This young man works for me during summer break from college. He is 20 years old and a work horse. Yesterday afternoon while cutting his parents grass he was stung by one of his father's honey bees. He showed up for work this morning like this with a smile on and worked all day. I told him he was more of a man than many people I know and definitely some others that work for me. 
Oooooh. That's gonna sting..................
One of my daughters responds almost like that to a mosquito bite. Odd how different people respond differently to the exact same thing.
Must agree that he is a tough fellow. Many today would be lounging by the pool for two weeks pampering themselves.
Well, he's tougher than me. Then again, I have a bit of an allergy to bees I'm not the sort that will go into anaphylactic shock, but my skin around the sting tends to swell up quite a lot. I once stomped on a bumble bee nest (I don't know if they were actually bumble bees or wasps or whatever, but they were big, fuzzy, black and yellow, and stung me!). In the rush back to the boat (were were out in the San Joaquin River Delta in California) I got stung about 9 times. The worst one was in the center of my back through my vest and t-shirt. Swelled up about a 0.75' diameter circle on my back and puffed up quite a bit! I went to the prompt care and they gave me some shot of anti-histamines and the swelling went down that evening. The next day, we were back out there...
I don't like bugs too much.
skwyd, post: 376300, member: 6874 wrote: Well, he's tougher than me. Then again, I have a bit of an allergy to bees I'm not the sort that will go into anaphylactic shock, but my skin around the sting tends to swell up quite a lot. I once stomped on a bumble bee nest (I don't know if they were actually bumble bees or wasps or whatever, but they were big, fuzzy, black and yellow, and stung me!). In the rush back to the boat (were were out in the San Joaquin River Delta in California) I got stung about 9 times. The worst one was in the center of my back through my vest and t-shirt. Swelled up about a 0.75' diameter circle on my back and puffed up quite a bit! I went to the prompt care and they gave me some shot of anti-histamines and the swelling went down that evening. The next day, we were back out there...
I don't like bugs too much.
I've been stung by all kinds of bees, hornets and wasps over the years. The last time I was stung by a Japanese Hornet, hit me right in the chest. It put me on my back for 3 days with sweats, chills, body aches. I went to doc and they said I have developed an allergy to bees and gave me an epipen to carry around. Luckly I haven't had to use it.
But what is weird is they say I now have an allergy to bees which I never did as a kid getting stung. On the other hand when I first started surveying I would get poison ivy just by looking at it. Now I can roll around in the stuff and not get a single blister. I guess the body changes over time.
Can feel for that young man.
One morning about 40yrs ago a few miles East of Jefferson, Tx and just up along a creek from Black Cypress at about 2 hours into the day I cut a 12ft sapling in a sandbar flat and was staring at a basketball size hornets nest a few feet in front of my face.
I immediately planted my feet, screamed "oh s..t" and was hit in the teeth and stung under my upper lip.
Glad I didn't start out with "run" or that varmint would had headed down my geezler.
Had to spit and blow it out my mouth.
Done a 180 run down line at the rest of the crew screaming "hornets, hit the woods" and after about 5 to 10 steps took a 90 and zig zagged thru the saplings about 100 feet or so and stopped after I had burst thru a dense thicket.
That lip swelled up so much I thought the skin was gonna split. My noze got big and round and puffed my cheeks up under and somewhat over my eyes.
By the end of the day I could not read the instrument.
Somebody else drove in and I was so glad it was Friday..........
Was he running the instrument, by any chance?
A Harris, post: 376326, member: 81 wrote: Can feel for that young man.
One morning about 40yrs ago a few miles East of Jefferson, Tx and just up along a creek from Black Cypress at about 2 hours into the day I cut a 12ft sapling in a sandbar flat and was staring at a basketball size hornets nest a few feet in front of my face.
I immediately planted my feet, screamed "oh s..t" and was hit in the teeth and stung under my upper lip.
Glad I didn't start out with "run" or that varmint would had headed down my geezler.
Had to spit and blow it out my mouth.
Done a 180 run down line at the rest of the crew screaming "hornets, hit the woods" and after about 5 to 10 steps took a 90 and zig zagged thru the saplings about 100 feet or so and stopped after I had burst thru a dense thicket.
That lip swelled up so much I thought the skin was gonna split. My noze got big and round and puffed my cheeks up under and somewhat over my eyes.
By the end of the day I could not read the instrument.
Somebody else drove in and I was so glad it was Friday..........
OUCH!!! I had an I-man that wasn't the sharpest take hit a yellow jacket nest once, he got hit a couple of times and just stood there going Ouch Ouch ouch, I yelled for him to run, he would run about it 10 feet and scream, he did this about 20 times throughout the woods I could track him by the screams. Met him at the truck and counted 28 stings on him. To be honest it was kind of funny to hear him scream about every 10 secs as they screams got fainter int the distance. He was okay, but worthless the rest of the day. I had to sneak up to the nest and get his bush axe which he dropped first sting.
Hay fields are absolutely full of about every kind of flying, stinging little bastid you can imagine. Doesn't matter if you are mowing, raking, baling or moving the hay bales, they will find you. Getting stung is so common you don't really pay much attention to it. Just keep on keeping on until time to go to bed.
I used to walk my two dogs in the forests and they generally ranged about 20m in front of me. When I saw them tap-dancing I would know they were getting stung by advance parties of wasps or bees, so it usually gave me time to escape, most of the time.
About 40 years ago, when we got our first "total station", the crew I was on was surveying a tract of several hundred acres in the north Georgia mountains. There were so many yellow jackets that at least one of us was stung every day. To begin with I would have a bump kinda like a mosquito bite, but by the end of the project I would swell like crazy. One morning I was stung at the base of my nose and the entire right side of my face swelled until my eye closed. I was the instrument man (and the only one who knew how to operate the distance meter) and couldn't see to run the gun so we called it a day. The boss wanted to know WHY we were back at the office before lunch until he saw my face. Then it was, "Why don't you take the rest of the day off".
Andy
Kent McMillan, post: 376330, member: 3 wrote: Was he running the instrument, by any chance?
No a helper with for the chief using robot
Ron Lang, post: 376307, member: 6445 wrote: I've been stung by all kinds of bees, hornets and wasps over the years. The last time I was stung by a Japanese Hornet, hit me right in the chest. It put me on my back for 3 days with sweats, chills, body aches. I went to doc and they said I have developed an allergy to bees and gave me an epipen to carry around. Luckly I haven't had to use it.
But what is weird is they say I now have an allergy to bees which I never did as a kid getting stung. On the other hand when I first started surveying I would get poison ivy just by looking at it. Now I can roll around in the stuff and not get a single blister. I guess the body changes over time.
Yeah, it is interesting how the body changes. I've read into allergies a bit. One thing that I read had to do with becoming allergic to something over time. I guess the allergens (in the case of bees, the particular proteins in their sting venom) will cause a reaction in the body and depending upon the person, it will either create a stronger defense against them or it will become overly sensitive to them. So a person can become "more allergic" to things or "less allergic". I haven't been stung in years so I don't know where I fall with that. But at least the allergic reactions I've had (ever since I was a kid) have all been basically just a topical skin reaction.
Richard Imrie, post: 376353, member: 11256 wrote: I used to walk my two dogs in the forests and they generally ranged about 20m in front of me. When I saw them tap-dancing I would know they were getting stung by advance parties of wasps or bees, so it usually gave me time to escape, most of the time.
If those are both your hands, how did you take that photo?
Eyeborg - Bionic Eye?
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/medical-robots/061110-eyeborg-bionic-eye
I too have a now hilarious story of bees and surveying. It is too long to adequately describe here but it involved in no particular order: a hollow log, a bull, electric fencing, a head chainman running a quarter mile to the rig, a pack of Marlboro and a very-very swollen index finger. Ah, those were the days.
Brad Ott, post: 376919, member: 197 wrote: If those are both your hands, how did you take that photo?
I see your point, they are both my hands, but for the life of me I can't remember how I took the photo. Being an Engineer, I don't have any friends, so I guess I used the timer.
While laying out buildings on a construction site, my partner stepped on a ground hornets nest. Really wasn't funny, but....
watching him dancing around trying to get away struck my funny bone and I couldn't stop laughing. He did not appreciate it at all!
Yes, I have a sick sense of humor!
Oh, I just remembered another story. As a teenager, while helping a friend and his dad clear weeds off their property, I stepped on a ground hornets nest and they were swarming around me and stinging me everywhere. My friend and his dad ran to the car and took off, leaving me to fend for myself. Well, I must have ran far enough away from their nest that they stopped stinging me. They then came back to pick me up. They must have felt bad about leaving me by myself because they took me out for a steak dinner near the Santa Ana train station! Great place. They had a never-ending supply of cheese sauce for your baked potato!
Back in my days on a compass crew running lines for ÛÏA Large Timber CompanyÛ in Arkansas, we would carry Spencer LoggerÛªs tapes clipped to our beltsÛ?for offsets and what-not. One hot summer day I heard a woods shattering yell only to look up and see Bob, the head chainman, running back down the cut-line waving his hat. What with the red Filson Vest and the Spencer Û÷ringingÛª with every step, you would have thought a firetruck was coming. While the rest of the crew kept hollering for Bob not to run back towards them, I just stepped off-line and let Bob and the yellow jackets have the right of wayÛ?ding ding dingÛ?
DDSM
