This thread has created quite a buzz.

I've gotten them up the sleeve of my motorcycle jacket once and I just flailed my arm all over on the highway until he was gone. Nice little red mark where he got me, thankfully I don't have much of a reaction.

I have curly red hair and I've had bees come see if I had nectar up there. The most weird experience was a humming bird must have thought I was a giant rhododendron.

this thread is so funny. resurrected from 2005 and carried on like nothing happened just a few days ago. i laughed a bit. so sorry for the commuters who have suffered this!

My dog likes to try and eat bumble bees. She is pretty good at it...she will snap at them and if she gets one shakes her head real quick, throw it to the ground and paw at it.

Yes, if you're quick and brave, you can catch a bumblebee in your fist, and in same movement, throw it to the ground, then stomp on it, before it can react to sting you or escape.

Yup. Never wearing a helmet.

Helmet with screen to fill in between the holes? or a helmet cover with mesh holes smaller than the Bee?

All this talk of bees... are any of you sure you're talking about bees? Or do you mean wasps? I mean, for example:

Bumblebees don't sting. Carpenter bees don't sting either, but look similar and they can deliver a nasty bite if provoked. And they do serious damage to houses.

As for bees, yes, it is true that worker bees sting, though only once. A wasp can sting repeatedly.

I was riding along one time and for the briefest instant I saw a bug of some kind flying in front of me. It hit me in the neck and dropped down inside my T-shirt. Moments later WHAM it felt like I'd got hit with a baseball bat. Then WHAM it happened again. And again. By this time I had stopped, thrown the bike on the ground, and was beating on my chest with both fists, Tarzan style, until I'd pounded everywhere I thought the bug might be. When I finally took off my shirt, there was a squished deerfly in there. Man, I hate those things.

I guess I don't know a bumblebee from a yellow jacket; what I do know is I've been stung on several separate occasions by clumsy flying critters from the size of a large pea to that of a garbanzo bean, with furry black and yellow striped bodies. The stings typically caused a swelling that lasted several days before subsiding. In most cases, I seem to remember a stinger left behind in my skin that I could pull out or scratch off with my fingernails.

thanks for sharing lol I had a good laugh, sorry for you, but it sounded funny, even though I felt bad for your pain

Not allergic, lucky since I get them down my jersey at least once a year, and about half the time they sting me. I don't let them bother me though, I just get to a stop and get them out.

When I do get stung, it's just a little burn for 3 or 4 seconds, a red spot the size of a dime and a little itchy for about an hour and then done.