To bee, or not to bee. What is the strangest location you have been stung by a bee/wasp while riding?

jShort said:
After an hour of climbing in Utah, I was about to start an epic descent and bam, right in the lip-

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Another memorable one was driving my moms old convertible and I had my had resting on the side view mirror and I got stung right between the fingers.
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yup...had one of those in the lip deals in Deer Park on a downhill. In minutes my face felt huge and I wasn't sure when/where the swelling would stop. It was fine but I got spooked enough that I carry Benadryl in my pack now.
 
A few years ago I had just come back from one of my epic double birthday miles rides and I was overheated and sweaty and needed to cool down quick. I changed quick into my swimsuit and walked like 10 feet to the poool barefoot and jumped over the side.

After my swim I had to get out using the ladder/stairs which are kind of on the other side of the pool which requires me to walk across more of the lawn and I stepped on a bee. It had been quite a few years since I was stung and I used to have bad reactions and swelling as a kid but aside Burning pain instantly I was able to calm it down with some ice.

Only hurt and slight swelling in the arch of my foot for 1-2 days but that’s it.

Sorry to see all the knarly ones up above I hope i never take one to the face or in my shorts like some of you have.
 
Got stung on the tongue eating a piece of BBQ chicken. But the best (worst) sting story was at a race in the Poconos some 20 years ago or so. They had cut a new section of singletrack and disturbed a yellowjacket nest. Riders were getting stung left and right. Someone eventually put up a sign that said "Bees!". Morons. Yellowjackets are wasps.
 
On the receent Sourlands group ride, there was some sort of ground bee nest right in the middle of the trail. We all rolled right over it climbing so they had plenty of time to tag the shit out of all of us. I think i got the worst at like 3-4 bee stings in various places. Was OK until i got back to the truck and started swelling badly. Popped a benadryl which was enough to buy me some time to get home, get cleaned up and then scoot over to the walk in clinic for something more powerful. By the time i got there i was covered in hives like Barkers pic. 😱

Couple years back i got tagged by a yellow jacket right in the lip at allaire. No adverse reaction with just one sting but i sure did look like i took a right hook to the mouth with all the swelling. 😂
 
JonF said:
On the receent Sourlands group ride, there was some sort of ground bee nest right in the middle of the trail. We all rolled right over it climbing so they had plenty of time to tag the shit out of all of us. I think i got the worst at like 3-4 bee stings in various places. Was OK until i got back to the truck and started swelling badly. Popped a benadryl which was enough to buy me some time to get home, get cleaned up and then scoot over to the walk in clinic for something more powerful. By the time i got there i was covered in hives like Barkers pic. 😱

Couple years back i got tagged by a yellow jacket right in the lip at allaire. No adverse reaction with just one sting but i sure did look like i took a right hook to the mouth with all the swelling. 😂
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I'd definitely recommend carrying an EpiPen. You just never know if the next reaction is going to be worse.
 
I stepped into a yellowjacket nest at my grandparents' house when I was 5 or 6 and got stung 5 times all over. It was pretty traumatic at the time, but ever since then bee stings haven't bothered me much. They'll hurt a bit, but typically go away faster than a mosquito bite. I was once stung on the hand while riding on Broad Mtn at Jim Thorpe. My friend who is deathly allergic stared in wonder as I went "ouch..." and kept riding. 30 min later, there was no indication I'd been stung.

Oddest sting was in the mouth on my upper lip while riding at Nox a few years ago. That one hurt a little and it swelled up a bit. One of my friends had some benadryl which made it feel better. By the end of the ride, my lip was fine.

I've heard allergic reactions can change as one gets older, but so far bee stings still don't affect me that much.

I remember getting bit by a horse fly during the Dark Horse 40 a bunch of years ago. That one hurt like a SOB. Those effers draw blood...
 
ebarker9 said:
I'd definitely recommend carrying an EpiPen. You just never know if the next reaction is going to be worse.
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You may be right. I had never experienced anything like that before, however, i've never been stung more than once at a time so i couldn't say if this was a normal reaction or not. I never experienced any signs of anaphylaxis, just the onset of hives around the various sting sites. Still, i wouldn't want to find out the hard way! I should ask my GP next time about it.
 
Trigger warning! 😂

LAst year we had Yellowjerks build a nest right by the front porch. We had to walk wide around it and scurry past all summer till they died out. I was spared but my wife took one in the leg. I tried soaking the entrance multiple times with spray but it didn't have any permanent effect. Once fall came, i was able to dig it up. It was pretty sizeable (About as big as a bowling ball) so i'm curious where the extra dirt went.

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I've gotten stung on my head, in between the vents on my helmet riding the towpath.

But in other places within the last few years.....

I've gotten stung 6/7 times from cutting a downed tree I didn't realize was infested.

I've gotten stung 5/6 times when running a brush mower over some rotted wood that had a nest that sent me running and I lost my sneakers while running up a stone driveway.

I've gotten stung 2/3 times while trying to help a friend capture a swarm from my house just a few short months ago. She was dressed in all the garb, me, I was in street clothes. I didn't get stung until the end of the activity after she found the Queen. I had a pretty good smoke screen from her little fire box.

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JonF said:
Trigger warning! 😂

LAst year we had Yellowjerks build a nest right by the front porch. We had to walk wide around it and scurry past all summer till they died out. I was spared but my wife took one in the leg. I tried soaking the entrance multiple times with spray but it didn't have any permanent effect. Once fall came, i was able to dig it up. It was pretty sizeable (About as big as a bowling ball) so i'm curious where the extra dirt went.

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That is some impressive building they did underground. And it really does make you wonder where all the displaced dirt went.
 
Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST said:
Left eye brow on trail. One year ago...
Like Robin said I'm terrified of getting stung now.
Every sting has gotten more severe. No I don't Carry a EpiPen
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Suck @Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST .....Exact same thing happened to me in one of the KVSP races....finished the race with my one eye mostly closed, that was fun. Got stung on the hand during the Ringwood race that same year too.


I laugh when non bikers say to me....."you ride in the woods....omg, aren't you afraid of bears????" im like "no...bears aren't scary, yellow jackets are"
 
I need a little clarification...does the term 'bee' generally applies to all stinging insects? I kind of get the impression that 'honey bee' is the specific name for what I would call just 'bee' and referred to in my earlier post, while yellow jackets, wasps, bumble bees, carpenters bees etc. all fall under the generic term 'bee' her in the US?
 
We used to have an issue with the NICA team getting stings as the first in a group would hit a nest and the remainder of the group rides through the angry yellow jackets. Once of the coaches even bought bee stickers and give the kids when they got stung. A couple incidents stand out:

1. Core Creek, Woodbourne Loop. Short loop, 3/4 of a mile, that we would do hot laps on. There was a log about 0.1 backwards into the loop that had a nest. We have 30? kids on the loop, coaches mixed in and I am at the start/finish. Fast kids come whizzing by for a lap and at some point I hear screaming on the radios. About mid pack kids start getting stung. Mind you 30 kids are spread-out and we make the call to get everyone back to the start. That plan was great until one kid turns around and starts sprinting backwards on the course as he is deathly scared of bees. Unknowingly he is going towards the areas with the bees. While he didn't get stung, dude got out of dodge and disappears. Spent the last hour of practice searching for said kid after attending to 15 kids with stings.

2. Nesh, surfer, which is a short but fast DH singletrack section. I am with the faster kids and come down the trail and are regrouping at the bottom. It's taking awhile and I start to wonder where the second half of the group is. Enter screaming on the radios and kids screaming in the distance. I start to backtrack and every kid has stings but one girl has multiple. So one, she thoroughly embarrassed all the other kids in the group (8th and 9th grade boys), by taking off her jersey (she had a normal sports bra on) for us to tend to the stings with sting wipes and then I am like "where is your bike?!". To which she responds, I dropped it and ran. So guess who needs to get it. When I found it she basically threw it down the hill side, so I had to climb through a bunch of prickers to get said bike and got stung in the process. Good times.
 
JonF said:
Trigger warning! 😂

LAst year we had Yellowjerks build a nest right by the front porch. We had to walk wide around it and scurry past all summer till they died out. I was spared but my wife took one in the leg. I tried soaking the entrance multiple times with spray but it didn't have any permanent effect. Once fall came, i was able to dig it up. It was pretty sizeable (About as big as a bowling ball) so i'm curious where the extra dirt went.

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Architecturally impressive.
 
serviceguy said:
I need a little clarification...does the term 'bee' generally applies to all stinging insects? I kind of get the impression that 'honey bee' is the specific name for what I would call just 'bee' and referred to in my earlier post, while yellow jackets, wasps, bumble bees, carpenters bees etc. all fall under the generic term 'bee' her in the US?
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Hard to say... It happens so fast and no one wants to stick around and split hairs on classification. 🤣

Most commonly its going to be yellowjackets since they build nests on ground level, sting aggressively and are technically wasps. honeybees live in a hive and most of the other common wasp varieties typically build an elevated nest so that rules them out.
 
OK, so there’s some weird ass juju in here. I was in my garage this evening waxing chains. ( yes, no part of the story is made up.).
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I squat down to put another clean chain in the crockpot, and as I push my hands on my thighs to stand back up, I feel a buzzing under my right hand and get stung by some big ass insect on the palm of my hand. I flinch and it flies away so I didn’t get a good look. But it was able to fly. I haven’t been stung by any insects since high school. WT actual F.
 
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