Quel

About 8 miles into my 45 mile ride today, a bee flew into my ear and got stuck. Not in the ear canal, but in the upper part. I guess the wind from my speed was keeping him stuck there. I had to slam on the brakes, unclip, and brush him out of my ear after getting stung a few times. And I was going across a long one way bridge, so I had some people giving me funny looks and they squeezed by me (MacArthur Blvd right outside DC). Ow.

Lesson of this story? Well, there isn't one. I know, cool tweet.

ScarcelyAware

I've been hit in the face by bees and other insects but this has got to suck way worse.

How's your ear?

mzeffex 

I hate when stuff gets in my ears. Like flies. Never had a bee though. Very unpleasant.

Quel

It wasn't too bad actually. The legs hurt a lot worse by the end of the ride . It's about 10 hours later now and it just throbs a bit and feels warm.

SharpStone30888

I don't know how common this is but I swallowed a fly (atleast I think it was a fly). I tried coughing hard while riding to get it out, but it didn't work. hmm, I wonder how he/she fared in my stomach (haha sucker).

Anyway, a bee in the ear has gotta suck and the stinging ouch...

mark_dc

Today the yellow jackets were all over the fruit at the Fairhaven rest stop on the Civil War Century. After successfully filling my water bottle with gatorade without getting stung, despite the yellow jackets landing on me, I walked away and took a sip of Gatorade and the mouth piece was all "hairy." I spit a yellow jacket off my lips. No stings.

A couple stings in the ear has gotta hurt. Glad you're not allergic.

BengeBoy 

I got stung on my leg two weeks ago and stung on my back today while riding. Never happened to me before, I hope it doesn't happen again. Both times were wasps (I think) above 4,000 feet elevation. I heard on the radio the other day that this time of year wasps are frantically looking for food.

fixedgearinker

I somehow scooped up a bee in one of the vent's in my helmet last week. ouch, and boy was he pissed by the time i got stopped and my helmet off....

KiuBWhy

Must have been a wasp, the bee would have died after the first sting.

Either way...sorry to hear about it. I always get really paranoid when I feel anything fly into one of the vents on my helmet. Thanks BF.

Velo Vol 

I've been annoyed by little insects getting stuck in my ear this summer. Thankfully, I've never had a bee.

Kai Winters

Swallowing flies is no fun...gag reflex ugh.
We have lots of teeny flies...midges ?...up here in the spring...freaking clouds of them and they seem to like hovering at the edge of the roads right about head height...yuck...once you suck a few in you don't do it again...ugh.

msincredible

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly
I don't know why she swallowed a fly - perhaps she'll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a spider,
That wriggled and wiggled and tiggled inside her;
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly - Perhaps she'll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a bird;
How absurd to swallow a bird.
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly - Perhaps she'll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a cat;
Fancy that to swallow a cat!
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly - Perhaps she'll die!

There was an old lady that swallowed a dog;
What a hog, to swallow a dog;
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly - Perhaps she'll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a cow,
I don't know how she swallowed a cow;
She swallowed the cow to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly - Perhaps she'll die!

There was an old lady who swallowed a horse...
She's dead, of course!

blacksquid

^^^ Damn! Beat me too it!

Nachoman

Have you considered wearing protective aero ear muffs?

ilovetheewind

It goes to show the pain we cyclist endure while training hardcore. Bee stings only perk me up and get me pushing a bit harder.

I get stung quite a bit and always ride harder remove the bee sting pain....The pain from a hard ride makes a sting feel like a slight tickle !

adam

Had a wasp get stuck between my temple and sunglasses a few weeks back. Felt like I was stung at the time, but when I got home, it wasn't swollen or anything.

Johnny Colnago

Found a pic of the OP.

classic1

You think getting a bee stuck in your ear is bad, try getting one caught in your foreskin.

grymg

I was just about to post this, same thing happened to me. Flew into my sunglasses from the top, so I ripped my glasses off, stopped, and by the time he escaped he bit me right below the left eye. teared up quite a bit but was able to ride home. But it was kinda swollen for a couple hours.

urbanknight

What the heck were you doing to... maybe I don't want to know.

TMB

I was riding gravel trails this weekend, went into that half shadow that you get early in the morning and got a wasp right in the mouth.

Stung the roof of my mouth.

That hurt like H$LL for a couple of days.

Swelling is down now, thankfully.

lpolliard

I had a bumble bee hit me in the chest. I thought nothing of it as I believed it bounce off and I continued on my way. Unfortunately I was wrong! A few moments later I was being stung just below my belly button. It seems it found a pathway down my bibs. Needless to say I was not to pleasant to this creature after its attack. I found its stinger logged in my flesh an hour later after my ride.

Ed Holland

A few weeks back I managed to get 1/2 mile from home before a bee stung my lower lip. Being the hardy sort I carried on for the remaining 32.5 miles - pouting like a supermodel as the lip swelled...

About a year before that, during the ride to work, a bee or wasp flew through one of my helmet vents and stung me on the head. Bad enough for one day you might think, but on arriving at work, I found that 9 of us had been made redundant...

Jersh

Not a cycling story, but back in the day when I played high school football, we were running hills for conditioning, and as I ran up the hill, a bee flew through my facemask and into my mouth, and stung me right in the middle of the tongue. My tongue started to swell up immediately, so I hurried to the trainer and they had someone take me to the ER immediately. Thankfully the swelling didn't get too out of hand, but it did hurt like heck, and they had a difficult time removing the stinger from my tongue.

Tracon

Same thing happened to me on sat and had to dig it out of my ear canal with a key.