Ouch.. guess this happens eventually if your ride long enough

[benb]

So hopefully I've gotten this stuff out of my system.

I've been joking my All City Space Horse is cursed lately.

- Did an overhaul a few weeks ago. Not a lot of mile son the cassette so I tried to get away without replacing it
- Nope, the chain skipped when jumping/applying a lot of power
- Go get a new cassette
- Break a spoke on the next ride. Take the wheel apart, get poison ivy on my hand, I must have run over something and gotten the oil on my tire.
- LBS fixes the spoke on the spot (awesome!)

Bike is finally perfect again, I go out and am having an awesome ride yesterday. Feeling great, position on the bike is flawless, weather is perfect, just awesome ride.

3 miles from home or so I hop on a dirt trail that heads towards home. There is a woman walking her dog up ahead and the trail is super narrow single track.

She steps into the woods with the dog to let me pass.. and I think her dog must have kicked up a bee/wasp/hornet nest.

BAM I get stung on the lip. Not sure, it might have got me 2-3X, REALLY painful and radiating into my teeth and everything. I didn't actually see what got me, I didn't stop till I got home.

I am really resistant to bee/wasp stings but not so much on the lip. I've gotten stung many times riding, if I get one in my helmet and it stings the top of my head it hurts but doesn't even swell. Same thing with arm, face, etc.. it hurts like hell and 5 minutes later I can't even tell I was stung. Not even a mark.

But my lip blew up like I got punched. Still a little swollen today. Awful lot of ice yesterday.

I've been stung so many times I shouldn't worry but I'm still paranoid as my mother is one of those people who goes into anaphylactic shock if she gets stung.

[batman1425]

Years ago I was on a ride doing hill repeats. Warm summer day, jersey open. On the way down from one of the repeats, yellow jacket got stuck under my HRM strap. That SOB got me 3 times before I could pull over and get it out from under the strap.

[jensenn]

one time riding, a bee flew into and got stuck in the space between my temple and sunglasses' arm. slapped my own face so hard i knocked my sunglasses off

[benb]

Yah I'm wondering if some of it is from me hitting myself.

I basically spat and then got my hand up there, then started cursing like a sailor. The lady I had just passed was probably all Whiskey Tango Foxtrot as I rode away.

I had gotten one inside my full face MC helmet years ago, but that sting wasn't nearly as bad as this one.

[batman1425]

Originally Posted by benb

Yah I'm wondering if some of it is from me hitting myself.

I basically spat and then got my hand up there, then started cursing like a sailor. The lady I had just passed was probably all Whiskey Tango Foxtrot as I rode away.

I had gotten one inside my full face MC helmet years ago, but that sting wasn't nearly as bad as this one.

FWIW I seem to have different reactions depending on the stinger toting creature in question. The yellow jacket that got me was a lot worse than a honey bee that I got hit by a few years prior. I wonder if there are differences in the potency of the toxin? I do know that hornets/yellow jackets/wasps have the added "bonus" of being able to get you multiple times where as the honey bees are a one and done thing. Their barbed stinger gets hooked in the skin and when they fly away, it separates from the bee taking most of its internal organs with it. The bee dies, while the stinger continues to deliver toxin while it's attached.

[GregL]

Fortunately, I don't get significant reactions to bee stings. I've had them on the lips, in the mouth, under my sunglasses, down the front of my jersey, and on my thigh. A quick sting, maybe a few minutes of discomfort/itching, and then back to normal.

My favorite poison ivy story: my younger sisters are both cyclists. In their 20s, they both rode quite a bit and were very fit. When one sister got married, her new husband bought a bike and made the mistake of trying to keep up with her. At the top of a long climb, he passed out from the exertion and fell over in the weeds on the side of the road. Yup, the weeds included lots of poison ivy. Not only did the poor guy suffer the ignominy of an ambulance ride to the hospital for passing out trying to keep up with his new wife, but he had a terrible reaction to the poison ivy. Once recovered, I don't think he ever rode the bike again!

Greg

[rwsaunders]

Check with your insurance provider as an Epipen is pretty inexpensive when the need comes along. Pack some Benadryl too. I had a decent tolerance to bee stings having been stung many times when I was young. Then one day...the bee won.

[cinco]

Yesterday, had teammate in winning break at the TX Gravel Championships (Yes. 100 mile gravel race in 100 degree Texas heat = cray). Riding full out, mouth agape, a wasp entered and got him on the tongue and inner cheek. Swollen and unable to swallow and breathe, race over.

[batman1425]

Originally Posted by GregL

Fortunately, I don't get significant reactions to bee stings. I've had them on the lips, in the mouth, under my sunglasses, down the front of my jersey, and on my thigh. A quick sting, maybe a few minutes of discomfort/itching, and then back to normal.

My favorite poison ivy story: my younger sisters are both cyclists. In their 20s, they both rode quite a bit and were very fit. When one sister got married, her new husband bought a bike and made the mistake of trying to keep up with her. At the top of a long climb, he passed out from the exertion and fell over in the weeds on the side of the road. Yup, the weeds included lots of poison ivy. Not only did the poor guy suffer the ignominy of an ambulance ride to the hospital for passing out trying to keep up with his new wife, but he had a terrible reaction to the poison ivy. Once recovered, I don't think he ever rode the bike again!

Greg

Zanfel - crazy expensive, but the best poison ivy treatment available IMO, especially if you know you've had an exposure and the rash hasn't yet developed. Can really save your bacon.

[unterhausen]

For decades, I had a scar on my leg from a bee sting. It has finally faded. I was out riding on Thanksgiving, was headed out for 120 miles, but cut it short at 60. Beautiful day, shorts weather in the mountains of Virginia on Thanksgiving was pretty much unheard of back then.

I swear bugs aim for the eyes and mouth.

[chiasticon]

should've just eaten it: http://road.cc/content/news/58531-je...minisce-videos

[shovelhd]

Originally Posted by benb

3 miles from home or so I hop on a dirt trail that heads towards home. There is a woman walking her dog up ahead and the trail is super narrow single track.

She steps into the woods with the dog to let me pass.<snip>

But my lip blew up like I got punched.

Come clean, man. What did you say to her?

[regularguy412]

Mebbe it's just me, but seems like there are WAYYYYY more bug/cyclist encounters these days. I can remember riding many miles per year back in the 90's and I 'might' get hit by a bug 4 or 5 times a year. Now seems like I get hit somewhere on the face, helmet or arm by a bug on about every ride.

Got stung on the ankle by a red wasp a few weeks back. Foot blew up like a balloon. Lots of ice but it still wouldn't go down. After 2 days water blisters appeared down by my toes on top of my foot. Finally got better when I drained the blisters with a sterilized needle. Strangely, the plasma that came out burned like the original sting when it hit my exposed skin.

Weird. I've never had a reaction to any kind of sting like I had to that one.

Mike in AR

[Vonruden]

Had a bee land on my eyebrow while bombing down some rock filled singletrack, I couldn't swat it as I needed both hands on the bars...never realized how painful a sting to the eyebrow can be until that day.

[Peter P.]

Originally Posted by jensenn

one time riding, a bee flew into and got stuck in the space between my temple and sunglasses' arm. slapped my own face so hard i knocked my sunglasses off

THAT was funny! Thanks for sharing!