Oh that hurt

[broomy]

There I was Tuesday afternoon on the banks of the river Tees planning to stop till dark and hopefully repeat my sucess of the previous eveng and land a double figure barble.
I set up in the previous evenings swim and then armed with matchet and small trenching spade set off to clear out a few more swims.
The river in this area has very steep banks heavily treed and covered in weed incliding giant hogweed.
So I had on my long rubber gloves and gogles to protect me from the hog weed.
Swim chosen and weed cut down I removed the protective gear and started digging a few foot hold's and spot for my chair.
All of a sudden I have a buzzing insect inside my cap.
Outch its stung my head, ouch I have been stung on the ear, outch I have been stung below my left eye.
Oh no theres lots of them and now I am getting repeat hits to my head and face.
All of this taking place in a matter of moments.
I stumbled fell picked myself up and ran out into the ajacent field.
Luckily the attack stopped and I made my way back to my gear.
I spent the next I dont know how long in a world of pain.
When I looked in the mirror later that evening I realised the attckers may have been bees because the stings were still stuck in my face, wasps dont leave a sting.
All I can think of is I dug into a nest, strange because we had a 5 meter plus flood through the previous weekend and that was way above were I was working?
Still feeling the affect two days later and woundering when I will get the confidence to venture back out, never experienced anything like this in over 50 years of time in the outdoors

[peter crabtree]

Wrong place wrong time....

Don't let it put you off .....

[S-Kippy]

You have my sympathy. Bee stings dont affect me much bar hurting but I suffer a very severe reaction to wasp stings. I got jabbed in the neck one time & ended up in A&E suffering from anaphylactic shock. Very unpleasant I can tell you and had that happened miles from anywhere on me own I could have been in very serious bother.

Tedious things wasps. They dont bother me but I just dont dare start a fight with one.

[maceo]

Broomy - Sympathy about the attack. If it was bees then you'd have to really upset them for them to attack you like that. There must have been a hive around somewhere.

Could I clarify something by the way?

You say that you spent the next hours in a 'world of pain' but then you didn't look in a mirror until the evening.

Can I infer from this that you carried on fishing despite the attack? With a load of stings hanging out of you and everything?

If so, fair play fella.

That's dedication that is!

[Ron The Hat Clay]

It would be about 1975 when I went bass fishing to an isolated lake about 60 miles from my home. Around the lake were a few dead wattle trees. I spotted what looked like a ringhals (black necked spitting cobra), which slithered away and swam across the water. This was obviously a spot where humanity rarely trespassed.

Suddenly I was surrounded by a swarm of African bees. I received about 30 stings I guess, the peculiarity being that I hardly felt them.

I jumped back into the car and closed the windows. It took perhaps 15 minutes for the bees to disperse. I spent the next few minutes pulling out the stings. Again I hardly felt them, just a slight itching.

I since consulted my doctor who informed me that some people are totally immune to bee venom.

I can't say the same about wasps however, they hurt like hell.

[barbelboi]

Unless a person has a bee sting allergy, the average person can safely tolerate 10 stings per pound of body weight. The average adult can withstand more than 1000 stings, although 500 stings could kill a child. A bee stinger contains different toxins to a wasp stinger therefore a person who has an allergy to wasp stings may not suffer from a bee sting allergy.

Honey bees can sting predators such as other insects repeatedly. However, worker honey bees have barbed stings, causing the stinger to get lodged in the skin of mammals. This is fatal to the bee when they try to pull away from the victim, and the bee will die after the incident.

Bumblebees and solitary bees are usually very docile, and stinging is rare.
Jerry

[superted77]

Got stung twice by wasps last summer, within 2 weeks. The 1st time was driving in the car with the window open, felt something land on my neck, then slapped it and had a wasp sting my neck.

Two weeks later was struggling down an 12ft embankment on a Durham stretch of the Wear with my rod net and shoulder bag noticed a small mouse hole, thought nothing of it, seconds later loads of wasps swarmed out stung me on the earlobe, i rolled down the bank and in to the drink with water up to my knacky noos wellys full of water had
to wade thru the river away from the wasps then clamber up the bank further along, thru 4ft of nettles and brambles, then try to retrieve my gear without getting stung again.Would of had people in stitches if anybody had seen
Fortunatley my rod wasn't broken but 2 days later with my ear like a
yorkshire pud had to visit the Docs for antibi's was told if i get stung again
will probably go in to shock, so must to go to A&E.

[peter crabtree]

A few years ago I visited Finland and my mate and I went fishing.
All was going well until a wasp got stuck in my collar and stung the back of my neck. At first it hurt and throbbed and although uncomfortable I kept on fishing until I suddenly felt all my strength drain from my body.
I tried to shout to my mate but no sound would come from my mouth.
I staggered to the car park and leant against the car, luckily my friends wife turned up with some refreshments and noticed my plight.
She got me in the car and we drove 10 miles to a clinic.
That was the journey from hell for me. My palms and the bottom of my feet were itching not to mention my plums and ringpiece which were on fire.
I undressed in the surgery and my whole body was like a beetroot.
Out came a big syringe full of cortisone which the nurse stabbed into my botty.
I don't speak Finnish but noticed the word "urticaria" being mentioned.
Woke up on a bed half an hour later fit as a fiddle..

[Ron The Hat Clay]

I've suffered perhaps more bites and stings from insects and arachnids than most people. One of the worst was a large European hornet which stung me in the finger when I was about 11 years old. It was my fault of course, I was scrumping apples.

Hornets, especially those massive Japanese hornets can kill.

What surprises me are the "authorities" that state that certain insects and spiders are harmless. Bollacks!!

Even a few British spiders can give you a very nasty bite. False widows and the big house spiders are the ones to watch for.

My next door neighbour's wife was bitten by a black button spider (black widow) years ago; she spent a week in hospital.

The nastiest sting of the lot comes from the Tsetse Fly. They look very similar to the common UK horse fly, but the bite is like a blunt injection.

[maceo]

Superted - that's some story and nicely described!

Having 'fallen in' myself on the 1st day of the season the other week before I even got the rod out of the bag, I know the disappointment of a session that never even gets started.

I bet you'll be watching very closely for "mouse" holes on the bank in future eh?