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OT: Yellow Jackets and Dads speed

RBnSC

RBnSC

Well-known Member
The post a couple of days ago about the speed of bumble bees made me think of some thing that happened years ago. Dad has always been hard headed and still is. One day my Dad and my brother were bush hogging a property line for a friend. My brother was driving the tractor and Dad was walking behind. My brother stopped a warned him that was not safe. Dad would not listen told him to drive the tractor and not worry about Him. Well a few minutes later my brother ran over a nest of yellow jackets and Dad walking behind stepped right in the middle of them. Not realizing what had happened my brother sees Dad run past flailing with his hat, right on out of site. I don't know how many times he got bitten but Dad still does not think it's funny when the story is told about his lightening speed.
Ron
 
My father worked for a guy for a while who fixed wind damaged barns. At one place that they worked, the farmer was just going to pick up his teenage son from the hospital. The boy had been sickle bar mowing a pasture when he cut into a hive of yellow jackets the size of a washtub. He left the tractor because he could make better time on foot. They chased him for over a half mile. He had no shirt on and was stung full from his neck to his waist. The farmer threw him into the truck and raced for the hospital. He was in ICU for a day and in the hospital for three more days. The crew Dad was on worked late one night, then helped the farmer pile hay bales around the hive after dark, douse it with gas and burn it.
 
Yes, my dad and a friend moved a big rock when doing some landscaping in the 70s and were attacked by bees (wasp yellow jackets). My Dad was in his late 40s and could still move pretty well, but the other fellow was in his 70s. Dad got both of them out of the bees and they went the ER. They were given anti-venom and while kind of sick that night, they were O.K. It does not happen very often but bee swarms can kill. We had a stupid in-town neighbor that had honey bees in the siding of her house when my wife was in college. She tried to spray them herself because she was too to tight to call a professional. The bees swarmed our house that night. I got my family out the back door and we stayed at my parents that night. That really scared me knowing how my dad was stung a few years earlier and my daughter was an infant. It could have turned out really bad.
 
Went to shut a pipe gate at the corner of the barn and a Yellow Jacket out of nowhere got me on the arm. A sting use to never bother me. Just dab a little gasoline on it and go on This time it swelled up about the size of a half dollar and hurt for a good 30 minutes. I quess when you are over 60, your system can"t handle it as well.
 
Stings never bothered me in the past until about 4 years ago.

A ground bee got me on my little finger while mowing the back bank. I thought nothing of it other than it hurt. I continued mowing till I went about 75 feet and turned around and started back. got this real queezy feeling , felt like the lights were going out, got the sweats. had to lay down for awhile. ---scary
 

I found a big nest out back of the barn one time - and they sure got mad in a hurry!

I made sure the kids knew to stay away, waited until evening when it cooled down, and then shot a burst of flame at the nest...

Between them moving slow because of being cool & the flame burning their wings, not a single one got away...

Howard
 
It amazes me that so many can dismiss the bee or yellow jacket as a nuisance. My wife got stung maybe once or twice as a kid, then third time had to be rushed to the hospital..for forty years she carries an EPI pen to stab in her thigh if she ever gets stung again..gives us more time to get to the hospital. Her throat swells shut in short order. Just one dam bee sting. Of course the pen is never near by and has to be represcribed due to shelf life periodically. Leonard
 
a farmer i worked for milking cows kids had some 4-h beef calves. the calves got out so we chased them back in. farmer had old well casing for gate post.
i swing the gate shut didn't know it but a nest of those little bumble bees decided that was a was good place to call home.
one of them hit me on back of hand.
my hand swelled up so much i couldn't bend my fingers, no cow milking that night for me.
 
I mowed into some of what Southerners call yellow jackets, small striped ground-nesting bees, a couple weeks ago. They are pretty determined once they get started stinging you. I waited until they settled down and then poured a little gasoline in the hole.
 
Several years ago, I was hanging out some laundry on the clothes line. A red wasp tagged me on the forearm about half way between the wrist and elbow. Didn"t swell that much, but had a nasty red streak about 2 inches wide and 5 or six inches long that wrapped around from the top of my forearm to the underside.

Found out those nasty @#$%! were nesting in the ends of the clothes line pole. I took some tennis balls, cut a slit in them, then pounded them in the ends of the poles to seal them up. No more nests there.
 
I seem to be going the other way in regard to reaction to bee stings. I always had a typical reaction when younger- pain for hours, swelling for days, itching. No anaphylactic or respiratory problems, however. Last couple of times, pain stops in a couple minutes, no sign of the sting site after 15 minutes or so, no swelling, and a general overall "warm" feeling that's not unpleasant. Still no allergic symptoms. Some have said I may be developing an allergy, but others opine that I may be developing an immunity. Don't know- but I don't push my luck, and try to avoid being stung.
 
I sucked one out of a drinking straw once and it stung my tongue. I knew enough not to grab it and pull it out. I used a knife and broke the lillipop off. Tweezers couldn't pull the barb out so I had that to deal with for 2 weeks
 
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