The Angry Bee

[Dahlia]

it was my fault. i didn't know it had gotten inside my gardening shoe. at least i didn't know it until i moved and pinched it and then it expressed it's anger at being pinched by stinging the top of my foot.

i've been stung enough to know that feeling for what it was so i got my shoe out of the way and brushed it off. it was a small wasp and not technically a bee, but for purposes of this post i'll call it a bee beecause i've had other similar experiences where i was stung and then more mayhem ensued...

in this case the bee kept wanting to sting me in that same spot. in the past i've had them attack my shoe repeatedly to little effect and again this one also wanted to sting my shoe some more. so i came back inside and changed my sock hoping that would get rid of the scent marker it must have put on me because it kept wanting to buzz around and looking like it wanted to sting me yet some more.

um, nope, i don't want that to keep happening. so i came inside again and this time i changed socks on both feet, but i also wiped down my feet and legs with apple cider vinegar and then took rag outside and used some tree tea oil to wipe a little of that on my legs and the other pair of garden shoes.

when i went back out the bee completely ignored me and i did not see it again.

previously i'd had another type of bee doing similar actions and reactions so now i know what i can do perhaps to avoid more attacks after an accidental encounter.

i have no intention to ever harm a bee or wasp or many other creatures if i can avoid it so we'll see how this goes in the future. if this method will work...

of course the best approach would be to not wear anything that a bee might get into by accident and then be pinched as that is about 99% of the time how i get stung. i've not probably been stung that many times to come up with that percentage. usually it has been more the past few years but only maybe six times the past 10 years. maybe 30 times total in my life. considering i work in the gardens for hours at a time surrounded by thousands of bees i don't think i'm doing bad at all.

I feel like I get stung by bees and hornets more than my fair share! I'm often in the wrong place at the wrong time. A couple examples of this are once as a kid my parents were having our attic sprayed for a bee infestation and I was standing outside in the street, holding my dog watching and I got stung. Another time as a kid my brother was messing with a bee or hornet nest and I was nearby and got stung... The list goes on and on!

 

[digitS']

Well, that's me too, @Dahlia .

One of my earliest memories was standing at the fence telling the neighbor kid how my brother and cousin had ventured into a nest of hornets and had been stung the day before. As I am standing there, a hornet lands on my arm. I look at it -- He Stings Me! Whaaaa!
Only baking soda to use in those days. And no, I don't tolerate bald-faced hornets having the bald-face nerve to build nests under the eaves of my greenhouse, about 18' from my backsteps. In the distant garden, it is a different attitude on my part: