Rabby
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That title could have been me, yesterday. It turns out there is a yellow jacket nest in my yard that is at least 4 feet by 4 feet by 4 feet.
I mowed part of that nest yesterday, on a riding mower.
A cloud of thousands of yellow jackets was quickly on me. The sound of the mower was drowned out by buzzing. The air around me was darker, shadowed by the little devils.
It's hard to count the number of stings, but hundreds I guess. They were all over me, but more on my back and right arm. I ran for the screened pool, maybe 150 yards away. I fell twice and couldn't figure out why my limbs weren't responding. Turns out with enough stings, you don't have to be allergic. The venom can kill you outright. I was a little worried I would lose consciousness in the pool, but it was better than being stung to death.
I jumped in the pool, and that stunned the ones that were clinging to my skin and clothing. The screen door also trapped a cloud of them outside, which more or less gave up once they could no longer reach me. Although, the next day, there were still occasional yellow jackets batting against that door, looking for whoever was marked with the target pheromone.
I yelled for my wife, and she took me to the emergency room. On the way there, my vision turned white. Not like blacking out, but similar. I became so sensitive to light, that my vision was like an overexposed photo. For a while I couldn't make out anything even with my eyes wide open. Just bright white, and the occasional spec of a darker object in my field of vision. My wife started telling me to breathe, and I realized I had to consciously think about doing so... if I forgot, I would just stop breathing, or breathe very, very shallowly.
I'm not sure if the nurses that saw me knew what to do about yellow jacket stings. They gave me benedryl and anti-inflammatories, which is good. They didnt know what to make of visual disturbances and extreme nausea, but they did become alarmed that my spO2 readings were dipping to around 70%. They stuck oxygen tubes in my nose. That reminded me that my "automatic" breathing was apparently broken, or stunned, so I watched the oxygen level and took deep breaths.
For the next few hours, yellow jackets would appear... they crawled out of my pockets, my shoes, my socks. Just when I thought I had seen the last of them, they would find their way out of some other unlikely place. The shirt I took off in the pool had plenty of them, still latched on with the mandibles, but drowned at the bottom of the pool.
I guess the moral of the story is, beware unexpected encounters. The most unlikely things can happen, and they tend to come when you least expect them. The exterminator expressed disbelief that someone survived a nest this size. He's seen a few bigger, but this was in the upper range. Certainly deadly. Just search for "Florida man killed by yellow jackets," and you'll find stories of people less fortunate. If I had been 1-2 seconds slower in the 150 yard dash, I would likely be typing this message from underground.
Keep up your fitness, and be aware of your surroundings, as much as possible. Be grateful for what you have.
I mowed part of that nest yesterday, on a riding mower.
A cloud of thousands of yellow jackets was quickly on me. The sound of the mower was drowned out by buzzing. The air around me was darker, shadowed by the little devils.
It's hard to count the number of stings, but hundreds I guess. They were all over me, but more on my back and right arm. I ran for the screened pool, maybe 150 yards away. I fell twice and couldn't figure out why my limbs weren't responding. Turns out with enough stings, you don't have to be allergic. The venom can kill you outright. I was a little worried I would lose consciousness in the pool, but it was better than being stung to death.
I jumped in the pool, and that stunned the ones that were clinging to my skin and clothing. The screen door also trapped a cloud of them outside, which more or less gave up once they could no longer reach me. Although, the next day, there were still occasional yellow jackets batting against that door, looking for whoever was marked with the target pheromone.
I yelled for my wife, and she took me to the emergency room. On the way there, my vision turned white. Not like blacking out, but similar. I became so sensitive to light, that my vision was like an overexposed photo. For a while I couldn't make out anything even with my eyes wide open. Just bright white, and the occasional spec of a darker object in my field of vision. My wife started telling me to breathe, and I realized I had to consciously think about doing so... if I forgot, I would just stop breathing, or breathe very, very shallowly.
I'm not sure if the nurses that saw me knew what to do about yellow jacket stings. They gave me benedryl and anti-inflammatories, which is good. They didnt know what to make of visual disturbances and extreme nausea, but they did become alarmed that my spO2 readings were dipping to around 70%. They stuck oxygen tubes in my nose. That reminded me that my "automatic" breathing was apparently broken, or stunned, so I watched the oxygen level and took deep breaths.
For the next few hours, yellow jackets would appear... they crawled out of my pockets, my shoes, my socks. Just when I thought I had seen the last of them, they would find their way out of some other unlikely place. The shirt I took off in the pool had plenty of them, still latched on with the mandibles, but drowned at the bottom of the pool.
I guess the moral of the story is, beware unexpected encounters. The most unlikely things can happen, and they tend to come when you least expect them. The exterminator expressed disbelief that someone survived a nest this size. He's seen a few bigger, but this was in the upper range. Certainly deadly. Just search for "Florida man killed by yellow jackets," and you'll find stories of people less fortunate. If I had been 1-2 seconds slower in the 150 yard dash, I would likely be typing this message from underground.
Keep up your fitness, and be aware of your surroundings, as much as possible. Be grateful for what you have.
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