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We have a yellowjacket problem at work. It's been warm enough the last few days that they started waking up, and the breakroom has been filled with them. The HR guy saw me swatting them out of the air with a sweater and stepping on them (I managed to kill 5 this way), because two of the girls were afraid to even enter the room while they were buzzing around. He told me to stop because apparently there is some HR protocol and forms to be filled out if someone is stung. An e-mail got sent out telling people not to kill the wasps.

I told my brother this story, and his reaction was "What, are they all city folk?"

I feel like everyone makes a bigger deal out of bee stings than is necessary.

If you're allergic to them, I get it. Deadly. But most people aren't. Seriously, I'm allergic to damn near everything, and I've never had a bad reaction to a sting.

So I started asking around, and it seems this is very much a country / city thing, and I'm way more country than I thought. I've run over mud dabber nests with the lawn mower, and as a kid, I once repeatedly jumped on a paper wasp nest. My brother got stung by a yellow jacket once and so my dad got out the BB gun and we all took shots at the nest from the other side of the yard.These incidents in mind, I think it's honestly a safe estimate to say I've been stung by bees at least two dozen or more times. My brother estimates his number at a mroe conservative 12.... but many of my friends and colleagues from work have never been stung, or have only been stung once or twice. This concept blows my mind because growing up, bee stings were simply a fact of life to me.

I hate yellowjackets. Friggin' insane little things that sting with little provocation.

Bees I have no problem with. Well, I guess I should be wary as africanized honey bees are a possibility in Texas, but as a kid I'd wander around the clover patches in our Ohio back yard and pet the fuzz on the bees as they gathered nectar.

I have only ever been stung by a bee once. It was back when I was 5 or 6, and I was playing in our back yard, in suburban Maryland. I had to pee, so since our back yard was fairly private, I decided to pull down my pants and just pee in my mom's vegetable garden. (She's sometimes deliberately collect our urine and use it as a fertilizer for the garden, so I figured it'd be all right)

Not three seconds later, a bee landed on my arm and stung me. For a 5 year old, seeing as this was my first ever bee sting, it was very painful and very traumatic. So I ran into the house (with my pants still not fully pulled up) and hollered for my mommy. She dealt with it all right though.

Later on, the story of me getting stung while peeing in the garden spread. And, naturally, somewhere along the line the story morphed into "got stung on the winky while peeing in the garden." So now a lot of people think I managed to endure a genital bee sting back when I was 5, when in fact it was on my arm.

Just setting the record straight.

Hey guys, I heard bhamv did a bee beard on his junk when he was five. Hardcore!

Once by a bee.

7 from a paper wasp nest as a kid.
Quite a few other random encounters (bumblebee, others)
?? from a yellowjacket nest that built itself under our front door as a kid (After one crawled into the house and stung me on the underarm, I rooted it out myself with squirt pistols, no poison. Fun fact...if you drown all the workers one at a time as they come out, the colony dies)
3 or 4 while renovating a culvert for a relative
2 last year from a nest in our yard (it was dealt with swiftly)

Put myself down as 24+ since I figure it's borderline. I am no stranger to stings. This does not mean I encourage them.

--Patrick

They certainly aren't pleasant, and I won't seek them out, but I still think people are way more frightened of them than is necessary.

The only times I was stung by bees was when I accidentally stepped on them in clover patches in my bare feet. I got stung twice by the same wasp though. It flew in my hair. I didn't know what it was, only that it was a bug, so I swatted at it. It stung my ear and my thumb. I've also been stung by a hornet. I was cleaning up branches after a hurricane, didn't see it, and it walloped my hand.

I have survived thus far without being stung by bees or wasps - but as a general rule, any bug that comes within swatting range of me is fair game. Respect my airspace, bitches! Same goes for any bug that tries to build a nest in my abode. If it doesn't pay rent, I'll kill it.

checkeredhat said:

They certainly aren't pleasant, and I won't seek them out, but I still think people are way more frightened of them than is necessary.

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In your instance, however, I think the HR issue is understandable. If someone is allergic but doesn't know it and gets stung and dies while employed on their property, the company is liable. Then again, they wouldn't have to worry about it if they DIDN'T HAVE A HIVE FEEDING WASPS INTO THEIR BUILDING!!!

I finally got stung for the first time this year, by a wasp. It hurt but a lot less than I built it up in my head as a kid. I'm actually kind of pleased in a weird way, because now I don't have the same panicked reaction when I see a wasp.

Normally, I leave the insects to do their thing, unless they intrude on a popular area. It's definitely an experience thing, I can have any number of stinging insects land on me and not give a crap, while a co-worker flees in terror. I don't know how many times I have been stung in my life, but the most I have had at once was over 70.

I swat at bees and wasps all the time, and people go apeshit over it. "It'll just make it mad"

No. If you get a solid hit on that bastard he's going to take off like a hobo paying a check at a diner.

I can only remember being stung once, although I probably should have been stung way more than that considering how many times I thought it would be fun to throw rocks at hives as a kid.

HowDroll said:

I can only remember being stung once, although I probably should have been stung way more than that considering how many times I thought it would be fun to throw rocks at hives as a kid.

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Same here. Rocks and garden hoses.

I've been stung 3 times that I can think of right now, the worst of which was on the inside of my lip after some sort of bee-thing flew into my drink while I wasn't watching. Maybe more than that, it honestly never registered as a big deal.

The word for today, y'all, is thermolabile, which is why things like this were invented.

--Patrick

One or more times, fuckin' hurt like a mother fucker. Whats worse about it is when you learn that once they sting you...they die. So not only did I feel pain as a kid, I felt guilty that a poor insect wasted his life on my luscious pale boy neck!

The only problem I have with bee stings (from actual bees) is the anticipation and not knowing if the damn thing that's buzzing around you is going to sting you or not. And it sucks that they die.

Yoshimickster said:

Whats worse about it is when you learn that once they sting you...they die.

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This is true only of bees. Wasps will sting you as many times as they want, they don't give a shit.

Yoshimickster said:

Whats worse about it is when you learn that once they sting you...they die.

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Like Ravenpoe said, that's a bee thing. Bumblebees do not have this limitation, they don't have the barbs that honeybees do, so they can retract and sting again.

Also, Pepsis Wasps are generally regarded as the worst by the guy who decided to rate them all himself.

--Patrick

Ravenpoe said:

This is true only of bees. Wasps will sting you as many times as they want, they don't give a shit.

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So some of the bugs that stung me might not have died? HOORAYS! Now the times I got stung the little black barb got stuck in my neck but there wasn't a swelling mark. Is that a bee or wasp?

I cannot recall from any point in my memory having ever been stung by a bee or wasp.

Some story teller I am, eh?

I put down 5-10 times, but I count stings happening at one time (multiple attack) as just 1.

Stung several times as a child, not really any issue. About 8 years old I was attacked by an entire nest of yellow-jackets. There were 10-15 individual welts from the attack, I had a mild allergic reaction, swollen leg, light fever. The next summer I was stung by 1 honey bee, major shock, arm swole to almost twice normal size, heart-rate jump, fever and sweats. Learned what an epi was. Fast forward 15-20 years, working on shrubs around front of my house, one red wasp flew out, I moved away (having learned to be a little more wary) and it flew off, went back to work, had moved around the side of the house, red wasp landed on my right forearm, stung me. Within minutes my are was stretching the sleeve out on my short sleeve shirt, and a pit had already started at the spot that I was stung (still have a white starburst scar at that spot), got to the doctor, got a shot, took two days for the swelling to go down. Haven't been stung since, hope not to have it happen again.

I've been stung once, but I did it to myself, kinda. I was playing in the schoolyard during recess and jumped on a juice box, to pop it, that I thought was empty. Turns out it wasn't and the straw was facing upwards, which shot a stream of grape juice in my face and hair.

Then I remember getting in trouble and having to walk with a teacher for the rest of recess, can't recall why. Anyway, during that time, bugs started to get attracted to the sugars now in my hair and so I swatted them away. I bring my hand up over my head and right into the rear end of a wasp...

Wasn't the best day.

I have never been stung so my fear of bees/wasps is based on the unknown allergy factor more than "ouch that hurts". I have a severe reaction to peanuts so anaphylactic shock scares the shit out of me. I suppose the fact that I always have an epipen with me makes things less dangerous... but damn.

One day I should probably just get stung near a hospital so I know one way or the other.

I was tagged on the eyebrow by a pygmy wasp once. One eye swelled shut, the other half way, my nasal passages clamped shut... It took about 2 days for me to open that one eye. My brother said I did the best Popeye imitation ever.

Ladies and gentlemen - the Hawkwasp.

That dang thing probably sounds like an AH-64 Apache when on approach.

HCGLNS said:

Normally, I leave the insects to do their thing, unless they intrude on a popular area. It's definitely an experience thing, I can have any number of stinging insects land on me and not give a crap, while a co-worker flees in terror. I don't know how many times I have been stung in my life, but the most I have had at once was over 70.

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What the hell did you do?! Collect a couple hives together and then roll around in them? :/

I fell off a ladder while removing a nest that was next to a doorway. The nest fell on top of me. They managed to maul my right side before I got away.

I've never been stung by one and since my mom is the type who is really allergic, I don't want to chance it.

GasBandit said:

Ladies and gentlemen - the Hawkwasp.

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The reason it's so big? It fights tarantulas, paralyzes them, then drags them back to the wasp nest to lay an egg on them. The egg hatches and feeds on the living, though paralyzed, tarantula.

http://mypestprevention.com/2011/05/1077/

Typically one to two inches long, so that's a particularly large specimen.

Also the state insect for New Mexico.

Why? Because New Mexicans be crazy, yo.

stienman said:

Why? Because New Mexicans be crazy, yo.

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I used to live in Albuquerque. I went to New Mexico Tech in Socorro. You are making a dramatic, dramatic understatement.

stienman said:

The reason it's so big? It fights tarantulas, paralyzes them, then drags them back to the wasp nest to lay an egg on them. The egg hatches and feeds on the living, though paralyzed, tarantula.

http://mypestprevention.com/2011/05/1077/

Typically one to two inches long, so that's a particularly large specimen.

Also the state insect for New Mexico.

Why? Because New Mexicans be crazy, yo.

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They were also mutated by Dr. Borous, in the name of SCIENCE, at Big MT to create the Cazadors that inhabit the Mojave wasteland in 2281