Hello everyone, Cyndi here to talk about my bee sting. So I mow the yard and my hubby weedeats. I use a riding lawn mower and though it takes me around 3.5 hours to mow, I enjoy it for the most part, maybe not the last 45 min as I am ready for it to be done but anyway, I mow.
Now we have honey bees and recently, hubby put up a 3D fence to keep deer away from them and the orchard. He didn’t have to include the bees but he figured why not? So there are portions of the yard where I no longer use the riding lawn mower, around the bees, and in the garden close to the bees. He dresses in his bee suit and weed eats around those areas for protection because he now uses a battery weed-eater and it’s not as loud.
Last week, I did my morning routines in the house, had a banana with my coffee, and dressed for mowing. Even though it gets hot, I have been wearing some cute leftover COVID masks to keep dirt out of my nose. It was a little cloudy off and on so it wasn’t so hot, which I appreciated. I got near the garden fence and BOOM, I got hit in the mouth by a bee! I didn’t get stung, it was just a warning punch through my cloth face mask. I thought I had been stung and the mask blocked it but George said no, it was a warning to stay away.
Bees do not like cloudy weather. Apparently, like me, they can get moody when it’s overcast. So we thought the bees were agitated by the clouds and the noise. So I took a break. It cleared up and I started mowing again. I mowed around the orchard for 30 minutes until something got stuck in my hat and hair. I couldn’t get it out so I tore off my hat, glasses, and earbuds because they were all tangled up and there was the cutest little honey bee, she was so little and fuzzy. She too had gotten stuck in the tangle and once I set it free, she flew up and stung me right under the eye!
I immediately swiped it off and felt little things on my face, it must have been the stinger parts. My adrenaline had me shaken, I brought the mower back and went inside, and sure enough, it had stung me right under the eye near the teardrop area…I was so glad it didn’t get inside my eye.
It turns out that the smell of BANANAS mimics the alarm pheromone of bees, making them more aggressive and likely to sting.
Lesson learned!
I haven’t mowed since but I will keep you posted.
On a better note, it didn’t hurt that bad. It was swollen a little for a few days and I could feel it if I scrunched my eyes closed but it wasn’t bad and it seems I am not allergic.
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