20 replies to this topic

[Christian]

Was putting the lawn mower away when something flew at me, landed on my neck, and was quickly brushed away -- but not before it stung me.

My wife is out of town. I was sweaty and couldn't see well using multiple mirrors to try to view the sting, so I called my wife, who advised me to find a neighbor. A guy across the street who used to work for the Park Authority said, yeah, I got stung, but the stinger's not in me. The wound swelled a little, but he didn't think it was serious.

I can't remember how to treat a bee sting. What'd do when I was single? After talking with Sarah, I swabbed some hydrogen peroxide on the wound and took a Benadryl. I'm glad I'm not allergic to bees, but I'm still nervous, hoping the swelling doesn't get any worse.

This makes me want to never have my wife leave my side again.

[Darrel Manson]

My last sting was right on my finger tip - with a plethora of sensitive nerves. It is what I use as my idea of 10 when doctors ask how bad something hurts.

The key is whether the stinger is still in, in which case you scrape it away. using tweezers or fingers can pump more toxin into the wound. Then antiseptic and benedryl as you did.

Make sure you make your wife feel guilty over leaving you on your own in such a difficult situation. It's all her fault, after all.

[Darren H]

Our previous house had a swimming pool, and one evening last summer I decided to move the pool cover, which had been folded up and left on the deck when we opened the pool a few months earlier. I reached down into the cover and felt a sharp pain, then another, and then a third. It took me only a split second to figure out what was happening, so I jumped into the pool, fully clothed. (Fortunately, I didn't have my phone in my pocket.)

I ended up, as I recall, with six stings. Christian, I was also home alone at the time, and I actually freaked out a bit. I'd never been stung so many times at once and didn't know how my body would respond. I also just took some Benadryl and washed the stings.

The next day I sprayed an entire can of bug killer on the pool cover. After letting it sit for another day or two, I unrolled the cover and found the remnants of a massive yellowjacket hive.

[Christian]

Thanks, guys. The swelling has gone away, and I'm hoping the worst is behind me. I'm sitting outside, with a laptop (that ain't right), and flinching every time something flies past the deck light to my left. It's a beautiful summer night. The day was a scorcher, but things are more tolerable here after sunset. I have DVDs to watch, but not now.

I really should spend more time out here on the deck. It's peaceful ... as long as the bees stay away. Go away, bees!

[Peter T Chattaway]

Darren, that story is terrifying.

[Rich Kennedy]

Christian, on 17 July 2010 - 08:46 PM, said:

Thanks, guys. The swelling has gone away, and I'm hoping the worst is behind me. I'm sitting outside, with a laptop (that ain't right), and flinching every time something flies past the deck light to my left. It's a beautiful summer night. The day was a scorcher, but things are more tolerable here after sunset. I have DVDs to watch, but not now.

I really should spend more time out here on the deck. It's peaceful ... as long as the bees stay away. Go away, bees!

My wife is extremely allergic. I've been stung to no consequence. Not often and not in a long time despite plenty of opportunity. There is no real defense for Darren's situation (hidden hive), but your finching is exactly the WRONG thing to do. A bee might interpret your movement as aggresive, or the swatting might injure the bee in which case it will attack in earnest (one bee can sting multiple times). You don't seem to have a reaction, so relax. The best defense is to let it fly away once it sees that you have no pollen.

Edited by Rich Kennedy, 18 July 2010 - 05:41 AM.

[MattPage]

Baking soda/powder for Bee stings and vinegar for wasps. Digory got his first wasp sting last week (by poking one) and that and a bit of TV and he was right as rain moments later.

Matt

[John Drew]

I'd never had a bad reaction to a sting until the last time I was stung, which was about 16 years ago. A group of us was eating on the lawn outside our work place, when I felt several sharp pains on my right foot. A yellowjacket had crawled under the tongue of my sneaker, and when I shifted my foot it stung me several times. I'm not allergic, but being stung at least three or four times caused my ankle to swell as though I had sprained it. I went to the Dr. to be on the safe side, and was prescribed some anti-inflamatory, but it took nearly two months for the swelling to go down, and still to this day there is an area on my ankle that has never returned to its original size.

[Buckeye Jones]

The only defense against yellow jackets is eradication. Diesel soaked rags, deltamethrin, localized thermonuclear strikes.

I remember stepping on a hive in Connecticut years and years ago. We'd made a play fort out of a great hollowed trunk of a tree set above a little crick. Got stung a bunch, and as I sat inside our kitchen you could watch the swarm of yellow jackets fill the backyard with an incessant buzz. That evening, Dad filled a gallon jug with diesel fuel, marched down to the tree, soaked it, and tossed in a match. No more yellow jackets.

Crest toothpaste, for whatever reason, always helped a bee sting--put a little dab on the spot. Got stung again last year, by a yellow jacket whose nest I'd mowed over, but didn't even realize it until I'd plucked the still stinging wasp from my sock ten minutes later.

[MattPage]

Buckeye Jones, on 19 July 2010 - 08:19 AM, said:

The only defense against yellow jackets is eradication. Diesel soaked rags, deltamethrin, localized thermonuclear strikes.

FWIW some experts reckon depletion in the numbers of bees world wide preresents a greater threat to the human race than global warming. Fewer bees, plant fertilisation goes down etc. etc.

Quote

Crest toothpaste, for whatever reason, always helped a bee sting--put a little dab on the spot.

Same reason as the baking soda. It's alkali, neutralises the bee's acidic sting.

Matt

[SDG]

MattPage, on 19 July 2010 - 09:23 AM, said:

Buckeye Jones, on 19 July 2010 - 08:19 AM, said:

The only defense against yellow jackets is eradication. Diesel soaked rags, deltamethrin, localized thermonuclear strikes.

FWIW some experts reckon depletion in the numbers of bees world wide preresents a greater threat to the human race than global warming. Fewer bees, plant fertilisation goes down etc. etc.

Yellow jackets are not bees. They are enemies of mankind. (Also they are not real big plant fertilizers as their legs lack pollen-bearing fuzz.)

[Christian]

The sting site doesn't bother me, but it's still swollen. That surprises me. Should it?

[Darrel Manson]

Bees, smeeze. You wanna talk about getting stung? It's stingray season here.

Best way of avoiding is to learn the stingray suffle so you don't step on one. (The shuffling walk will warn them you're coming and they swim away.) Treatment is soaking in warm water.

[Russ]

I thought about this thread yesterday morning around 9:20 a.m. In the middle of the caravan to get everyone into the van to leave for church, I got dive-bombed by something or other and stung on the shoulder. Those first few moments are pretty uncomfortable, but what made it worse is how it pretty much ruined something that seemed to me to be experientially true that I'd been telling my kids to give them some comfort.

Last summer Ali unknowingly mowed over a ground nest and the resultant bee-chaos fell disproportionately on Ruby and Virginia, who were playing nearby. They each got a couple of stings, and about fifteen minutes afterward, when they were decompressing inside and watching TV, one of those pests had apparently got tangled up in Ruby's clothing and stung her again right when she'd calmed down. Since then, all of my daughters have been a little too freaked out by bees, or a little too freaked out for kids who generally like to camp and be outside and own lizards as pets, etc.

So to combat this apiphobia, I've been telling the girls repeatedly the old line that bees, et al., generally leave you alone if you leave them alone. That time last August when Daddy put his hand on a rail where a wasp had landed and got stung? Happened because the wasp was there first. Unfortunately, this wholly unprovoked attack, which took place in front of them, pretty much blew that out of the water. So now we all freak out when we see bees.

[mrmando]

There was a nice little wasps' nest hanging from the eaves of our house before we bought it. It's since been removed, but you can look up and see where it used to be. They might be nesting somewhere else nearby: Sebastian was on the balcony with Sarah the other day and a wasp got inside his shirt. Three stings. He was terrified of all flying insects, even moths, for about a week afterward.

Edited by mrmando, 26 July 2010 - 01:34 PM.

[gigi]

Can I just say - best thread title ever!

(Also, Christian, it sounds like you are what we in the North would call a "big girl's blouse". Heh.)

Edited by gigi, 26 July 2010 - 03:50 PM.

[Christian]

There are worse things to be. I think.

[MattPage]

: "a big girl's blouse".

I've not heard that since I left* Leeds. I need to reintroduce it to my vocabulary sharpish.

Matt

*I mean I still go back to Leeds, and see some of the friends that I knew who used to say it, but I can't remembering hearing it for all that time.

[gigi]

matt, clearly we need to hang out more often as it makes a regular appearance in my vocab. i like it because it's a leveller. it says 'attention seeking' but in a nice way.

[Christian]

BTW, I got atung by a bee again on Saturday. Same place: the shed. I approached with caution, opened the door to peek inside and try to locate the hive, but before the door fully opened, STING! on the right temple. This one didn't go too deep. It was less painful.

My wife, bless her heart, went out to see if she could locate the hive, and there it was, on top of the left door, between the door and the doorframe. This is what marriage is for.

I sprayed the hive and thought I'd killed everything, but later saw a few bees buzzing around the nest. We're picking up more bee spray and hitting the hive (nest? what's the correct term?) again before I need to get back in the shed.