Doing some nice, dandy rifle training this week.

Culminated today with some mock-tracks with K9 officers in the woods.

You can see where this is going...

Some unfortunate bastard ahead of me stepped on a nest of ground hornets. 5 or 6 of us got hit. I was in the rear of the 5 or 6, at the bottom of a steep really big ditch/small ravine, with ankle-deep mud at the bottom.

Nowhere to go.

Those cocksuckers nailed me, 15 times that I can count. The worse 5 or 6 are my nose, eye, above the other eye, and some in my scalp. My nose was actually bleeding. Lost a pair of cheap sunglasses and an old hat in my flight. That fucking sucked. Another guy dropped his rifle and someone had to go fetch it, hornets be damned.

Talk about a headache...and I still had the rest of the 95 degree day to go. I don't think I've been stung that many times since I was 5 or 6.

Oh...and the best part...the instructors called for EMS because a female that was stung has a bee allergy. EMS gets there and I'm trying to get some Ibuprofen and they said they didn't have any. I asked for some benadryl and got a 'no'.
That was some bullshit. I know what their protocols are...

So I scrounged 800mg of Ibuprofen from another officer and dug in my bag to find my benadryl cream. Usually I have a whole mess of meds, but I took that box out of my bag last night when I was cleaning up.

I'd be three or four drinks in to numb the pain, but I've got to drive an hour in a few minutes to pick up the kiddos.

Good times.

At least this time it wasn't up your coveralls leg while mowing....

Some of the old timers used to medicate a sting wound by spitting tobacco juice on them. If you choose that particular treatment, you might want to close both eyes real tight.
Hope you feel better soon.

My BIL jumped off a running bulldozer to get away from a swarm of the little devils. I used to love to hear him tell that story.

quote:

Originally posted by Sportshooter:
Some of the old timers used to medicate a sting wound by spitting tobacco juice on them. If you choose that particular treatment, you might want to close both eyes real tight.
Hope you feel better soon.

My dad does this. I'm allergic to bee stings. When I was little he pulled a dip out of his mouth and slapped it on my arm after I got stung one day. No swelling at all. I was amazed, but disgusted too.

Chongo, if you could find a way to weaponize those suckers and use them to disperse riots, you'd be a brillionaire!

quote:

Originally posted by cooger:

quote:

Originally posted by Sportshooter:
Some of the old timers used to medicate a sting wound by spitting tobacco juice on them. If you choose that particular treatment, you might want to close both eyes real tight.
Hope you feel better soon.

My dad does this. I'm allergic to bee stings. When I was little he pulled a dip out of his mouth and slapped it on my arm after I got stung one day. No swelling at all. I was amazed, but disgusted too.

There is some science to this, and I'd have to re-read it to get it right, but some stings are alkaline and some are acidic. Whichever the tobacco is, it equalizes the PH of the sting that is not. But it won't work for all stings across the board.

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
Chongo, if you could find a way to weaponize those suckers and use them to disperse riots, you'd be a brillionaire!

That ain't no shit. To say that my full and undivided attention was on getting the hell out of there as fast as possible (except my three options were 1. right into them, 2. up a hill too steep to do by myself, and 3. through a foot of mud) is an understatement.

I only escaped with the assistance of a K9 handler that came over and helped pull me up the hill.

It sucked donkey ass. I'm waiting for the benadryl to kick in right now, then I'm out for the night.

Hang in there, Chongo! Those ground hornets are nasty! I assume they are the same, or very similar to what I refer to as yellowjackets.
The last time I was stung by yellowjackets was while mowing the yard. A bunch of stings, and ended up having to go to my DR. for a shot, as one of my hands swelled up to about twice its usual size.

I hope that you are feeling better. How are the kids? Did you frighten them?

The idea of weaponizing hornets reminds me of the US trying to develop incendiary bat-bombs during WWII.

https://youtu.be/WDX9rRuHcn8

I can't believe EMS wouldn't give you the meds you asked for. That's BS!
Glad you made it.

A couple of years ago I found a yellow jacket nest while mowing, got several stings. I retreated then went and watched where they were entering the nest, that night I took a bucket, a rock and about 2 ounces of gas. I found the hole with a guard bee , I cut off ny light ( they are sight fliers) I poured the gas in the hole, put the bucket over the yoke then put the rock on the bucket. The next day I removed the bucket, there was a pile of yellow jackets a few inches high.

quote:

Originally posted by dwright1951:
A couple of years ago I found a yellow jacket nest while mowing, got several stings. I retreated then went and watched where they were entering the nest, that night I took a bucket, a rock and about 2 ounces of gas. I found the hole with a guard bee , I cut off ny light ( they are sight fliers) I poured the gas in the hole, put the bucket over the yoke then put the rock on the bucket. The next day I removed the bucket, there was a pile of yellow jackets a few inches high.

You're brave, I did this three weeks ago and the bucket is still there. You know, just in case there's one real pissed off one still alive.


I've also discovered that they like to hide in your clothes and wait till you think you're inside and safe then get you again. I got hit while mowing three years ago and had 4 of them hitch a ride as I ran into the house. They waited about 15 minutes before they lit me up again.

Yep, yellowjackets. The headache is gone, but now I've got 15 itchy spots.

I got 13 stings bailing hay one summer. I was tossing bails away from a barbed wire fence and, one began to really humm. Right full of the little devils. One went right through the canvas top of my Keds sneaker. I ran circles around slow moving things like tractors and pick up trucks. Bees got nothing on my foot speed...