Mowing Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later..... and today it was my time

[DarkBlack]

It was a beautiful 60F fall day in Almost Heaven... I was trimming around some flowers around a huge azalea bush, minding my own business... Paying attention to my task, I missed seeing the beach ball sized nest mounted in the center of the bush amongst all the branches about 7 feet off the ground. They must have been upset my buzzer was making more noise than they could. At once I started feeling excruciating pain so severe I couldn't identify the exact source, I went immediately into a state of panic and began to run. I ran across the back of the property and down the side, jumped a fence, and ran across the road. Stopped for a moment, I had ran nearly 300 feet. Almost instantly as I turned to look behind me, I started feeling the same pain as before and saw a swarm coming for me. This time I had a little more wit about me as I now knew the cause of the pain; I ran back across the road, up the driveway, through the gate, up the sidewalk around back of the house, and into the swimming pool I jumped. Immediately stripped off all my clothes while underwater. One had hung onto the calf of my leg, even under water, even dragging my pants off over him, and was continuing to walk up my leg stinging every step of the way. After spending as long as I could underwater brushing my hands over my entire body to make sure no more were hanging on (at this point I was in so much pain I couldn't feel the individual stings), I came up, exhaled, inhaled, and back under I went. I did this a couple times until I was near losing consciousness, found my underwear at some point during all that and got them back on. Climbed out of the pool and went to the door shivering due to a combination of shock and the cool air (60F is NOT swimming weather) and asked for a towel and some Benadryl. Funny part, the azalea bush was only 15 feet from the back side of the pool. When the initial panic sets in you don't always think properly...

Glad you made it through that.
Doesn't matter how big and tough you are, You're going to bolt, and your brain is set on survival.

 

[kebo]

It was a beautiful 60F fall day in Almost Heaven... I was trimming around some flowers around a huge azalea bush, minding my own business... Paying attention to my task, I missed seeing the beach ball sized nest mounted in the center of the bush amongst all the branches about 7 feet off the ground. They must have been upset my buzzer was making more noise than they could. At once I started feeling excruciating pain so severe I couldn't identify the exact source, I went immediately into a state of panic and began to run. I ran across the back of the property and down the side, jumped a fence, and ran across the road. Stopped for a moment, I had ran nearly 300 feet. Almost instantly as I turned to look behind me, I started feeling the same pain as before and saw a swarm coming for me. This time I had a little more wit about me as I now knew the cause of the pain; I ran back across the road, up the driveway, through the gate, up the sidewalk around back of the house, and into the swimming pool I jumped. Immediately stripped off all my clothes while underwater. One had hung onto the calf of my leg, even under water, even dragging my pants off over him, and was continuing to walk up my leg stinging every step of the way. After spending as long as I could underwater brushing my hands over my entire body to make sure no more were hanging on (at this point I was in so much pain I couldn't feel the individual stings), I came up, exhaled, inhaled, and back under I went. I did this a couple times until I was near losing consciousness, found my underwear at some point during all that and got them back on. Climbed out of the pool and went to the door shivering due to a combination of shock and the cool air (60F is NOT swimming weather) and asked for a towel and some Benadryl. Funny part, the azalea bush was only 15 feet from the back side of the pool. When the initial panic sets in you don't always think properly...

this has GOT to be the worst horror story I've ever heard/read of someone being stung by winged insects!!! That had to be incredibly painful!! I'm glad you survived it without any long term ill effects, though.

 

[kebo]

Sorry, double post.

 

[HEC]

Glad you are okay , reminds me of my dad taking care of a bee hive with a dark colored snowmobile suit and a head net on . The bees didn't like that dark color and they came after him in full force . He jumped in his truck with bees and all and went to a small pond and jumped in . He didn't get stung a whole lot but he sure bought a bee suit in a hurry .

 

[nybirdman]

We had a service man tell us the best thing to kill hornets and bees is carburetor cleaner!

 

[oldpilgrim]

today i put my new Ratchet rake on for the first time and took it into the woods next to my driveway, to try clearing out some brush. After a couple of minutes of back and forth in the woods a stream of sunshine lit up the section of woods in front of me and I saw that I had just turned up the ground over a ground wasp's hole. There were hundreds of wasps buzzing around their hole. While I made a hasty retreat with my tractor out of the area, one lone wasp came under my tractor canopy and buzzed me but left quickly. I was wondering if he had any way to signal the rest of his army, but apparently not.

I lucked out today.

BTW, the ratchet rake is a fantastic tool!

 

[varmint]

Not a bad story, compared to most of the others, but the other day I noticed what I thought was a varmint hole next to a new fence post in our garden. I decided to plug it with some loose dirt. Unfortunately, it was a yellow jacket nest. I got out of there real fast, only one sting on the back of my hand, but it swelled up and hurt for a couple of days. I emptied a whole can of spray, with great pleasure. I believe I am either more susceptible to their stings as I get older, or the bugs have gotten stronger. Probably me.

 

[RobD70]

I have been reading this thread and admit it laughing at some of the stories. Today I took my tractor and tiller out to some land a couple guys had that they wanted a food plot tilled up on. 2 separate parcels, added together would be about 1 1/2 acres. Did the first one, weedy and rocky, tiller took a beating but finally got it done. Asked the guy about the remains of a paper like bees nest I saw as I new he had mowed off the area a week ago. He said the bees got pissed when he went over them and even madder the 2nd time he passed over. They werent happy but he was able to get them later with spray. I admit I laughed. We go down to the 2nd area and I start and thats even worse for rocks. Couldnt even lower the tiller in, in most of the area and it was instant solid rocks, really hard ground to because of being so dry. Finally 1 corner that had some rocks, but was ok. I back up to the edge to drop the tiller and start a pass, thought I did good, cause I was able to duck down and fit under a pine tree limb. When I started to go forward, I felt a couple spots of pain, right on the back of my head, and naturally I swatted at them, then I saw what caused the pain and first reaction was hit the clutch to stop the tiller and turned off the key and bailed and ran. Really pisses the bees off when you hit their nest with the back of your head. Then they chase you for awhile as you run. Got it 8 times in all, 2 on the back left side of my head, 3 on the back right side of my head, one on the back right side of my neck and twice on the inside of my right arms. The ones on the back right side of my head still hurt. As soon as I stopped running the guy looks at me and says "What was that you said to me at the first area?" and laughed. Glad Im not allergic.

 

[kebo]

Update: Last night around 9:30pm I rode my 4-wheeler back to the yellow jacket nest with a jug of gasoline and some deadly intentions. The nest is right at the edge of the gas line where I plan to put in a food plot in a couple of weeks, so it had to go. If it had been somewhere else, I would have just marked it off with stakes and flagging tape to avoid it, and left it alone.

I parked the atv about 30ft from it, with the headlights shining on it and shut it off. I slowly eased up to it with a flashlight and got about 6ft from it. Shining the light on the hole, I could see about 30 or so guards that were, well.... guarding the entrance. Very slowly I eased back to the atv and poured up a cupful of gas.

Eased back to the hole and got as close as I dared, took careful aim, and threw the gas around the hole. Perfect aim! None of them were able to fly off! I repeated that to make sure I got all the guards around the entrance. Then, I dumped about a gallon of gas down the hole. I covered it up with a flat 12x12 patio block I brought, and left it.

This morning I went back around 8am and just watched where the hole was at, and the area around it for 5-10 minutes. I did see a couple scouts trying to get back in the hole, but they left after they figured out they couldn't find it, or get back in. I prepared another cup of gas, and lifted up the block and doused the hole at the same time. None came out, or appeared to be alive. I did pour another gallon of gas down the hole, and covered it up again.

Mission accomplished. Next weekend I plan to start turning the food plot under. but I will watch that area again, before I get close to it, JUST to be sure there's no activity around it.

 

[kebo]

Sorry, double post.