questions relating to stings from large wasp or bee
This is probably a long shot but I'm looking for info or even guesses to questions about wasps or bees that stung me and my wife.
General internet searches yielded general answers, nothing useful.
Questions are what might they have been, where a nest might be located, and what it would look like.
So if you like a puzzle, or just a story:
Short set-up. We live way out of town about 75 miles SW of Fort Worth, Texas. 10 miles west of Glen Rose in the "Chalk Mountain" area if you are familiar with it. I got my truck stuck on our property when I drove into a seeping area. We were trying to pull it out with tractor with me driving the tractor and her the truck. After the first unsuccessful try I stopped and walked back toward truck to discuss tactics. As I approached I was stung on the arm, swatted it then realized there were more, and started swatting with my hat. My wife said she saw four or five around me. I started to run, and yelled for her to close the windows. She didn't quite make it and so ended up running too.
There were 10 or fewer in total. Not a great swarm.
I was stung on right forearm several times and on the back of the neck once or twice. Only one in each location was a "full" sting before I swatted it. She was stung twice on the right forearm. Her long hair may have saved her from any neck stings. She said swatted one out of here hair. More on the sting severity in a minute.
Some pursued me for more than 100 yards. The chase may have stopped only because I swatted the last one. They did not pursue my wife as hard. Perhaps I drew them away by running away first. But when I started to walk back toward the truck I quickly encountered one lingering on the path I had taken. So we gave up.
We haven't encountered this or anything similar here. In fact we have commented that wasps and bees here seem remarkably non-aggressive. Even when you accidentally bump a nest they haven't pursued more than ten feet. Until now.
Appearance. We both saw them as black and large with plump shape. I would say roughly 2 cm tip to tip. My wife thought a little larger. She got a better look at details on one that got into the truck and landed on the passenger window sill. She said all black except for a white stripe across the center. She wasn't sure whether the stripe was on upper abdomen or thorax. She also said shiny abdomen i.e. not hairy. I can't disagree with this, but I was concentrating more on swatting than looking at details.
Behavior. Vigorous pursuit as mentioned. I never heard flight sounds. Did not seem to go for face, but were stealthy. Good at getting onto me and starting to sting before I saw them. They seemed to try to sting repeatedly.
The stings. No apparent stinger left behind. We both had mostly similar reactions. We both thought the initial sting was mild. I thought first one felt like a robber-fly or horsefly bite. A welt developed quickly, soon surround by larger histamine swelling. Initially this masked the sting count. I could only identify individual sting points two days later after the swelling and broad painful area subsided. The sting areas remains tender now, after three days. Pain was never intense but became achy and over whole swelling area. Itch increased over first and second day. My itching remained through yesterday morning, but is is now mostly gone. The neck sting center welt is still there and slightly painful to touch. My wife's arm swelling increased though the second day producing two "goose-egg" bumps on her arm which are still there. They respond temporarily to ice pack.
I had one more symptom that she avoided. We were stung between 6:30 and 7 pm last Saturday. We gave up on truck rescue, went back to house. Showered then we ate light meal, watched a TV show. No obvious change to symptoms. Sometime after 9:30 I became queasy then vomited in repeated episodes, even after all contents were already out. Even drinking water set me off again. The worst was over in an hour or two, but I couldn't drink water until early the next morning. After that OK, though not much appetite. No recurrence.
One more thing that was peculiar. When they first attacked I was walking where I had walked over repeatedly while positioning the tractor, hooking chain to the truck, circling the truck to check how sunk in it was, etc.
Just before the attack I had tried pulling with tractor but couldn't get enough grip on wet ground. My wife was also applying power to the truck wheels which may have thrown some mud near the truck. At the point of attack there are no trees or even shrubs particularly close. Ground cover is mostly 2 to 3 foot tall forbs of many types. Some tall prairie grasses interspersed, e.g. Yellow Indian Grass, plus some greenbrair vine. Ground was saturated with some water on surface. Tire tracks and footprints filled with water. Thus any underground nests would surely be flooded.
I winched the truck out yesterday, Monday. Saw nothing of the attackers. I looked for some sort of nest in tree or shrub nearby. Saw nothing, and the only thing woody or "tall" (
Contributed by Gregg Lee on 30 June, 2015 - 2:23pm |