Bee Stings - Is there a DR in the house ?

Dangers of working from home.

Look at your tomato plants and see that the deer have been back and stolen your 1 tomato that would have been ripe today, and a few green ones. On your break, go outside to put some tree branches in the ground to put some chicken wire around the tomatoes. When collecting the branches, disturb a in the ground bees nest and not know it. Get hit in the cafe, ouch, what was that, then again same cafe, then the other, realize whats up, start the run, hit in the top of the foot, back of the head (right side), then the stomach.

Anyway, its been about and hour, and nothing has swollen up a ton. Standard pain to be expected.

Not expected is the slight vagueness (paralysis, not sure how else to describe) in the muscles just below my left eye, and more so left jaw.  

Never was allergic, did have a cafe blow up pretty good 30 years ago when I mowed over a yellow jacket nest in the ground (lots of hits in the same area). Thoughts on the eye/jaw thing.

PS: I have a dentist appt in a couple hours that has been rescheduled to many times, do I tell them or keep it quiet, if you all deem me a hypochondriac regarding the above.

Probably not bees if the nest was in the ground. On the palsy I would be a bit scared too. Not sure what to do or if serious or not though. 

I'm not a doctor, but left side paralysis says call somebody who is immediately. I think that's a stroke symptom. 

In case of a suspected stroke, F.A.S.T.:

Face: Look in a mirror or have someone else look at you while you try to smile. If one side of your face is drooping, you could be having a stroke. Seek immediate medical attention.

Arms: Try to raise both of your arms in front of you to shoulder level. If one arm can't reach the same level as the other, you could be having a stroke. Seek immediate medical attention.

Speech: Try to talk. Does your speech sound normal? Is it coming out as real words? Is it slurred? If your speech is irregular, you could be having a stroke. Seek immediate medical attention.

Time: Note the exact time that symptoms began and be prepared to inform first responders of how much time has passed.

In reply to Nicole Suddard :

1 Take aspirin it will help if you're having a stroke. At worst it will give you an upset tummy if not. 

In reply to Nicole Suddard :

Most likely those are ground wasps not bees. Their venom tends to give a higher reaction than bees. 
Domestic bees only sting as a last resort and are nowhere near as aggressive as wasps who actually attack.  

As far as allergies to bee or wasp stings, you'll find out the 2nd time you are stung if you are allergic.  The 2nd time you are stung is when you body's histamine receptors freak out and goes into anaphylaxis.  Take an antihistamine and seek medical attention.  

In reply to Nicole Suddard :

Face: no more crooked then normal...lol

Arms: No problem there.

Speech: believed to be normal, just off a call, no complaints from the other side.

Cafe with multiple hits is burring, stomach itching, the head hit is the mildest of all, must be the thick skull.

Thanks for the replies ! 

Here is what they are.

Better shot of another one that made it in the house on or behind me.  

Looks like what we call a "yellow jacket".  They are nasty little SOB's.  They are EXTREMELY territorial, often attack  groups and, in my experience, their sting hurts worse than a "regular bee".  It sounds like you may be having an allergic reaction.  It never a bad idea to get checked out by your doctor.  If you are allergic, the next time they get you will likely be worse.  If it's bad enough, you may need an eppy pen prescribed.

As for getting rid of them, look for a hole in the ground about the size of a golf ball.  If you are allergic, call a professional.   

Thats definitely a wasp.  My daughter was getting horse riding lessons a few weekends ago, and the trainers husband bushhogged over a nest of them.  He was stung a few dozen times, and looked like he'd been beat up in a bar fight.

In reply to kazoospec :

Yea, figured yellow jackets but was not positive, saw the hole, thought it was my lawn destroying friend, the mole's hole.

We got it all here this year in NH.

Deer, moles, voles, and yellow jackets, oh my.

Don't pour kerosene in the hole. 

Burning them out sounds like a great idea, until you dump 8 gallons of kero and notice the hole still wants more, so you say berkeley it and drop in a match anyway. Then you need to mow around a crater for a while, and FSM help you if that explosion didn't kill them all.

Yellow jackets are tiny but the sting  hurts like a bitch.  They do not tolerate messing with their nest.  I have had 2 nests in my yard over the years.  The first one I killed by pouring a cup of ammonia in the hole and dropping a concrete pad over it.  The second one I took out by dumping a cup of Sevin dust onto the hole.  Worked like a charm.  BTW do anything at night.  

Karma, the shirt I grabbed for the run to the dentist is a Georgia tech yellow jacket shirt, yj character and all. 

+1 to doing it at night. I've approached their nests with starting fluid and a lighter and at night or even dusk the survivors just seem confused and aren't as likely to take to flight.

In reply to frenchyd :

I didn't mention bees, but it's worth noting that africanized (aka "killer") bees do tend to build nests on or near the ground and will attack indiscriminately if disturbed. They were clearly not the culprits in this case, but it's important to look out for them for that reason. Domestic honeybees can also be triggered by pheromones to attack as a group if one of their own is injured or killed (but they will otherwise leave you alone if you're not messing with their hive). I've dabbled in beekeeping and been stung exactly once (my bad - I was not wearing protective equipment), but there is not enough cash in the world to get me to go near a ground hive.

Yellow Jacket.  I had a hand swell up to twice its normal size when one got me when I was about 10 years old. 

 They attack anything that moves, no wait and see attitude for them.  

 I think my grandma gave me Benadryl.  I remember it made me sleepy.

In reply to Nicole Suddard :

I found that I enjoyed beekeeping (or helping to beekeep) more without PPE but I weld in flip flops so there's that.  In fact only time I got stung was when a poor bee got under my strap and stung when I moved my foot.

I agree on a the yellow jacket identification.  

I was stung by a bunch of them after stepping on their nest when I was 5. For whatever reason, that episode seems to have made me strangely immune to bee stings. Yes, the sting hurts, but rarely is there any reaction.  In some ways, they are less annoying than mosquito bites.  

In reply to Stampie (FS) :

Yeah, honestly being in Florida wearing the PPE sometimes made me more nervous because it got warm inside the suit and every drop of sweat felt like a trapped bee. Only issue aside from the sting that I ever had from not wearing the PPE was that once a poor bee got stuck in my braid and I didn't discover it until about an hour later when I got back indoors and realized the back of my head was gently buzzing (the bee was later freed without injury).

Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:

I was stung by a bunch of them after stepping on their nest when I was 5.

I also stepped in a nest when I was about that age, and got stung like 40 or 50 times...my mother immediately scrubbed me down with some strong soap which somehow seemed to help, I was itchy for a while afterwards but recovered pretty quickly.  I was deathly afraid of wasps for a long time after that, though.  60 years later I can still remember it vividly.

As an adult I once got stung by a yellow jacket on the side of my face, and had a twitch in my eye for the longest time afterwards.  That was really annoying.

In reply to Nicole Suddard :

We keep bees. The trick to know if it's sweat or a bee is this. If it's running down your back it's generally sweat. If it's running up it's a bee.

Oh, crud ... those yellow jackets will literally kill me if I get popped and can’t get to my EpiPen followed by Benedryl fast enough.   Makes me especially leery as we get into fall and they start getting super agressive.