phillydcbiker

Just got home from work today. It was 90º but not humid. Just finished climbing the 1/2 mile hill before my house and as I walk in the house I was thinking how nice of a ride it was.

Just as I'm walking into the den to say hi to my mom, I felt a sharp pain in my chest then my finger. There was a yellowjacket or hornet in my jersery, stinging me!

I ended up being stung twice right below my breast bone and once on my middle finger.

I guess the bee was attracted to my extremely bright neon yellow/green jersery. I had it unzipped as I was climbing the hill.

Then the bee wouldnt come off the jersey. In fact, the bee is still alive and stuck on the jersery (outside) as I speak.

At least I'm not allegeric (I hope). I've been stung only once before and that was by a little tiny bee (not even sure if I was stung)

shoerhino

I've chased bees around my jersey (and been stung multiple times in the process) too! The only sting I got this year occur during a hill climb. This particular hill is long so I was pacing myself when suddenly I felt a sting in the rear. Apparently, a bee / wasp landed on the back of my shorts and stung me! Talk about incintive to pick up the pace...

fsor

I never knew a yellow jacket could sting more than once until I got one inside my shirt. Its kinda like having a soldering iron in there.

Kyle90

Yellow Jackerts are evil... I was doing some yard work and cutting out this huge growth of random bushes and tubers everywhere.. and didn't realize it but I had angered a few bees.. 2 stung me, one stung me twice.. evil buggers..

phillydcbiker

I bet its my bright jersery. That's a shame as I just bought it Wednesday. I wanted something to make me highly visible to drivers well, I guess I also made a nice target for bees. Even after letting it sit out for an hour the bee was still on the jersery. I had to knock it off with a stick.

Kyle90

LOL.. Can bee's see in color?

BostonFixed

Yes. How do you think they know which flowers to pollinate?

Kyle90

Instinct? Hell, I don't know anything about bugs.. and little about animals. *uses google*

edp773

Yellow jackets make me swell up pretty bad, plus make my heart race. But compared to the dark blue wasps we call mud dobbers, the yellow jacket sting is somewhat tame. I hope you never have the experiance of making one of those wasps mad.

Guest

Well, they die after they sting, right? So I guess it'll learn it's lesson- you don't sting for nuthin!

Koffee

Kyle90

Holy Hell! Those mud dobber things can sting? Dude, I've sat around and just messed with those things in the backyard for--ever and never once had it even fly towards me. It'd go in the air, and come back. It made a home on the top side of the house. Weird.

KeithA

I know where you're coming from. I used to ride a lot of motorcycles. This was before helmet laws in California and I was dumb enough not to wear one. Anyway, while going up Sunset Boulevard in the Pacific Palisades, a bee flew into my sunglasses and had its way with my eye. I'm very allergic to bees, but luckily I was only a mile or so from my family doctor. The right side of my head was like a watermelon by the time I got there and I could hardly see, I was tearing so much.

travis200

They are some nasty evil insects. I can't even begin to count the number of times I have been stung and each time it hurts. But over time the stinging gets easier to handle. Can't have it cut into riding time.

mac

I had bee fly into my well-ventilated Giro helmet and sting my shaved head. Stupid insects!

Guest

Well, today I was out riding. It was a great day for riding, and I was clicking along, keeping my usual time and trying to beat it. All of a sudden, I feel a sharp pain on my side. I'm thinking, "what the...!!!???" and I thought at first it was nothing, so I started to descend the hill. By the time I got close to the bottom, it was hurting... bad! So I pulled over. I couldn't even make it to the bottom, the pain was bad. When I lift my shirt, I see a small knot forming- bee! Or rather, bee sting. So I try to scrape out the stinger (so I thought) with my smartcard bus card my brother gave me (I knew I'd use it for something someday!), and then I mount my bike and ride to the bottom, but by this time, I feel another pain, and it feels worse than the first. So I pull over again, frustrated, because normally, I use the first hill to prep for the second hill coming up. Well, I mean, I'm frustrated and in pain. I open my jersey (full zipper), and this time, I see 2 angry knots forming on my side, and it was painful. So I tried to scrape that one too. By this time, I'm thinking something is going wrong, because when I rezip my jersey and try to attach my fanny pack, I feel ANOTHER sting- and I open my jersey, and there's a third knot. By this time, I realized the bee stung me through my jersey, but I couldn't locate the stinger. I tried to put on my jersey, but I could feel the stinger, though it wasn't penetrating my skin. And by this time, my muscles are trembling and I knew this would be it for me for this ride. So I waited a bit, just holding my breath, because the pain is just radiating by this time, and when it's closer to 8am, I called my brother and tell him he needs to come get me because I'm stung and my muscles are trembling and I can't make it home. So he wakes everyone up and rolls out to meet me, and by this time, the knots are as big as quarters and swollen. I just don't remember such pain. My sides felt painful and numb, and when I finally got in the car, I was able to take off my jersey and examine myself, and my entire left side is red by this time. My sister-in-law gave me Benedryl, which I popped in the car, and we all went home. I ended up watching the ITT, and now, the welts have definitely gone down, but the pain is still there. My sides feel tender and it's still all red from the midsection all the way to the top of my hip, and from the front by my stomach to my back. I am also sleepy from the benedryl, but at least it's taken away the swollen parts.

I'm just waiting for the pain to go away so I can have a nap. Bleah. Stings suck!

Koffee

Pat

Koffee, you are wrong this time. But you are almost always very accurate in your posts so it is of no great moment.

It is honey bees (Aphis mellifera) that die after stinging. The reason for this is honey bees have barbed stings that mean their stingers get stuck in their victoms making the honey bees rather like Kamakazes. Yellow jackets are not bees at all. They are wasps. Like all wasps that I have ever heard of, yellow jackets have smooth stingers that allow them to sting, and sting, and sting again as long as they have a supply of venom (which is limited). Wasps are predators and sting their prey into submission but like honey bees, yellow jackets will use their sting in personal and nest defense.

I rather doubt that the yellow jacket was attracted to the jersey. It probably was flying along minding its own business when it got plowed into by a speeding cyclist and that got it angry and we all know what angry wasps do if they have a chance.

Kyle90

I figured it was Honey Bees but I didn't wanna say anything and make myself out to be an idiot, so I let someone else take the fall. even though I woulda been right. lol Wasps are evvvvviil.

dcon

Yellowjackets are so aggressive - they're like the 'roid ragers of the insect world. But I think hornets are the most evil. Those mofos have harpoons.

And then we have bees. Little buggers. I hurt just thinking about your experience, Koffee. Get better soon.

Guest

My brother told me the same thing today- said that wasps will just keep on going after you. So now I know the difference. I definitely think I was stung by a bee and that the stinger is still embedded in my jersey. I definitely felt the stinger pressing against me when I zipped up my jersey that third time, which is why I knew I couldn't go on with my ride. And I don't take my jersey off in public- ever. So I needed to get my brother to drive out and get me, since my stings weren't getting any better.

I'm going to do that ride again tomorrow. I still have pain in my side, but I have a home remedy I googled that I'm trying. Hopefully, it will work.

Koffee

late

Kyle,
you were talking about mud wasps. Most people have no idea how nasty those things are. A scientists who made a pain chart rates a bee sting as a 1. A Mud Wasp sting rates a 3 on the sever pain scale, and as you know, the pain can last a day or two.

I fought a Mud Wasp nest for years. We seem to have a truce now. They build their nest a ways from my house, and I try to stay away from them. I learned about them by accidentally disturbing their nest. I was chainsawing brush, and the commotion was something they disapproved of. I got a few bites. They hurt. A lot.

2manybikes

WOW !! glad you're getting better. That does suck! Been there,done that.

linux_author

- truly heinous creatures... especially since they can nest in the ground... was mowing the front lawn one day, hit a nest, and they chased me more than 150 feet across the lawn!

(btw, for Koffee's benefit, this was down in Aquia Harbour in Stafford, Va.)

Guest

As an update, this morning, I woke up and the stings were a little itchy, but at least no more pain! When I check them, they're just small knots by now, and reddish splotches around each knot. So I go out and do my ride, and when I get back, I happen to glance at myself in the mirror when I took off all my clothes. Immediately, I'm shocked to see that I have a rash going across my stomach, from one end to the other. It's all reddish, and everything is itchy. I got online and tried some home made remedies, but nothing seemed to stop the itching, so I took another Benedryl, which I've found out by now, makes me sleepy. So I ended up spending the afternoon sleeping away. But by the time I wake up, the Benedryl wore off, so I'm back to itching again.

I've got this aloe spray that they say is supposed to prevent the itching, and it's good... temporarily. But it's not solving the problem. Is there something else out there that can fight the rash that seems to be building across my chest and sides, and is there a reliever that will help me out with the itching and rash?

Koffee

late

Koffee,
I would never be without Bendryl Extra strength Itch Relief Gel. It's not expensive, and it works.

outashape

I got stung on my finger about a week ago. I just started to unzip my tent where the two zippers come together. I felt a sting. It was about 5:00 am. Didn't know the critters were out so early. I thought it was a spider bite. It hurt. My finger swelled and the top of my hand swelled. The next day, I had little blisters in a 1 inch area around the bite. The swelling lasted for about 3 days. BTW, I ran out of the tent and was going to leave it where it stood. I would rather loose a $40 tent than take a spider home in the car with me. I had a conscience, though and went back later in the day to retrieve the tent-- and am glad I did. I saw a dead bee on the floor. It stopped me from looking for red streak marks up my arm from a poisonous spider bite.