Banzai

At least for me.

Riding home yesterday, I started getting pelted by swarming insects. About the time I figured out they were bees, one flew in my mouth.

It then stung me right on the roof of my mouth. Ouch.

Adds an element of novelty to the commute, spitting a bee out and then digging the stinger out of the roof of your mouth while clipping along at 25mph. I wasn't about to stop to do this; the bees were still swarming!

JeremyZ

What makes it especially tough is that bees attack carbon dioxide, which we exhale. We're exhaling a LOT when we're going 25 mph. (not too often for me, hehehe) Next time try to hold your breath for a bit until you get out of the swarm.

Tundra_Man 

A few years ago my brother was at work when he took a sip of his root beer. Several bees had crawled into the can when he wasn't looking, and he wound up getting stung several times in the throat.

He dropped the can and grabbed his throat, which got the attention of a coworker. The coworker saw him unable to breathe and holding his throat and assumed he was choking. So he started doing the heimlich maneuver on my brother.

The bee stings made it impossible for my brother to talk, and the coworker was bear-hugging him from behind trying to dislodge an imaginary obstruction from his wind pipe. My brother was flailing his arms at the guy and struggling to get away. The guy read his actions as panic from choking and held on even tighter.

It took them a few minutes to sort out what was going on and my brother had to go to the emergency room for a reaction to the bee stings.

It wasn't funny at the time, but humorous to look back upon.

khutch

When I was a kid I would sometimes pedal the 10 miles on back roads to the neighboring town to visit a hobby shop. On one trip I rode into a large cloud of insects without ever stopping to ask myself what they might be. Clouds of insects that large are not common but it did not trigger any curiosity on my part. As you would guess in this thread it was a swarm of bees. I entered the swarm on a slight downgrade and once I realized what I was in the middle of I started pedaling like mad. I suffered no harm but I did manage to go fast enough to splatter a bee against my glasses! That could have been a painful encounter if I had not been wearing glasses....

I've since read that bees are quite docile when they are swarming so I probably would have been fine if I had just calmly continued on my way at my normal speed. Who among us would be brave enough to do that? And does that strategy still work if the bees are the newfangled Africanized "killer" bees??

Ken

phillyskyline

Geez, these stories are making me hurt just thinking about it! I don't have to worry much about insects in the city--now pigeons who are too slow/dumb to get out of the way...that's another story.

Banzai

Your brother wins. But since he wasn't on the bike I still get a nose across the finish line on the commuter scale of pain.

Lucky for me, I'm not allergic to anything - otherwise that bike ride would have become even more interesting pretty fast. At least I was riding with a friend (no stings for him) who could have called 911.

cyclokitty 

Oh good grief. Bees.... *shudders*

I haven't been stung in a good while and never on the bike. I hope to keep it that way.

I have had near misses with bees and pigeons. Those pigeons really pack a punch if they catch you upside your head. My partner was walking out of the library when a pigeon smacked him against the face. Luckily he wasn't on a bike but about half a dozen people saw it and they all laughed at him. Well, he did too. But he had a feather in his mouth and thought it was gross, headed back in and brushed his teeth (he carries around a toothbrush and toothpaste for after lunch).

DX-MAN

Nothing near as 'good' as a swarm, but I did get stung on a ride home several years ago. A wasp flew into a helmet vent and tagged me, back of the head. By the time i got home, the swelling and throbbing were both gone, and all I had left was like a tender bruise.

buzzman

Somewhere in BF is a thread about a similar bee encounter I had on a road ride. I inhaled a bee and it stung my tongue. I've had bad reactions in the past and happen to carry benadryl in my toolbag. I crunched up the pill and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, my tongue kept swelling so I stopped at a fire station to wait for it to subside. It still wasn't better and I ended up taking an ambulance ride to an emergency room. They had some kind of drip- I think it was simply more benadryl- and that did the trick.

It's no fun but makes a good story.

MichaelW

I got stung on the neck whilst riding. I managed to stop but it was quite painful.

If I got a mouthful of pigeon (uncooked) I think I would want a disinfectant mouthwash. They carry more diseases than rats, esp a nasty mould infection. Whenever I have a pigeon for company, flying alongside at face level, I hold my breath.

wildergeek

I once had a bumble bee fly into my mouth and gag me. I didn't get stung but it was still in my top 5 most disgusting life experiences. My no.1 was grabbing the wrong soda can off my workbench and getting a mouthful of warm, flat Mt. Dew with a spider egg sack.

Jtgyk

During a descent on a hot day in Colorado, wearing hiking shorts and a camp shirt (unbuttoned most the way), I wound up inadvertently scooping up a bee and got stung with amazing accuracy close to the center of my left nipple. I managed to maintain control, but the rest of the way down was not fun.

ebrake

hahahahahahahahaha

I'm allowed to laugh because I got stung in the mouth by a bee at speed last year. No fun

rhm

Yes, it's bee swarming season, thanks for reminding me. I have two hives, and hope to **** they don't swarm.

Swarming bees don't usually sting; bad luck (for you, and for the bee) that you got one in your mouth!