And here come the Bees (and wasps and other flying things).
By bobbyjoe143
@bobbyjoe143 (1287)
March 30, 2016 7:14am CST
When I was a small child, around 8 years old, I was out playing with 2 of my friends, we used to play on a common green (a patch of land that is set aside for the community to use as they wish) that is in our village (I still live in the same village).
Adjoining the common green is a wall, that separates it from a house and its garden. The wall, even back then was old and crumbling (and yet almost 30 years later it's still standing), and unbeknownst to me and my friends, housed a wasps nest.
We played happily, we were running and messing around as children of that age do, we made noise (quite a bit of it), laughing and screaming in a playful way. This in close proximity to said wall, angered the wasps enough to feel that we were "invading" their territory and they felt the need to let us know!
We were all heavily stung, we ran as fast as our little legs would allow and went straight to our local shop keepers house, as it was closer to our play area than our homes. The lovely shop keeper Mrs. Gibson called our parents and helped us remove wasps from our hair and clothing. Both my friends and I had been stung near our eyes and ears... The pain was excruciating, we all cried and wailed as children do.
Our parents arrived and took us home, a Doctor came to see us and made sure that none of us were allergic to wasps stings, gave us creams to apply to the stings and all was fine, no real harm done (well I lost a shoe when running away, one that has never been found! Goodness knows where that got to!).
However, while no real harm was done that day, to this day it has left a mental scar on me at least (not sure about my childhood companions as I no longer see them). I have a deep fear of things that can both fly and buzz at the same time...
If I hear that familiar buzz when I am out, I run (I've been told it's quite amusing watching a grown woman running away from a tiny little thing), If I hear the buzz when I'm in the house, I NEED to find out where the noise is coming from and what it is that's making it before I take action. If it's a fly I try and kill it, if it's a bee, I capture it in an upturned glass (they may well scare me, but I know they mean no harm) and wait for someone to come and remove it for me. If however, it is the main offender, the dreaded wasp... Out comes the fly and wasp killer spray and I use far more than is really needed (that monster will die for coming into my home!).
And now, here we are, heading into spring and out they come once again, this is why I love winter the most I think, I feel safe :)
I fear wasps more than most other things, what do you fear? Does it take you over when you are faced with it? Is there a definite reason for that fear (like mine)?
2 people like this
2 responses
@KuznVinny (768)
• United States
30 Mar 16
When I was a kid, many moons ago, a couple of friends and I were playing cowboys and Indians (that was in the day before the Indians were the good guys). The Indian was a fellow named Terry Haas. He pretended to be shot up in a small tree and "fell" to the ground partly in a bush. A bush that had a yellow-jacket nest inside it! It scarred ME. I'll never forget that poor kid's screams as he ran toward home 3 blocks away. He had dozens of stings. Last year, in our front and side yards we had SIX yellow jacket nests.
1 person likes this
@bobbyjoe143 (1287)
•
30 Mar 16
Oh my, poor boy!
I think I may well move out if I had 6 nests around my home, though saying that, one year I did have them in my attic and they got into the water tank in there that feeds the boiler. They were flowing from my hot water tap when I ran the bath! I must have done something bad that year and Karma came for he ha ha!
@bobbyjoe143 (1287)
•
30 Mar 16
It was nearly 28 years ago now, but even though there wasn't any real harm done, I'm still affected by the fear even now, just the sound of them makes me want to run away!
