Death in the Tall Grass

When I was younger, a friend and I went exploring around in the woods that were on base (Ft. Meade). We came down over this bank through a mess of briars and it was like something out of a horror flick. This black cloud of buzzing just surrounded me (I was a bit infront of her). we both ran but for some reason they just attacked me. I ended up getting tangled in the briars and the stinging in my legs and face and body made me go numb and coupled with falling into the mess of briars I was bad off. I ended up crawling and screaming, for help trying to get to my feet. Some people came by and heard me and ended up helping to pull me out of the tangled mess and into a field where a bunch of people helped me get undressed because the bee's were all over my clothers. I was helped to the Hospitol.

Scariest part was my friend went back to get my clothes and over 3 hours later the bee's were still on them and stinging them. It took over 24 hrs for all the yellow jackets to leave. I dont know why they kept attacking my clothes and most of the people who helped me get undressed to get the bee's off never got stung and my friend was only stung once. I spent 3 days fighting off the swelling and extreme amounts of yellow jacket venom. I was stung several hundred times and was picking stingers out of my head for hours. Still have little round scars around my ankles, waist and head......I have a bad bee phobia, and couldnt go outside for a LONG time without someone there. and it took several years before I could re-remember the events.

I know this is a long winded story, but I have a very healthy respect for stinging critters now and just wanted to share that.
 
Rocky - Yep, that would be funny! But, I'll tell you what, those yellow jackets are no joke! As B74 documents in his story, they are as aggressive a critter as I have encountered... I'll admit that standing there with that bag vibrating in my hand, my heart was pounding......

B74 - Sorry to hear about that experience, glad you came out OK!

Pict - The title of your thread and the comments you make in the video are pretty ominous, do those guys down in Brazil pack that big a wollop?
 
I havent got much of a story but Im gunna tell it anyway :)
there is an old lady 5 doors down , I mow her lawn for her , neighbourly thing to do I guess , it was summer , and hot , so I was on the ride on mower in just t shirt and jeans , mowing near her hedges and then I noticed that the flies were really thick and loud all the sudden , then I realised Id bumped a hive of swarming bees and they wasnt real impressed with me ...I drove the mower as far as I could ( I was thinking about recovering it later ... easier away from the swarm than near it ) and then stopped it and ran , I only had 30 something bee stings not counting the multiple ones where the stinger got stuck in my shirt or jeans and kept stinging as the clothes moved ...

if I was allergic to bees I would have had trouble for sure ...
 
Mneedam,

I have not been attacked by them here yet, but they sting like wasps back home. I didn't stop to count but there were alot of wasps there easily 200. I was holding the camera out at arms length about 3 feet away from them.

I am a veteran of a 19 sting wasp attack in the US, crushed their nest with my knee under a picnic table, nearly broke my arm getting out of the table. This was on my mind.

The caretaker out at our camp property raises africanized honeybees. I have messed with them in a full bee suit and that is enough to give you a heart attack. Mac
 
Mac- I like your comparison to a land mine.... Your thread reminded me of other stinging critters too... When I was very young, I picked up a yellow centipede that bit or stung me, I still remember how much that hurt... A couple of years ago I was doing some work at a bauxite refinery in the carribean and a guy that was working with me said "watch out for that thing on your shoe, they pack a punch". I looked down and there was a centipede about 6 inches long and a 1/2 inch wide on my boot... I checked my shoes every AM before I put them on after that...
 
So, uh, mneeham...how's your garbage man doing?

Those are some frightening stories!
 
If you are allergic wasps or hornets literally can be "death in the tall grass"

I grew up on a farm and got tagged countless times while I was a kid, didnt get dinged by anything for a few years, then when about 17-18 yrs old chucking hay bails got zapped by a couple wasps/yellowjackets.

I didnt think to much about it and kept working, after about 20 minutes was getting quite itchy to the point I couldnt handle it anymore, I thought that I had gotten hay chaff down my shirt and pants and told my dad I was going to have a shower, of course the old man said something along the line of " ^&*#ing kids , going to slack off",
By the time I had made it to the house and walked in the door I was getting hives all over and had a head like a pumpkin, my mom took one look at me turned white and said what the hell happened to you...

Got blasted into town to the ER dept, by the time I got there I literally had hives over my entire body and not enough hands to scratch em all, got a shot of Epinephrine , a bunch of antihistamines etc, I tell you that epi was like a cool wave stopping the itch.

apparently if stung enough your body develops antibodies to the venom, next time you get stung your body overreacts to the venom and anaphylaxis develops with potentially life threatening swelling.


About 4 years after that one of my friends mom got stung in the face by a black hornet, she much like myself had never had a problem before but reacted this time, face and airways swollen, by the time the paramedics had gotten to her severe anoxic brain damage had set in , her family allowed her to go in peace about 5 days later.


Both episodes were a very big eye opener to me, I do not go out in the sticks with out my Epi kit in the pack during the spring to fall seasons.


Last summer I got tagged for the first time in about 18 years by a wasp on the kneecap ,
my knee puffed up like a damned basket ball and stayed that way for about two days, no hives thank the gods .

The weird thing is its only wasps that make me react, have been dinged by a few bees and I dont react to them.


A
 
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