mgw4jc

The naturally wooded and open green areas around a paved pathway provides a good variety of things to do for a yellow jacket. There are flowers and trees and assorted bushes and grasses. One little guy in particular was happily buzzing around in the late afternoon of a summer day two years ago. He was approximately 5 feet 10 inches above the path going about his duties when suddenly he is trapped.

The open air surroundings he was so comfortable in were gone. The new surroundings include some sort of hard porous plastic on three sides. But below him he found a softer surface, with hair follicles protruding from it. Whatever this trap was, it had caught him mid-air and was still moving, going who knows where.

Being in an unsure situation, the yellow jacket immediately went on the offense. "I will plant my stinger in this soft surface as many times as I need to until I am free!" Whack! Smack! Whack! In went the stinger and venom like rapid fire from a machine gun.

Then the hard plastic trap was quickly removed. What seemed like a very long, traumatic experience was suddenly over. He quickly flew away and rushed home to tell his friends and family of his ordeal. One of his friends remarked that he had seen a biker go by and, without stopping, remove his helmet very fast and cry out in pain.

Celiacattack

Man that sucks ..poor wasp

duckbill

About twenty years ago, I lost a little hearing ability and to this day have a slight ringing in my right ear after a Yellow Jacket stung my daughter in the top of her head.
No doubt the scream is still traveling to distant galaxies.

David Bierbaum

Yellow Jackets are the worst, but I'm not happy with wasps in general. There is nothing worse than opening a door and stepping outside, only to be assaulted by pain on top of one's balding head. Is there a worse way to discover a large nest on the overhang right in front of the door? Still, the swarm of yellow jackets that came out of one of the little decorative plastic fenceposts when I was weeding the rock garden in front of the house, and bumped the plastic fence chain, is an event that I will remember for a long long time...

RidingMatthew

i have been stung in the top of my head before and it felt like an ice pick deep into my skull... No hair follicles to protect either. So the little guy's stinger was fully plunged into my head. Still went mountain biking but an hour later my head still hurt.

Steely Dan

the old bee in the bonnet (or in this case, helmet). it sucks.

the same exact story happened to me a couple years ago riding home from work along chicago's lakefront path.

Walter S

Reminds me of standing on a nest of yellow jackets. They ran up my pants leg and "went to town" with their stingers. One of the more painful and horrific encounters I can remember.

downwinded

Several years ago a friend of mine was riding a motorcycle with a helmet but no face shield. A Yellow Jacket went between the helmet and his head. Don't remember how many times he was stung but his face was swollen so bad you would not recognize him.

Dave Cutter

One of the very few benefits of winter cycling.... no bugs.