Bees

[Driftless]

Bees

 

Was looking at my morning glories yesterday.  The bees were having a grand time collecting pollen.  These bees are the good kind.  The necessary kind that fertilize our apple blossoms and morning glories.  These are the ones that have been put on the endangered list due to over use of pesticides.  These are the "GOOD" bees. 

As a child I had way too much time on my hands.  I was the curious type and my curiosity  got me in trouble a couple times during my youth.

I hated bees as a kid.  If I saw a nest under the eaves I would be getting the hose out to deal with the hornets.  I guess the word got out to the bee community and I was a marked man after that.

It was late May and a group of friends and I went spelunking at the Star Valley Cave.  I lead the group so I was the first to drop down in the hole in the ground entry point.  Before I could get all the way down in the hole I was swarmed by yellow jackets.  They had taken up residence in the entry point.  24 stings later I managed to outrun the rest of the swarm.  I swelled up awfully.  Both of eyes were nearly swollen shut.  A week later i went to the gas station and filled up a gas can and took care of those bees.

That fall I noticed there was a huge bee hive on the side roof of the Catholic church.  I watched a couple day while going to catechism and there were no bees flying in or out.  I thought the bees had left and the big football shaped hive was neat and would be a good science show and tell item.

I carefully crawled up on the roof and poked at the nest to see if anything flew out.  Nobody was home I thought. I carefully took down the nest to make sure it stayed in one piece.

 I took it home.  Nobody was home so I left it on the front porch.  It was a cool morning and I went outside to play.  The day warmed up and so did the residents of the bee hive.  I went in the front porch and "they" were there waiting.  Only 14 stings this time.  It was quite a feat to get that hive off the porch.  Add 4 more stings to that total.

There were a few years that I had no run ins with bees.  I hit adulthood and got a degree in HVAC.  I worked for my uncle as an apprentice plumber.  I was a skinny young adult and usually got the dirty jobs and the crawl into the tight places tasks.  There was a vent pipe to be cut out in an attic and I was voluntold I was the one to crawl in the tight dark attic.

I crawled way back in the corner of the old farm house crawl space and was greeted by a swarm of bees.  My crawl space was tiny and backing out was a serious pain....literally....a dozen stings to the face and another 10 in other places later i was out of the attic of pain.  Raid solved that problem.

I guess karma was paying me back for all of those bees that never bothered me and I hosed them.

Years went by and I had developed a respect/fear of bees and had no incidents with my nemesis the bee.  I thought I had put that part of my life behind me. 

I was a warm sunny day in August and I was casting at the local dam for pike when it happened.  I was drinking pop and set my can down to cast.  I reeled in my lure.  In the short time I set it down a yellow jacket decided it wanted a drink too.  I took a drink and felt something moving in my mouth and spit it out.  As it flew out of my mouth it decided to sting my tongue.

My tongue started to swell up immediately.  I quickly rounded up my fishing gear and took off at Mach 12 to the Grove Medical Clinic.  I was driving as fast as my Toyota pick-up could go.  My tongue was continuing to grow during the drive.

I got in the clinic and tried to speak but my tongue had swollen up so badly I could not speak.  I pointed at my tongue.  I was frantic and grabbed a pen and paper and wrote down Bee Sting and pointed at my tongue.

Seven shots later in my tongue and the swelling started to go down.  The doctor made me sit in his waiting room for 2 hours to make sure I had no more swelling in my tongue or throat.  He told me if I had swallowed the bee I might have died due to the swelling if it would have stung me on the way down.

The bee sting effected me for weeks afterward.  My tongue swelled up some much that my tongue had actually split in three places.  It took a long time for the tongue to heal.

I HATE BEES.

Edited September 13, 2017 by LHarris

[ozzie]

Funny stories and the last one WOW!  I have always wondered about that scenario happening...I just know I hope to never bee in that situation!  Glad you recovered