I just fought a mighty battle with a bumble bee I found in my car. I found him when I leaned back against him and he stung me. Not knowing what was sticking me in the back, I reached back and grabbed the little bastard, whereupon he also stung my hand. Who knew they were such persistent little buggers?
The second sting doesn’t have nearly the pain or swelling of the first. However, it DOES hurt like a bitch. So far, no serious allergic reaction, which I suppose means I’m safe.
However, I am afraid to go outside now. I mean, there are BEES out there. BEES, I tell you! And they’re all after me!
I’ve never been stung by a bee in my life. I’m the only person I know of who’s made it nearly twenty-five years without experiencing this.
What does it feel like? A pinch? A shot from the doctor? A red-hot poker jammed an inch into your skin and left there? I have this fear that I’m horribly allergic to bee stings and my throat will swell up and I’ll die if I’m ever stung, but no one knows since I’ve never been stung.
Had a bumblebee fly up the sleeve of my jacket when I was riding my Harley a few years ago. I thought it was a burr or something poking me. I kept rubbing it, hoping it would stop.
Then he must have dug deep into a nerve, because it felt like my arm was being electrocuted! I stopped, shook my sleeve, and this big bumblebee fell out. My arm immediately started swelling up, and I drove to the nearest ER.
Turns out that bumblebees don’t carry the same poisons as other bees, so I wasn’t having a ‘hymenoptera allergic reaction’. The doctors couldn’t explain why my arm swelled up to over twice normal size, but I still got large doses of Benadryl injected several times.
Eventually they let me go, but I was too drugged up to ride home. A friend had to ride my bike home for me. How ignoble.
It feels awful! I suppose it does kind of feel like an injection from a doctor using a dull needle. And now I feel all crappy too. I have a fever and a headache.
I took some benedryl hoping to ward off any more swelling and maybe even put myself to sleep so I don’t have to be awake while I’m hurting.
Don’t worry though. I squished the little bastard all over the side walk. So I guess I won!
I can’t speak for all those evil bees out there (bumblebees, wasps, hornets, yellowjackets) but honeybees only sting to defend their hive. And only once. In the process their guts get ripped out with the stinger and they die. So if you are stung by a honeybee, you can take some satisfaction that it is dying a slow horrible death as you pick the stinger out of your skin.
I have had the same experience with bumblebees. I stepped on a hole-in-the-ground nest one time and one (only one, luckily) came out and stung me. As I walked away slowly and calmly, which is the “right” thing to do, the little bugger stung me on the back. I think somehow I got her on the ground and stomped her. Ha!
[sub][nitpick] only female bees sting. males don’t have a stinger. so it technically wasn’t a “bastard” [/nitpick] but it hurt you, so you can call it whatever you want :)[/sub]
Ino, I’ve made it to 23 without being stung. My dad is somewhat allergic to beestings, so I fear I might be too. I’ll keep my distance from them, if they keep theirs.
I’ve only been stung once when I was 10. A bee flew between my glassed and my face and got stung right below my eye. I’m the only person in my family that is not allergic.
I, too, was aware that only honey bees die after stinging; bumble bees and yellow jackets (which often look like regular old bees) can sting multiple times.
Because stings release a small amount of venom/poison when they sting, even non-allergic (or mildly allergic) people can have ill effects afterwards. I had a friend in youth who was mildly allergic (compared to her mother and other siblings who were HIGHLY allergic).
A couple of times she was stung and after thoroughly washing the area and making sure the stinger was out (if left behind by the bee) her mom would crumble a vitamin and mix it with a little water to form a paste and put it on the sting to minimize effects. A quick check of the web for those types of natural remedies seems to indicate that aloe and vitamins E and A are helpful in relieving post-sting effects. One natural first aid (meant for camping and such) indicates that a little wet clay is miraculous…but who has wet clay handy?
This time of the year wasps are a big problem, their food supplies are dwindling and they look to other sources. I can’t even bring a can of soda pop outdoors with me anymore, the Yellow Jackets are so bad.
I get stung all the time, but I have never been stung by a bumblebee. They will not sting while actively collecting pollen, only when you are a threat to the nest, or, as you found out, they are trapped.
In the early mornings when it is cool, you can find the worker bumblebees asleep on flowers and you can pet them, they will not sting you then.
Indeed, bumble bees aren’t very agressive. When I was a child, I believed they didn’t sting and since I liked them, I often teased them while they were on flowers. I never been stung by one of them.
By the way, for someone who isn’t allergic, a bee sting isn’t that awful. Perhaps like a shot when you’re stung, and afterwards the pain is comparable… with a light burn, perhaps…
I was helping a friend do some heavy-duty work a few weeks past.
It was a cloudy-crappy day and things just weren’t going right.
While digging with him in his front yard to place a post, each of us got stung by about twelve Paper Wasps when we accidentally uncovered an underground hive.
It wasn’t very fun.
I went to the store, bought some dramimine (for motion sickness) and took a few of those. Following, I smoked a joint, and slept for 20 hours.
I was stung for the first time at age 28. While working at a summer camp, one of the little buggers got me on the leg. It felt like a very sharp sting, and immediately elicited a stream of naughty words from me, much to the amusement of the kids nearby.
The people in the infirmary were intensely interested in me for about five minutes. After that, when it was clear I was not about to go into anaphylactic shock, I was simply a big blubbering nuisance.
The bite on my back itches, but it’s not too puffy anymore. And the one on my hand is invisible and hardly hurts. I guess the trauma is over. And not even a very good story too tell the grandkids. Sigh…
I’ve been stung by bees, wasps, etc. numerous times… to me, at least, it feels like a red-hot poker driven into you skin for a few seconds… then it hurts for a few seconds… then it hurts a little but for an hour or so.
Not too bad, but not something I’d want to do on a regular basis!
Well, all I have to say about bees, hornets, wasps, and such such is that if I was allergic, I think I’d be dead about 20 times over by now, at least.
OK, I lie, that’s not all i have to say. I was stung just two weeks ago, pulling weeds under a handicap ramp. There was a nest of honeybees under a railroad tie. About ten came out at first, so I quickly backed away, and wasn’t stung. Seeing as people use the ramp, we spayed insect killer in it that night. The next day, all seemed fine, no bees. Anyways, then I had to re-seal the driveway. I did so, getting a lot of tar on me. Went to rinse off the brushes, and, of course, the hose is near the nest, and one of the few remaining got me. Luckily, though, the tar on my hand was so think the stinger got stuck in THAT, and not me. I was happy.
Anyways, stings do suck, and I’m jealous of people who don;t get stung. You’re lucky.
“Hey Bobby be careful there’s likely to be bees out in the lower field this time of year.” Grandma Sexy called out to the twelve-year-old boy who had just dashed out the door without taking the slightest bit of notice.
“Bees grandma what’s wrong with bees, grandma Sexy” chirped Bobby’s younger sister Laura. She had just turned four and this was her first visit to the 400-hectare horse ranch Sexy now relaxed in over the long autumn months.
“There’s nothing ‘wrong’ with bees dear, you have just got to treat them with respect, and well to be honest I had a bit of a problem with a bee once, nothing serious mind you, but enough of a jolt to sit-up and take notice. You see it was a ways back in the autumn of two thousand and one. I was still up in New England at that time in the big city. Life was a lot different then than it is now, none of these new fangled nanobots running round doing everything for you. Everyone was constantly in a rush to get everything done themselves. You remember watching ‘The Santa Clause’ last year at Christmas?”
Laura sat thoughtfully, screwing up her face as she thought back. “You mean the one with the funny man who became Father Christmas and had the big wobbly tummy?”
“That’s the one dear, well you remember all the fun tin cans that people used to go places in the movie?”
Laura nodded enthusiastically, “Yea they were really silly why didn’t people just pop places it’s so much easier?”
“we didn’t have popping back in 2001, so we all drove around in tin cans that we called cars.”
“Even you grandma Sexy?”
“Yes, even me dear, in fact that is where the story all begins. You see I was driving along in my car, along the streets of the big city, and the noise, oh the noise, you can hardly imagine the noise of the city in those days, it was deafening cacophony of riotous sounds assailing you in an unending barrage, that just never ended.”
“Ah what’s a conficany, grandma Sexy?”
“Sorry, I got a little carried away there didn’t I there was a lot of noise in the big cities in those days, and people where so busy rushing about they paid very little attention to anything else. So there I was driving along in the city with all of the noise, rushing along with everyone else when I felt it, a creeping up my spine” said grandma Sexy. Reaching over and creeping her fingers up the back of Laura’s spine, as she squirmed and giggled hysterically. “Stop it, stop it, that tickles”.
Sexy smiled and reclined back in her chair. “I can tell you it was awfully distracting, there I was a zooming down the street in my car and a creeping up my spine came a bee, not that I knew that at the time mind. When all of a sudden the all of the cars stopped in front of me, and I had to come to a sudden halt. Now we didn’t have the EquiSystem back then so the poor little bee crawling up my back got a little squashed as I stopped and it did not like that one bit. So she popped out her stinger” said Sexy, as she smiled, and gently flicked a needle she had surreptitiously removed from her sowing bag.
“And it give me a prick as if to say now watch what you are doing. I jumped with an ouch, then gentle reached behind me”
Laura giggled a grandma Sexy contorted over herself in a mock rendition of the gymnastic feat of her youth.
“And onto my hand jumped a cute little bee, we stood there looking at one another in shock, ‘Well sorry misses bee, but what are you doing creeping up my spine, that’s no place for you now is it’. She just looked back at me and pricked me again, as if to say that’s no excuse, before taking off into the sky. So as you can see you must always be careful when dealing with bees for even though they look nice, they are wont to take offence and are not shy at telling you off when they do.”
I’m allergic to bees. I was stung once when I accidentally squished one that I didn’t know was there. I had a welt about 9 inches across ringed in green. I was on pennicillan for about 2 weeks.
But I still love bees. Honey bees, anyway. I like to let them land on my hand and feed them drops of soda pop. They’re cute and fuzzy. I’ve never been stung by one other than the one time, and that was my fault.
