# Wicked bee sting



## moonspinner (Jul 2, 2002)

I got tagged twice by ground bees
I always felt yellow jackets were the worst but these took the cake. Insanely painful then itchy for 3 days. They were small and black with a nest in grassy mud
Any idea on type?


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

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NY Bee Diversity







entomology.cals.cornell.edu


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## doc- (Jun 26, 2015)

moonspinner said:


> I got tagged twice by ground bees
> I always felt yellow jackets were the worst but these took the cake. Insanely painful then itchy for 3 days. They were small and black with a nest in grassy mud
> Any idea on type?


_Grassiae mudnesterus_ obviously. ...The pain & inflammation from a bite is more a function of your personal physiology than it is due to the type of bee or wasp. On one end of the spectrum are those who hardly notice the sting, and on the other are those who are deadly allergic. Everybody else is somewhere in between.


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## muleskinner2 (Oct 7, 2007)

I carry a small bottle of children's benedrill in my truck, and have another in the house. If I am bitten by a bee I go into shock and my throat swells shut.


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## doc- (Jun 26, 2015)

It can be deadly...Benedryl takes some time to work and you could have a sudden, severe anaphyllactic reaction requiring immediate injection of adrenalin to keep you alive until you can crawl to the ER for definitive treatment....I suggest you get a Rx for the Epi-pen from your doc and then go to the bank to take out a 30 yr mortgage so you can pay for it.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

doc- said:


> ..I suggest you get a Rx for the Epi-pen from your doc and then go to the bank to take out a 30 yr mortgage so you can pay for it.


Then take out another loan in 10 years when the first epi-pen needs to be replaced.


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## Little Quacker in NC (May 9, 2002)

I am smiling as I love your name and love Mules! Also smiling as Bees don't bite! Neither do hornets and wasps. 





muleskinner2 said:


> I carry a small bottle of children's benedrill in my truck, and have another in the house. If I am bitten by a bee I go into shock and my throat swells shut.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

They do bite. Paper nest wasps bite off pieces of dry plant fiber and chew it to make their nests. Somewhere in my memory cards I have pictures of a wasp chewing off bits of a wood fence post. Yellow jackets chew off pieces of meat and can clean a bone in minutes if enough of them are working on it. I once saw a movie in which a person used the pincers on decapitated ant heads to hold a wound closed.

People have reactions to the sting which pumps venom into the skin. When most _Hymenoptera_ bite they just take a piece out of your skin.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

We went walking down into the woods with the goaties one day. All was well, until the herd queen at the time (the original Trubby) did some serious backpedaling, then headed for the main paddock.

Bees or yellow jackets (aka "manky gits"), we stumbled upon a nest of something that bit or stung, and the goats were smart enough to know that they didn't have to run fast, only faster than their two-legged human companions.

Very grateful that plantain grows luxuriously and ubiquitously here. Grabbed some, chewed it, slapped it on the bite/stings. Whew! Sweet relief!


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