Great line by Walter Brennan in one of my favorite Bogey/Bacall movies, "To Have and Have Not".
Well the one last night was still alive. I decided to walk barefoot through the yard to water the tomato plant and forgot the clover was in bloom. YOUCH, what did I step on? Then the vibrating stinging started, lifted my right foot and swatted him off but the stinger stayed in and kept pumping. I must have looked pretty silly hopping around on one foot, watering can in one hand trying to pull the stinger out with the other.
Haven't done that since I was much younger. I'm not allergic so I got an icepack on it right away and opened and analgesic Coors Extra Gold.
Got a bee story? Bzzzzzz.

When I was about 17 or so I was walking past a couple of bee hives,I must have walked by a million times,and for some unknown reason one flew off of the flight deck straight at me and stung me right on the tip of my nose.Ouch!I saw it coming and back peddled but the bee was quick.My friend had a good laugh at my expense.
Anyhow if anyone ever gets bit by one just remove the stinger and apply ammonia.It works well to reduce the sting.I didn't
hardly swell up.

D.G.

Yeah, it is good if you can get that stinger out without compressing the little sac that has the venom in it.

Ammonia works, but one of the best home remedies I have found is chewing tobacco or snuff. Moisten it and rub it on the sting. I guess the nicotine deadens it. DG, you might not want to use it on the tip of the nose, though.

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Georgia On My Mind

redlevel,I've herd of the tobacco trick.I wonder if those little individual packs that their selling now would be a good thing to keep handy for such events.Maybe in your first aid kit.

D.G.

I worked on a survey crew back in the 60's and in the summer you got stung at least one time a day.We had a new guy working with us one day and we were cutting line through a swampy area.I had lined the guy up and told him to cut to me when he began running and screaming! I looked up(he was about 100 feet down line from me) and the air behind him was yellow.He had disturbed the largest yellow jacket nest I had seen until then.I didn't wait around but ran to get in the crew pickup and he jumped in the back as we exited the area quickly.We took him to a local hospital as he really looked bad.The doctor counted over 50 stings on his face ,neck,arms and hands and pulled over 50 more "jackets" out of his long hair.That was his last day to work on a survey crew!

Bees do not bite. They sting once. Wasps can sting repeatedly. The old ammonia and baking soda paste is a great relief. Nicotine will deaden the pain also. Nicotine sulfate is one of the deadliest insecticides around (not used much anymore) Just put out your lit cigar or cigarette on your nose

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Still Running Against the Wind

Kept Honey Bees for years and taught classes about them. Most stings are not Honey Bees but the Hornet. As said above, the Honey Bee can only sting once, giving up his life. The stinger will pull out of his thorax and remain because of the barb on the stinger. Always try an remove the stinger with the edge of a knife or fingernail under the stinger and venom sack as the venom will be continue to be injected until removed. If nothing else is available ( ammonia, tobacco ) use mud as it also draws the venom out. The venom is protein and another cure is meat tenderizer as a poultice. The Hornet can both bite and sting. Their stinger does not have a barb so they can sting over and over. Not sure why the Hornet was invented as he sure is a nuisance and the Honey Bee usually gets the blame for the pain. The Killer Bee is a Honey Bee, but are most aggressive as they originated in Africa and were not native.

We had spent the weekend anchored in La Playa Cove between San Diego and Southwestern Yacht clubs off San Diego Bay. We took the pooch ashore for a short walk, we were only gone about 15 minutes. When we motored the dinghy back out to the boat everyone in the anchorage was pointing at out boat trying to warn us. A passing swarm of bees had settled on my radar arch and looked like they were there to stay. We got aboard alright and closed it up tight. Now the problem was how to get rid of them.

The first order of business was to slip into my bee keeper outfit and hope my bride didn't have a stroke from laughing so hard. I tried hosing them off by standing on the flybridge of the boat next to us, no luck. I set off a couple of flares and tried to smoke them out, no good. I wacked the radar arch with a kayak paddle to no avail..but it really seemed to piss them off. I even tried spraying them with Lysol. it was all I could find.

By now all of my "friends" at the yacht club are in hysterics and the abuse on the VHF radio was unbelievable. "Better go to Bee dock", "All boats with bees are hereby quarantined". Some of the other comments can't be repeated here. Finally after 2 hours the effects of the smoke from the flares must have gotten to them as they started dropping off in clumps onto the deck. I got the anchor up and driving from the lower helm station managed to return to our slip on "A Dock" where we got quite a reception. The last of the survivors flew off and I swept up their fallen comrades all without getting stung even once. (o;

I've never been stung.

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- The Federalist #46 -

redleval if you use chewing tobacco on a bee sting "You might be a redneck" Don

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"Don't worry be happy"

Walking down the sidewalk heading to a pro football stadium with a group of friends. My girlfriend at the time was allergic to bees and very panicky. A bee flew by her, she freaked out, ran into me (okay, slammed into me at full speed) and knocked me 1-2' into the road which was just enough to put me into traffic. I almost ended up on the hood of a taxi. I broke up with her after the game (she had the tickets).

I was at an outdoor range a few yrs back. while talking to a fella, I noticed a yellow jacket nest on a sign post by the firing line. I jokingly said "I can get more shootin time" and made a motion of hitting the post. well,,the "watch commander" must of heard that and took it as a real threat...he dispatched "one" (1)guard to "access the threat". When the bee flew out I took 4 steps away from the post but that only made me a better target, 'cause the bee made one circle around the nest and headed for me, he came in "from my 6" and hit me in front of my right ear.he died ,but this little scene only took 8 sec.
Shot, stabbed, clubbed. beat, auto wreck,burnt;; nothing hurts as bad a bee or hornet sting!!!

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UNDER THE CONE OF SILENCE

Hi:
When "Bit/Stung" apply Meat Tenderizer to the site. It will disolve the stinger.
Jimmy

"Was you ever bit by a dead bee?"


No, I neva was.

ALMOSE BIT BY A DEAD SNAKE ONE TIME

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WILL WORK FOR AMMO!

When I used to have a motorcycle, I got bees / wasps up my sleeve and in my collar several times. I also had a wasp hit right where my helmet met my head. I had just about convinced myself that there was no way he ended up in my helmet when he let me have it. Thought he was dead ....... but he wa'nt.

Lauren Bacall is STILL the gold standard of hawtness (the classy kind) by which all are measured.

/threadjack

No, I wernt.

One infallible remedy for bee sting, is, Take a fresh slice of onion, squeeze some of it's juice onto the bee bite, and it will alleviate the pain instantly. We've not tried it on other types of insect stings, but I believe it would work on them also.

A large bumble bee bounces off my review mirror lands in the car on my back. That hurt when it stung me. You can feel it clamp on just before the sting.

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Plant garlic in the fall

When I was a boy my Daddy told me that there were two kinds of bumblebees that buzzed around the farm. One had a black head and the other had a white/yellow head. One had the stinger and the other one didn't.

Well one day (I was a full grown man by now) I was in the back yard of my own house and saw a bee on the ground crawling over some clover. I thought about what my Daddy told be years ago, but for the life of me I couldn't remember if it was the black headed or white/yellow headed bumblebee that didn't have a stinger. So noting the color of the bee's head I picked him up and gave him a gentle squeeze.....and he stung the mess out of me!

To this day I still can't remember what color his head was, lol! So, when it comes to bumblebees and who has a stinger and who don't, for me it's like the number of licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop....I Will Never Know.


That's my bee story.

I kill them — not honey bees, but wasps and others that sting — by slapping them quickly. Impresses the heck out of people. A quick slap on a hard table can hurt a bit though. If the bee is on your body, or a body, it's easier. (On the hand, that is...)

Fantastic movie, I think it's better than 'Casablanca", mainly because it was Bacall and the start of a real love story that lasted the rest of Bogart's life.

And I have lots of wasp and hornet stories.

I got centerpunched in the forehead one day while riding; don't know for sure if it was a wasp or a hornet, but it went between my temple and helmet and then let me have it right in the ear. Damn near made me crash.

Hornets seem to be my real enemy, both the white-faced (actually a wasp) or the big European yellow/black ones. I was mowing along my fence line with the tractor once, and from the corner of my eye saw something coming out of the tree above me. WHAP! right on the forehead, a white faced hornet stung me; I guess he figured I was too close to his nest, about 3 feet over my head, that I hadn't seen due to camouflage.

Mowing another time under my chestnut tree, there was a low hanging limb and I was going to duck under it as I went by. Very last second, I stomped the reverse pedal and backed up. Didn't get stung, but don't know why not. Great big hornet nest in the low limb,

I named my younger daughter after her.

Attached Images

hornet's nest in chestnut 8-09 003.jpg (128.1 KB, 53 views)

Not bees but "ground wasps"- I was walking a path I'd walked often with a friend and stepped on a ground wasp nest. Mom took 12 of them off of my shirt when I got home!

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Support Israel!

Being born and living in Florida for 63 years I have been stung by yellow jackets, several different wasp types and bitten by yellow and horse fly's of course. Also stung from fire ants, Assassin bug and the Assassin bug may hurt the most. Would not be good to be allergic to anything living in Florida.

Early 80s, I5 LA to Bakersfield, great day for a heading home bike ride, no hat, no shirt, just croozin along at 80 and whap, a wasp hits me on my left chest, haul the bike down and over to the side and get gloves off to remove the stinger but it’s already to late, hurtz like hell and have a 36 DD breast augmentation, it was so pronounced I had to put my shirt back on because of how silly it looked, I’ve had them in my hat, up my sleeve, even end up in my boots, lotsa fun.

Living in the country, I've been stung numerous times over the years ( hornets, wasps, honey bees, bumble bees ). TheHornets and Wasps are the aggressive ones. Honey Bees really need to be provoked, and Bumble Bees are not aggressive at all; but wow do they pack a wallop if they do sting ya.

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John

We have used a similar remedy in that we would cut a slice of onion and tape it on the sting. One time i was stung by a small wasp or hornet and the same remedy worked like a charm.

I got stung once when I was up on a ladder putting a new net for my wife who likes shooting baskets. It turned out there was a hornets nest on the back of the board. I had a knife in my hand which I was using to cut off the old net. When the hornets swarmed out I threw the knife and dove sideways to the concrete. I only got stung once. I didn’t want to jump straight down because I was afraid of breaking my ankle. My neighbor who is an ER doc happened to be driving by and stopped to see if I was hurt. I didn’t get hurt because I knew how to fall from martial arts training.

I read that the way to kill a hornets is to wait till after dark when all the hornets return to the nest and then use a streaming hornet spray to kill them all at once. It worked and the next day I sprayed it off with the hose.

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I like Ike.

I like her Harry, she's alright.

Great movie.

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LIVE FROM THE DAWGHOUSE

I was once stung by a velvet ant (actually a type of wasp). Apparently, the fourth most painful insect sting there is. I don't know if that is true, but it sure sucked.

As far as dead bees...

I was in the process of cleaning up the house my wife and I were vacating. My young son was playing with a little rubber bee he had. I was busy and he was trying to get attention. He asked if he could sting me. I assumed he meant with the fake bee, but he had picked up a bee that had recently died on the window sill. It did in fact sting me when he pushed it against my arm.

I've also been stung by a dead scorpion.

Never been stung, been bit by a Copperhead…..felt like an electric shock.

You guys was bit by a dead thread.

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What, me worry?

You know a dead thread can bite you just as bad as a live one. ‘Specially if it was mad when it got kilt. I bet I been bit by a dead thread maybe a hundred times.

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Not in jail.

Back in the early 60's my brother and I along with some friends would always cut thru the swamp to get to the Lake We were always told to stay clear of the old abandoned Out House that was just off to the West side of the swamp. We were walking thru the swamp on the way home with a nice catch of Large Mouth Bass when all of a sudden My Brother Jumped about 3 feet high and started towards that old out house Screaming Bloody Murder followed closely by a swarm of Yellow Jackets. He must have stepped on a nest and some of them went directly up his Shorts. As he was pulling his shorts off several were stinging him viciously all over his YUP YOU KNOW WHERE my Mom mixed a bunch of baking soda and vinegar to help soooooth the pain,, 60 years later and He never will return to that swamp.

Rob

Around here we call those "Cow Killers"

I use WD-40 for bee stings . Works almost instantly to relieve pain , cuts down on swelling . Regards Paul

Here is the one that got me.

Right on the very tip of my middle finger.

I was in the garage running the table saw and felt something crawl down my neck in the back of my shirt.

I reached over the top of my head and pulled my shirt off.

OMG!

The burn!

I pulled the stinger out from the end of my finger and placed it onto a piece of paper and went into the house for some consolation from my wife.
You know how that went, right?

Anyway, a couple of days later I looked down on the floor in the garage and there he was. Sure enough. Through a great amount of forensic detective work I determined he was the one that stung me. And, my pictures prove that out.

His stinger looks like some medieval weapon. Felt like it too.

enjoy,

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One evening I was pruning the Ligustrium bushes at home, a wasp flew out and got me right on the tip of my nose, I almost fell off the ladder, I was sneezing like crazy and my nose running like a faucet but finally went to sleep. A little while later my wife goes into labor and tells me time to go to the hospital about 11PM. I walk in with her, the admit people didn't know if we were there for her or my big red clown nose!
A few hours later a baby boy, my nose turned out ok too!
Steve W

Did the boy inherit the big red nose? Professor Lysenko wants to know.

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Not in jail.

The old guy who owned the farm my deer camp was on got into bee keeping. We went over to camp just about every day, it was only 20 minutes from home. We kept a few steers and hogs and put in gardens over there. Anyway I got drafted into a lot of stuff over the years. The one thing I wanted no part of was the bees. I can be in a crowd of 100 people or be in the middle of a field and the nearest bee will peep off from formation and drill me. I could plan on getting stung everyday. It makes me mad because I ain’t messing with them and I still get it.

I was stationed in San Francisco and was going to lunch one day. We (Senior Chief (E-8) and I(E-6)) were standing outside the restaurant and I put my hand over the steel pipe railing overlooking the garden sitting area. Dang bee was on the underside of the railing and nailed my middle finger. I pulled the stinger out and flicked it into the bushes. SC asked if it didn't hurt. Naaa, I'm used to such minor injuries. That was the last time I've been stung.

Llance