. Anyway, I enjoyed my swim, but spent a sleepless night with itching all around the sensitive bits (it seemed to only affect the areas which were covered by my swimming trunks), and the itching was bordering on actual pain.

The caterpillar was bad. It was on a garden tap, and I didn’t see it until too late. It raised those orange hairs in defence, and I brushed against them. It was the worst of them all only because the severe itching lasted for weeks.

71

My earliest memory is of jumping off the stairs and landing on a bee. I must have been about 2.

I am not overly paranoid of getting stung, but it seems to happen to me every two years - the latest being two days ago when a wasp flew in the window of my car and stung me on the back. Little fucker.

Before that when I was camping, and before that just walking down the street.

I’d say in total I’ve been stung about 20 times in my life.

72

A bee flew into my hair as I was exiting a house, I spent several [what felt like] hours trying to persuade it to go away while it crawled all over my scalp, and eventually it stung me on the forehead, it hurt like heck initially. To this day I cannot abide the sight of any insect walking…

I was stung on the arm by a wasp and had a “reaction” to the sting (my arm swelled out like a rugby ball), a few years later [while on a roller coaster] I was stung in the mouth by a wasp - I was convinced I’d choke to death, but nothing happened…

73

I’ve never been stung despite having an outdoor job every summer.

74
  1. Yes
  2. I got stung the first time at around age twelve. A bee stung the back of my neck. No pyschological effects, it just hurt.
  3. I’ve been stung on two seperate occasions, but the second time involved multiple stings. When I was still about twelve, some wasps (or something…I’m not positive what they were) managed to build a small hive in my bedroom window. My father sprayed the nest, and thought he got them all, but missed at least one. Apparently the wasp hid out until night time, then got its revenge by stinging me three times. So, I was able to commiserate with that kid from the Shining.
75

Honestly, I can’t remember. I imagine I spent enough time outdoors growing up that I must have gotten a bee sting at one time or another, but really can’t recall any particular incident. Maybe not. :confused:

76

Well, of course I’ve been stung by a bee. The most memorable incident was when I was a wee lass of 5 or 6. My brother and cousins and I were playing “Queens and Slaves” (Hide & Go Seek with a gaol) at my grandma’s farm using an old 10’ x 10’ dog kennel as the gaol, when we captured slaves accidentally upset a nest of yellow jackets. My older sister, the wicked Queen, got stung once and took off, leaving me, my brother, and cousin inside the locked cage. I remember swatting at them and marvelling at how fuzzy their bodies felt. Who knew? We were each stung multiple times, of course, including one on my upper lip. But our injuries were nothing compared to what my sister had to endure from my father once he found her. Let’s just say that the Queen was lucky to escape with her head intact.

77

That’s pretty much my catalogue of stings too. I think the spitfire hurt the most.

78

Never been stung. Completely paranoid that if I am stung, I will die. A been flying around my head is about the only thing I’ve ever encountered that can pretty much panic me. I will start striking out at it and hyperventilating. Too damn bad, as it happens almost every year.

BTW, I’m nearly 50.

79

I swear you would remember. The pain is excruciating.

Another incident I just remembered, which is probably the cause of my bad wasp karma, is when me and my buddy Joe, aged 8 or 9, found a ground nest of yellowjackets in the woods. Joe had the idea of attacking it - don’t ask me why - so we pissed down the hole, poked sticks in it, and the piece de resistance was him swinging on a branch above it and slamming both feet into the entrance. At this point they swarmed and attacked us bigtime. We ran like shit, but Joe got caught up in the swarm and jabbed about 30 times, including by one that worked its way through the weave of his t-shirt, with its head outside and it’s abdomen inside, stinging away. Very, very foolish. And I didn’t get stung once.

80

I’ve never been stung by an insect with a stinger. I think the closest I’ve been was on a picnic with an ex. A bee landed on my (closed upper) eyelid and felt the need to inspect it for a good five minutes. The irrational part of me kept squeaking/whispering to the ex to do something to get it off, anything, I don’t care, just make it go away! If he had, I imagine one of us would have been stung. Thanks.

I’m 24.