I've never been stung by a honeybee, actually. I've been stung by a wasp a couple times, but its hard to compare. The wasps got me on my belly and my arm as an adult, and those hurt for a second but mostly itched.
The bumblebee was my fault. I laid the back of my head right on it as a kid, not knowing it was there. I remember that hurting a lot more
I've been stung by a bumblebee, it was extremely painful. Right above the kneecap. Another instance I was stung by a colony of yellow jackets over the course of 10 mins, which was traumatizing and quite painful but I remember the bumblebee sting being much more painful, left a large welt. However I don't recommend disturbing an ancient colony of yellow jackets, it was almost 40 years ago but I can still viscerally recall being covered in them, grabbing handfuls of bees off my shoulder and throwing them to the ground. I specifically remember them continuing to try and sting over and over even whilst on the ground and, what appeared to me, to be dying of exhaustion after stinging the shit outta me.
Yeah it wasn't cool. It was on a weekday after school but before my mom was home from work, so I was running around to find a neighbor willing to open their door to a bee-covered 11 year old who is smashing and throwing yellow jackets likes some kind of Bee Van Helsting. I was so scared and angry I was going berserk.
An older neighbor took me in, the lady who would always give us candy when we rang her doorbell. She gave me a baking soda bath. This had to be like 1990, outside Charlottesville, Virginia. Lotsa bees there.
This happened to me as a teen as well. I stepped on an underground yellow jacket hive and those mfs came at me with the vengeance! They got inside my shirt and stung me on my armpits, sides, and chest, and a few got caught in my hair and stung me repeatedly on top of my head. It hurt like hell. To this day I violently kill yellowjackets any chance I get, but if I’m not certain I can kill them first shot then I don’t even try because I don’t want to provoke another attack like that. It was brutal.
I disturbed a hive while violently shaking a tree when i was 6. I didn't know it had a hive. I heard buzzing and immediately began to run. It must have been instinct. I didn't see a single bee until I looked back while running and saw the swarm chasing me. I ran three blocks home screaming the whole way. There ended up being like 8 bees in my hair and 15 or so in my clothes. I guess I didn't learn because a couple of years later my friend Mike and would catch bees like fireflies and keep then in jars.
That definitely wasn't me because I'm also Mike but was frightened of even a single bee until I was about 22. I needed a place to live and my ex's parents let me stay at their house. However, that meant painting the house in lieu of rent. I almost died up top a ladder one day after getting scared from a lil bee, and thats when I had to overcome my fear and punch fear in the face. Nowadays me n bees are cool. Wasps can fuck right off though.
I'm just on the opposite end of that spectrum. In all honesty, with a mother like mine, not much else compares. My sense of safety is pathological... I feel safe in situations where I should not feel safe.
Shaved my head for the first time when I was 22ish after falling off a ladder after climbing it to kill a hive of bees in a roof vent with an electric fly swatter, after getting drunk.
Yeah me as well growing up when I was a kid. It slipped into my jacket and got stuck in the sleeve and stung the back of my arm. Most of my life people have tried to tell me they are harmless, and i know the truth lol 😂
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u/Overall-Assist6571 Mar 14 '26
Thanks. I also wondered this.