Ever been chased by a cloud or horde of angry insects?

[2 Cycle]

Ever have a bunch of insects so irritated and riled up that they choose to attack? I remember horsing around with some bald faced hornets, they got mad and came at me. Got some carpenter ants very irritated with a stick and they were upset as well.

 

[Polarbearboy]

Last job before retiring was running a forestry crew in the dry woods near Cape Cod. We were thinning maples and oaks to let the pine trees take off. August was hell month because the soil and air were dry and the hornet and yellowjacket nests were full of angry critters. Almost daily one of us would step on a yellowjacket nest or as a tree came down a hornets' nest would get smashed. One day we were out cutting and just as a tree was falling, the saw man realized that he was covered with yellowjackets and dropped his saw still running right on top of the nest, so we couldn't get in to grab it or turn it off. We were concerned that it would start a fire. So I had the foreman hike out to his truck and go into town and get hornet spray while the rest of us filled up anything we could find with water in case a fire started. But the worst was the day I was out scouting for our next work site by myself. I was walking down the edge of an old field when my foot went down into a void. The next thing I knew there were yellowjackets flying up my pants, down my shirt, and stinging me in the face. I staggered away and went down on the ground dizzy and almost fainting. My crew didn't know where I was and it was twenty minutes before they found me. The foreman always carried an epipen and gave me a shot. The big guys helped me out of the woods and drove me to the emergency room. I had twenty-seven yellowjacket stings. Awful. Heavy dose of benedryl and sleep and I was fine the next day.

 

[ghostofcyberx13]

First thanks for the thread. Second, Polar your experiences oh so remind me of my own. I had joined the USMC in 1967 and by April 1968 at the age of just 18 I was just under the DMZ in Vietnam. We(platoon)were out on a patrol(Leaving a secure area and returning to same and not carrying everything) and it was midday nice and sunny and maybe only 90 degrees. I've never been a klutz really but I kinda tripped on a bush a little just enough for my helmet to fly off(we never used the chinstrap) and then all hell broke loose. Upon falling I started screaming and wailing my arms as I was being stung on the top of my head. I remember seeing large(1 and 1/2 inches or so) black and orange hornets, then I went to absolute hysteria mode just screaming and flailing my arms. I thought my head was going to explode and from this point not much is recollected, just bits and pieces and things my buddies told me about the event. First when it happened the other Marines were wondering what kind of booby-trap I had tripped that didn't have an explosion tied to it. Well they figured out quickly what was going on. They had to take my weapon, flac-jacket, and helmet and walk/guide me back about a mile back to the secure area. I was taken to corpsmen in a tent and I was still freaking out, my head exploding. The corpsman gave me a shot of morphine and in just an instant I was like, "Gee thanks" I could finally speak again as the pain had subsided substantially. The corpsman also put in some local anesthetic into my head/scalp and another shot of morphine and then commenced to pull seven stingers from the top of my head. They were so cool those corpsmen and bless them for that second shot of morphine that I probably didn't need, but hey they were feelin' my pain by proxy, heck everyone did. Funny thing those seven stingers were the only ones I received, nowhere else on my body did I get stung, guess I was lucky I didn't get stung in the face. Anyway I took it easy the rest of the day still pretty loaded on morphine. Even to this very day the pain I had on that day is still the most pain felt in my life...by far.

 

[BabyFacedFinster]

Nothing that bad. I've pissed off a ton of wasps while trying to destroy their hives. I've dressed up in snowmobile outfits, complete with full helmet, in the dead of summer armed with wasp spray and something to smash the hive. I like to try and smash the hive in one fell swoop.

 

[MinnBobber]

Several years ago I was mowing a 10' diameter dirt pile in the backyard as big weeds were growing. I'm allergic to bee stings and there was a ground hornet nest
I went screaming into the house and shortly after, a nurse came running from 3 blocks away as she heard the terror screams.
She threw me in bathtub, ran some water, and then covered me with 2 boxes of baking soda powder/paste. I was quickly taken to emergency room for "the shot".

I wish someone had taken a pic as I looked like a tribesman from a bad Tarzan movie