Have you ever been stung or bitten?

Been stung by bees, fire ants, a spider and om nomed by many a horse fly...which I'm allergic to. In the animal department I've been bitten by a dog (I was a dumb 4 year old who thought it would be fun to steal our chow chows food), a cat and some ducks, which oddly enough do bite as well as peck. I still love ducks though =P

I can hardly remember the last time I was stung (apart from mosquitoes). I have this vague memory of when I was a child, it definitely happened, but it might've been the only time.

As for bites, I only remember one of my cats biting my calf, again when I was much younger. It left a pretty good puncture hole.

Overall, I've been quite lucky.

I Got tore up more than once by aferal cat,chomped by a blue jay and had one bee sting. Some close calls though, I had to pick up and move a mole that came in the garage at night, ran 6 blocks from a dog that jumped out a window and came at us,and finally there were at least three bats that I picked up with a lid and a thin cardboard sheet. I've seen some shit.

My sister used to have a very large pot belly pig from Hawaii. And that fucking thing used to bite the shit out of me. And it hurt. She also used to ram into my legs to try and knock me down. So she could bite me more. I fucking hated that thing.

Yeah, it wasn't that bad though. I went out and was pressure washing my house one day and when I came in side and started to clean myself up, I felt a sharp stinging pain on my lower back. Somehow a wasp or something got beneath my undershirt and came inside with me. Somehow I didn't agitate him until I came inside, got to my room and started to take off my shirt. Then he got pissed and stung me. Thankfully it wasn't that bad, as I think I stopped him before he got his stinger in me too far and it felt fine the next day.

I had another incident that almost got me stung. I was in the backyard with my dad while he was operating a tractor and this freakin dirt dobber or wasp or whatever the fuck kept following me. After a good 15 minutes of dodging it, it caught the right side of my neck and before that little fucker struck I grabbed it and threw it down on the ground. Felt pretty good actually.

I've been stung and bitten by tons of creatures. From fleas to Doberman pinschers.

I'm an installation technician for a cable company so I get bitten and stung way more then normal I would say.

@random45 said:

Man, I can relate to this. I was like ten, eating a peanut butter sandwich at a park with my family. The swans swarmed me, and one of them pecked the heck out of my hands, even after I've dropped my sandwich. My parents had to put me on a bench and scare them away. Swans are dicks.

Other than that, I caught dengue fever once, so I guess an Aedes Aegypti mosquito bit me.

Side note: dengue fever is pretty bad. It was the closest I've come to dying, I think. In retrospect, the scariest part about it is how I didn't feel like I was going to die. I just felt really tired and wanted to sleep forever, if not for the nonstop vomiting lol.

Snapping turtles bite hard.

Yep, unless you're allergic it's no big deal; also it's bizarre to me that anyone would be able to avoid it for most of their life assuming they weren't super careful about it. Granted people used to go outside like 15-20 years ago and now they don't.

Yes, many times. It got rarer once I moved to a bigger city, but I still get occasionally stung by insects.

As a highlight story of those, I once got a combination of shorts with bad elastic waistband and a beach with jellyfishes. I don't think I need to tell you more except it is possibly a good thing you didn't touch one just to know "what it felt like"...

- Stung by at least three types of jellyfish in New England waters. But, not any of the truly terrible ones like a Portugese Man o' war. But even those tiny moon jellies can be painful. (Jellies were more plentiful back in the 1970s ...that's a shame.

- Stung by bees, wasps, and yellow jackets. The worst sting from a black wasp stung my middle finger. That finger and the back side of my hand swelled up twice as big. That was stupid painful for days.

- Red ants...those an little bastards too.

- Bitten by Horse-flys, those actually hurt for a few seconds....but damn that bite is HARD and you can see blood. Horse-flys are ugly too, it like having a nightmare bite you.

- No snake, scorpions, or millipedes...thank god.

- Bitten by a few dogs - Doberman and Bloodhound

Sometimes I get bitten or stung and it makes me feel bad, but then I remember some things that I like and I feel better.

No story to that? Where I live, I've heard of people losing fingers to the local variety.

I've been stung many times by bees as a child, and a number of times by yellow jackets, an aggressive wasp that makes nests underground. Yellow jacket stings definitely hurt more than bees.

Last year, I was stung for the first time by a European hornet for the first time, on my right index finger while I was trying to kill it with a cloth, and it stung me straight through the cloth. That is the most painful sting I have ever experienced. Strangely, I can't seem to find the European hornet on any Schmidt sting pain index list.

Finally, my mother once had an unusually bitey cat, and it bit hard enough to break the skin. I spent a few years with constant scabs on my hands.

Oh man, I've been stung and bitten by so many insects, especially when I was a kid. My brother and I use to always be outdoors so we got used to it. More seriously, I was attacked by a dog when I was 12, bit me in the shoulder. To this day, I'm not comfortable around dogs.

Wasps, quite a few. I had a particularly awful experience as a kid playing basketball on my hoop outside. The pole holding up the backboard had an open top to it, and unbeknownst to me, wasps had built a giant nest in it over the winter. Once it warmed up enough to start being able to play basketball again the following Spring, my first shot hit the rim and sent a vibration down the pole that pissed off all the wasps something fierce. I immediately got stung about a dozen times in five seconds, and watched one of the wasps sting me twice in a row (which, at the time, I didn't even know they could do). Unpleasant.

I got stung quite a few times by scorpions as a kid as well. The scorpion sting is easier than a wasp sting, IMO. It's really painful for a few seconds (like someone burning you with a lighter), but then it's nothing. The wasp stings burn and itch for several days (though the scorpion stings do leave a bump for a day or so).

Bees ain't no thing (provided you aren't allergic to them). I just pull the stinger out and go on with my day. I've somehow avoided a yellowjacket sting so far despite running across a ton of them, but I hear that is no fun at all. Also, I've gotten close to several snakebites from rattlesnakes big enough to where it would have been hospital visit time. Some of the ones in South/West Texas are North of six feet and will fuck you up. Having one snap at your leg and miss is intense.

I've been bitten by a bunch of dogs (worked in a kennel as my first job in HS). Dog bites can be pretty serious, but generally they only bite to try and assert themselves if they feel threatened/scared and back down quickly if you don't freak out. It's typically only when you let them feel like they're the "alpha" that it gets dangerous, and the vast majority of dogs will be nothing but nice to you if you walk up them confidently and let them smell your hand first.

Honestly, the worst for me is the fire ant. Boy, those will ruin your day in a hurry. That goddamn South American imported fire ant we have a ton of in Texas that's about as big as a dime does some damage. They legit take down small animals, and if you ever find yourself in a mess of them, you'll understand why. They have a knack for covering you up first and then all stinging at once. They're real assholes. I've rapidly stripped off pants in the middle of a field and invented some new dance moves several times thanks to them. Every one of those bites sticks around for at least a week and itches like hell. Not a fan.

I got stung by a wasp for the first time three weeks ago while playing Pokemon Go. Glad to know I wasn't allergic though it hurt like hell.

As for being bitten I work at a dog kennel so it occasionally comes with the job. I've never been bitten so hard that I needed stitches and none of the dogs were doing it maliciously. It was either out of being scared of being in a kennel or being a bit too playful. The worst dog bite was from when I was a teenager from my stepmom's miniature dachshund. She managed to pierce my fingernail and I still have a scar.

Kinda all the time, in some fashion or another.

I work outside and also live in an area that is just thoroughly lousy with ticks and wasps and what have you. So it's all pretty common during the summer months.

@aethelred: I was a kid and thought it was a good idea to pick up a small snapping turtle I found in the woods. It wasn't a good idea to pick up the small snapping turtle I found in the woods.

I grabbed it at its sides, where I assumed it was safe, but it turns out that turtles hide a hell of a lot of neck inside their shells. I was lucky because it was only able to bite through that extra bit of skin between the index finger and the thumb. Still hurt like a bitch, and I had to get a tetanus shot. My hand still works, and I kept all my fingers though, so I consider it a win.

I live in New Jersey. Our snapping turtles aren't quite as menacing as the kind you're familiar with.

EDIT: Reading the "Captivity" section of that article sheds some light on my experience.

I went to bed one random night last year and left all my clothes on (Which I do not normally do) woke up the next morning with some mid-level pain on my leg, I saw a strange redish spot on my upper leg with a slight indent. Being the bright responsible human being I am I decided to completely ignore it, the next morning I had a small hole on my upper leg that looked disgusting and the indent had grown much deeper, after some convincing I went to the doctor who told me it was probably a spider bite. So a spider got trapped in my jeans and bit me when I moved around sleeping, before the medicine and topical applicant took effect I had a hole in my leg big enough to put a unsharpened pencil into, really glad I went to the doctor.

Other than that one time I plopped down with my legs over the edge of our porch and I must have kicked a wasp's nest because 3 bites later I was loosing my goddamn mind.

Well my wife likes to bite my fingers -- hard. Weird habit.

Well...

- Stepped on a wasps nest. Got swarmed, got inside my and my siblings clothing, ran inside the house, house filled with wasps that were camping out in our clothes. Half my face was swollen, couldn't see out of my right eye.

- Numerous jellyfish from playing around in the ocean. Those are pretty nasty, but not anywhere near how bad the wasps were.

- Fire coral while scuba diving in the Florida keys. Scraped the underside of my arm against it, arm felt like it was, uh, on fire. This was worse than the wasps because it hurt for about six months, at first with the burning, but then it just itched like crazy. Hated it.

- Bit by a rattlesnake on my honeymoon. This one was the worst by a long shot. Got to a hospital pretty quickly so no permanent damage, but aside from the physical pain (which was spectacular), the non-insured bill that came afterwards ($20k) gave us a case of the bankruptcies.

I was stung by a horsefly as a kid and remember that hurting pretty badly. I had to literally grab it and pull it off of me, which isn't a fun thing to have to do as a little girl. I've never been stung by a bee or wasp or anything, and now I'm worried I've hyped it up so much in my mind that I'll just have a heart attack if it ever happens.

Summer bugs also bite me about 5x more than other people, so that's awesome. I get weird allergic reactions ranging from 'looks like I got hit by a softball' to 'ew ew oh my god why is it swelling like that'. I never figured out if some are mosquito bites and others are spider bites. They're all pretty gnarly.

I can't really confirm but I think I was bitten by a spider once on the back of my hand because for the next few weeks or so the skin around the bite rotted away and turned green and brown.

Aside from nettles, no stings. Strangest animal I've been bitten by is a duck.

Loads. Mostly bee or wasps. Most of the time it only sucks for a few minutes. Jellyfish can realy hurt though. I remember one vacation in france, both me and my sister got stung by the bastards. We were wary to go back in the sea for the rest of that vacation.

a few times from bees, wasps, spiders, ants... once by a baby bark scorpion. haven't had any allergic reactions though.

Wasps, bees, mosquitoes, horseflies, ants, snakes, dogs, cats, pigs, spiders, humans, horses, fish, plants, swans etc. Nothing requiring hospital treatment and pain is temporary.

The latest weird one was a caterpillar that landed on my neck at a park in Kuala Lumpur. My reflex was to swat it away because I didn't know what it was at that point. The furry bastard left a green residue on my hand and neck which I mostly washed away with pond water. My neck proceeded to itch and turn red almost instantly. Later that evening, after taking a shower, the poison apparently washed down my torso. I couldn't sleep a wink because my body itched all over that night. The symptoms remained partially for a good two weeks afterwards and left a small mark on my neck.

What do you do if I may ask? You seem to lead an exciting life sir.

I was stung by a jellyfish when I was a kid. Bees and wasps a couple times too. Not that bad.

That said, I once saw a kid fall into pit in a ravine and there were hundreds of hornets there and they ate his legs alive pretty much; he was in a bed for weeks.

@osaladin: As for work, nothing special. I do like to travel as much as I can and have spent a lot of my youth out in the countryside.

I was about 15-16, in my highschool IT room using a computer. A wasp had somehow crawled up my shirt sleeve without me realizing. Keep in mind this is a UK highschool, so we're all wearing school uniforms. Felt the first sting and I was like "AH wtf?!", then felt the second, then third. Looked up my sleeve to see the wasp there. I then proceeded to panic strip my clothes off, much to the bemusement and amusement of the other students in the room.

Only been stung once: when I was a kid I was I got stung on my palm when I accidentally put my hand on a yellow jacket that I didn't notice. Nothing too major.

On the other hand, about 8-9 years ago now, I got a bitten by something on the outsider part of my leg (probably some kind of spider), but didn't notice it until it got infected. Had to spend 4 or so days in bed. On the plus side, that gave a lot of time to play Persona 3 (I probably put 80 hours into the game during that week).

Though I've never been stung by a bee (I have no idea if I'm allergic or not), I have been bitten by a couple of dogs...

I used to live within walking distance of my job and it was a nice way to stay active and commute to work at the same time. I got to work this way for over 5 years with no real incidents (aside from the occasional person asking me if i had a light). The only major incident occurred about 3 years ago now. I had just left my house and started my walk when I saw three dogs run around the bend of the road at the end of my street. I greeted them in my typical greeting to any dog of any size: "Ruff." One of them, a pit bull (and yes, I know not all pit bulls are mean dogs that will eat a baby, but these are the facts of the case), bit me on the right calf. I was amazed at what was happening and swore, falling to the ground and jerking my leg. This frightened the trio enough to run away, forcing me to limp back home and hold my leg above my chest while trying to staunch the bleeding.

I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but when I go through physically traumatic situations, after they're over, I start laughing. I guess it's how I react to a massive dose of adrenaline, but everything seems funny. I called work (chuckling and telling them I wouldn't be in), my mother (to see if she also thought it was funny), and 911 (to get ahold of animal control). The bite and the wound honestly didn't hurt too much more than, say, a good skinned knee; It was February and I had jeans on. The worst part was having it cleaned with soap (which didn't sting nearly as much as you'd think) and rinsed with ice cold water for some damned reason (which stung like hell). Weirdly, they cannot stitch dog bites because they want the blood to flow out of the wound and kick out all the bacteria and other nasties that dogs carry around in their mouths, so it was just bandaged up and I had a slight limp for a day or two. I also got a tetanus shot for good measure (which also stung like hell).

Sadly, this was the dog's second offense (having actually bit a mailman previously) and the owner's parents decided to have the animal put down. This was way not my choice and totally not the dog's fault. He was not well taken care of by said owner and I felt bad about it. On the other hand, I was walking to work at around 4:30 pm (I work nights). If the dogs had gotten out an hour earlier, they would have been going for kids coming home from school. Who knows what would have happened then. Ever since then, I've carried some pepper spray with me as dog repellant, though it's not happened since. Also, my company moved offices so now I have to commute to work via car for about half an hour instead of a 15 minute walk. The other dog bite I've sustained was a miniature dachshund (which are apparently universally mean little shits). That was only on the finger and didn't draw blood. Lucky for him, it was in my pre-pepper spray era.

My friend's snake bit me a couple of times... it was only a small snake, and it wasn't poisonous. I took chunks out of him constantly though, which I always found hilarious.

I remember when I was a kid, like 6 or 7 years old, not knowing that wasps were attracted to sweet things, and after eating some jam rubbing my ear. So a wasp flew in there and stung me in my ear. I remember being in fucking agony until my dad walked up and, with his bare fingers, Mister Miyagi'd the fucking wasp right out of the air. Just crushed it between his thumb and forefinger. I was so surprised I forgot about the pain.

When you're a kid your dad is fucking invincible.

I've been stung by red ants and bees and bitten by cats and dogs

@phoenix654: The owner let his pit bull run free in a neighborhood with children? It is sad that the dog had to be put down, but the owner was foolish to let it run wild after it had already bit someone.

With all of the talk of wasps, I am reminded of a similar discussion I had on another forum. We traded stories of being stung, and an Australian joined in and said, "I'm so glad we don't have many wasps in Australia. Just the idea freaks me out!"

We said, "What are you talking about? You're in Australia. There are probably three different species of lethal spiders in your yard right now."

He said, "Yes, but you learn how to avoid their favorite places. With wasps, they will get angry and chase after you as fast as you can run!"

The closest thing I can think of is spiders (or another similar insect like creature).

One time a bee flew around my face and I think got caught in between my glasses frames, so there was a bee bouncing around my eye for 5 to 15 seconds. That freaked me out, but after the fact I realized that it didn't actually sting me. We're talking 15 years ago now, but I think the worst thing that happened was the bee flew into my open eye and then flew away without stinging me or my precious eyeballs.

When I was a kid I hiked around my grandparents farm and one day I got something like 150 tick bites on my legs. It was hell trying to sleep with that amount of itching on my legs.

@aethelred: Not exactly "let it run free..." someone who was visiting opened their front window which had no screen and the dogs took their chance to make a break for temporary freedom. The fact that it bit someone already shows it wasn't particularly well trained. It seemed, from what I heard, that it was just a dog kept around and not really paid much attention to. You can't do that to any big dog with a history of violence. The dude later moved out of the neighborhood... and I mean like two weeks later. I saw their parents helping them load up the moving truck and at least managed to get them to cover my medical expenses... and a new pair of jeans. The parents seemed like decent people; the dude who owned the dogs, not so much.

@isomeri: you've been bitten by a swan?

My dad threw the cat at me for my 21st. It scratched my chest before running away. Left a cut that looked like Bruce Lee's in Game of Death.

I got stung once by a wasp on my temple. It hurt like a mother but after a few minutes it was just irritating.

When I was five or six my right leg got attacked by my uncle's pitbull. It came super close to biting my junk. I was hospitalized for a week or two. I now have two nasty scars on my inner thigh and I wouldn't be surprised if there is long term nerve damage in my abductor. I was basically traumatized into hating dogs for the rest of my life. I don't give a damn how well you train them, a medium sized one can absolutely hospitalize your child at the drop of a hat. They're also loud and smell bad. I've been scratched and bitten by cats but that's literally nothing compared to the pain I went through that day.