Thursday, December 09, 2010

Bee Here Now


Last night as I got into bed to retire, I felt a small stab in my upper back as I lay down. Huh. I got up, looked to see if the dogs had maybe dragged something sharp into the bed, a twig or somesuch, but didn't see anything. 


Oh, well.


brushed off the sheet, reclined again, and began reading. 


The spot got kind of itchy. What is that? About which time I looked up to see a bee flying around the room. 


To those who think that The New Yorker is a liberal rag with no use save to support left-wing loonies, let me assure you that a folded copy of the 'zine is an excellent bee-smasher.


It was only then that I put two and two together and realized that the little sucker had stung me. What it was doing on my bed, just under the edge of my pillow? Who knows?


The term "bee" is inaccurate, since it is -- was -- almost certainly a common wasp, aka a yellow jacket. It didn't leave the stinger behind as honeybees do. It was one of the critters that fill up the wasp and hornet traps in the warm seasons. Doesn't seem as if these things would be around in the Oregon winter, especially after a couple of hard freezes, but there it was. 


Fortunately, I'm not allergic to such things.


Never a dull moment. 

5 comments:

Dave Huss said...

You should try (On second thought, no, don't try) getting bit in the back of the leg by a Brown Recluse, a particular nasty breed of spider here in North Texas. Good for one week of raging fever, a huge rotting spot in the bite area, and a nice divot scar.
Not my best month. Did they have those bastards in Lousiana?
Dave

Bobbe Edmonds said...

Now this is passing VERY damnable strange...I killed TWO yellowjackets IN MY LIVING ROOM last week, during the coldest days. On top of that, I found several living - if cold-groggy and unable to fly - yellow bastards in my back yard just outside of a nest I thought I sprayed a few months ago. I think they were actually trying to overwinter instead of hibernating.

Befuddled the hell out of me, it really did. I'm still at a loss as to how the pair got into my living room.

Steve Perry said...

Yeah, we had one of everything that is poison in Louisiana, but I never saw a Brown Recluse until I moved to Oregon.

In SoCal, I saw lots of Black Widows; fortunately never got bitten by one.

Ian Sadler said...

Wow guys come to New Zealand, we have THREE, that's right THREE poisonous spiders, and two of those are imports from Australia.

No snakes either, not even in zoos....

Anonymous said...

I got nailed by a yellow jacket in September - while driving. Got stung on the inner side of my arm and the little SOB kept coming. Pulled off the road so I could jump out and do the "Get out of my car or DIE!!!" dance, accompanied by much swearing.

I'm not usually allergic either, but man, it HURT. Next stop was Walgreen's for benadryl cream. A week later, I was at the doc for antibiotics and antihistamines when a palm sized area around the sting site suddenly turned red and ragingly itchy.

Usually happy to let other creatures exist undisturbed, but I'm now less than indulgent when it comes to yellow jackets.

Shawn R.