I stirred up a hornet's nest...literally

**IH8EVRY1** · 06-27-2010, 03:05 PM

So there I was earlier today, on vacation with the family walking around in the Great Smokey Mountains. We came up on a steam, I saw an opportunity for a picture and kicked my shoes off and headed in with the camera. The water was only mid-calf deep but the rocks were slick so I was looking down trying not to slip with my wife's $700 camera. I walked into a tree since I was looking down and literally head butted a hornet's nest. I never saw them, never heard 'em either. After I put my clothes back on, I counted one on my left cheek below my eye, one on my right cheek bone, one on my left ear, one on my forehead, 3 on the back of my neck and one more about half way up on the back of my head. FML that hurt! I lost my glasses somewhere in my flailing strip show of fuery but I never fell, gently set down the camera on dry land, never fell in the water and had to foresight while fighting those damn flying demons to tell my wife to get me some benadryl out of the car. I'm glad I'm not allergic to wasp stings but it makes me wonder how many times you can get hit by those fire breating bastards without dying.

**cammed goat** · 06-27-2010, 03:10 PM

If it were the entire hive, you would have died from all the stings. You got off lucky.

**Nhra Firebird** · 06-27-2010, 04:54 PM

When i was a kid I was clearing a path in the weeds to get to a creek behind my house. I had a big stick to beat the weeds down and I smacked a hornet's nest with the stick cutting it in half... I never knew i could ran that fast. lol

**cammed goat** · 06-27-2010, 04:57 PM

Would make for an interesting sport...running while saying "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU" from angry hornets/bees/wasps and still having breath to spare.

**IH8EVRY1** · 06-27-2010, 06:05 PM

I was proud of myself with all the kids around. Not the first curse word, I was thinking them but not saying much. I heard my wife and my kids were laughing. The old man was yelling for me to get away from them and for the kids to get away from me but I never cursed.

I'm glad it ended up a lot better than it could have. It kinda sucks that I lost me glasses. I can't see as well but that's why I got insurance.

That's the second time in my life I've stirred up a nest. First one was similar to nhra firebird's situation. I was cutting grass and ran over a ground nest.

I bet I look up a little more often on my next trip through the woods!

**allbaugh_04** · 06-27-2010, 06:48 PM

Buggers...i wouldn't be able to function without my glasses. Talk about being thankful.

**knightryda01** · 06-28-2010, 11:00 AM

I was mowing the lawn once and must've stirred up a underground hive or something. I got stung bout 8 times... It sucked!!!! When I bought my house I had a nest up in a tree in my front yard a little bigger then a basketball... I was like F..... that.

I suckered the neighbor kid into knocking it down lol

**IH8EVRY1** · 06-28-2010, 04:34 PM

Well, we went and played golf today and I'll taddle on my golf game a little here, but everytime I headed off in the woods looking for a ball besides the normal snakes I'm looking for, I was looking for nests! Got away without any painful experiences today though. I am still a little jumpy when some sort of flying insect buzzes my head though.

**Smkn_TA** · 06-28-2010, 04:34 PM

Why not go back from your glasses? After the initial attack, give it twenty minutes and the attack pheromones would have gone away. As long as you did not touch the nest again you would easily have been able to get them back. As for not cussing, your a better man than me, lol.

**IH8EVRY1** · 06-28-2010, 05:07 PM

We went back and looked for them. Pop's, my wife and I looked for 20 minutes. I got close enough to the nest again where they were uncomfortable. I told them I was the one who got stung and to stop sweating it, I want my damn glasses back. But I waded up and down that creek. It was flowing so fast I'm certain they were 100's of feet down from where it all started. Trust me, I went back and looked for what I was certain was long enough I would have found them if they were close by. Either way, I've got insurance so I'll get another pair next monday.

**Nhra Firebird** · 06-28-2010, 05:13 PM

Originally Posted by IH8EVRY1

We went back and looked for them. Pop's, my wife and I looked for 20 minutes. I got close enough to the nest again where they were uncomfortable. I told them I was the one who got stung and to stop sweating it, I want my damn glasses back. But I waded up and down that creek. It was flowing so fast I'm certain they were 100's of feet down from where it all started. Trust me, I went back and looked for what I was certain was long enough I would have found them if they were close by. Either way, I've got insurance so I'll get another pair next monday.

I just pictured a hornet's nest with a pair of glasses sitting on top of the nest and the hornet's saying come get your glasses asshole.

**cammed goat** · 06-28-2010, 05:33 PM

OH SHIIIII.........!!!

**IH8EVRY1** · 06-28-2010, 05:44 PM

After that ordeal, I'd have probably let 'em have 'em. Or driven to somewhere with those 25 feet cans of spray and and shot them a bird and sprayed away. Probably to only be reattacked by dying pissed off hornets. WTF makes them so pissed off anyway?

**allbaugh_04** · 06-28-2010, 07:47 PM

Bring a spray bottle of ammonia

**IH8EVRY1** · 07-03-2010, 09:45 AM

I'm finally home and thought I'd post some pictures.

You can see the nest on my right side. I was paying attention to where I was stepping so much, I just didn't see it.

That was right after I head butted it.

**johnd** · 07-03-2010, 01:48 PM

I feel your pain, literally. I was cutting down a bush yesterday and got foul of a yellow jacket nest. Have mostly laid around and hurt since.

**IH8EVRY1** · 07-03-2010, 02:07 PM

Originally Posted by johnd

I feel your pain, literally. I was cutting down a bush yesterday and got foul of a yellow jacket nest. Have mostly laid around and hurt since.

Sorry to hear that. I know it sucks. Don't know if you have any allergies or not. I don't and took a couple benedrly for good measure. I laid around a lot too after that.