Worst bug bite/sting you ever had

When I was a kid, probably 9 or 10, I was cutting our back yard in Houston on a hot summer day. When I was mowing under a tree, I had (what we used to call) an asp fall off a leaf and roll down my back on the inside of my shirt, stinging me all the way. I had a bad reaction to that an got physically ill, in addition to it hurting like hell. I laid face down on the couch for a few hours until it eventually went away.

Those from the area are probably familiar with these things, but others probably not. We called them asps, but after a little Googling, they're technically puss moth caterpillars and their hairs are venomous and sting like hell. One more thing I don't miss about living in Houston.

http://www.merckmanuals.com/profess...s-and-stings/puss-moth-caterpillar-asp-stings

asp_valarie.jpg
asp-caterpillar041015-555santaanaz.jpg
 
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tiger roach said:
Got into some chiggers a time or two camping with the boy scouts. Nasty, itchy welts all over the place from the waist down.

The most memorable was when I used bug spray on a huge wasp nest that was right outside of the bathroom window of my apartment in Caracas. (The window was metal louver things that were never 100% closed, so I didn't like it there). After I nuked it I went downstairs - 10 floors down - for a run. As soon as I stepped out of the building, a wasp flew right at me and stung the crap out of my ass.
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Chiggers...ha ha...those fuckers are nasty. I had a similar boy scout experience, although somehow I avoided them. Several of the other guys had itchy crotches for days. It was somewhere around Beaumont as I recall.
 
shoeless said:
When I was a kid, probably 9 or 10, I was cutting our back yard in Houston on a hot summer day. When I was mowing under a tree, I had (what we used to call) an asp fall off a leaf and roll down my back on the inside of my shirt, stinging me all the way. I had a bad reaction to that an got physically ill, in addition to it hurting like hell. I laid face down on the couch for a few hours until it eventually went away.

Those from the area are probably familiar with these things, but others probably not. We called the asps, but after a little Googling, they're technically puss moth caterpillars and their hairs are venomous and sting like hell.

http://www.merckmanuals.com/profess...s-and-stings/puss-moth-caterpillar-asp-stings

asp_valarie.jpg
asp-caterpillar041015-555santaanaz.jpg
Click to expand...

The orange one looks like Donald Trump's hair.
 
shoeless said:
When I was a kid, probably 9 or 10, I was cutting our back yard in Houston on a hot summer day. When I was mowing under a tree, I had (what we used to call) an asp fall off a leaf and roll down my back on the inside of my shirt, stinging me all the way. I had a bad reaction to that an got physically ill, in addition to it hurting like hell. I laid face down on the couch for a few hours until it eventually went away.

Those from the area are probably familiar with these things, but others probably not. We called the asps, but after a little Googling, they're technically puss moth caterpillars and their hairs are venomous and sting like hell.

http://www.merckmanuals.com/profess...s-and-stings/puss-moth-caterpillar-asp-stings

asp_valarie.jpg
asp-caterpillar041015-555santaanaz.jpg
Click to expand...

I had always heard those things were stingy, but luckily managed to avoid ever touching one.
 
I forgot about chiggers... I think those are the things we would put in shoe boxes full of sand and then put ants in the box and watch them go all sarlaac pit on them. :embarrassed:
 
Back in the day before cell phones I had to make an emergency call while I was on the Subway (I lived in Phila at the time). I got off and went to a pay phone. There was a bee on the mouth piece and it stung me on my lower lip. My lip got so swollen, it looked like this.
images
 
gtrjunior said:
I've never even seen those things before...must not be in New England.
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Nope. They're one of the joys of living in the south. According to http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/Creatures/MISC/MOTHS/puss.htm

The southern flannel moth is found from New Jersey to Florida and west to Arkansas and Texas (Covell 2005). It is common in Florida but reaches its greatest abundance in Texas from Dallas southward in the western central part of the state (Bishopp 1923).​
 
This year I picked up some pretty bad mosquito and chigger bites, as our new house had standing water in quite a few holes out back where the previous owner had fountains. I can't seem to walk in the grass without a chigger bite in this yard either, which is loads of fun when taking Ginsberg out. My legs have been torn up all summer long.

As for the worst insect, it was either that time I was stung by a hornet's nest as a kid when it fell out of a tree and onto me at scout camp, or the time when I was 12 years old and at a coed pool party and a horse fly bit me on the nipple in front of everyone. That probably wins since there was emotional and physical pain in that one! :cry:
 
tiger roach said:
And no one has even mentioned fire ants yet!
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...or jellyfish. While not an insect, they can definitely sting. I remember my brother getting hit by a Portugese Man-of-War on a family beach trip. He was not having much fun after that. The Texas Gulf Coast has some nasty critters.

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...and no, none of us peed on him to make it better.
 
tiger roach said:
And no one has even mentioned fire ants yet!
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when i was stationed in southern georgia, i pulled my car into a buddies yard to re-clamp the muffler to the frame, and i crawled under the car and in about 30 seconds or so, my back was burning and i had no idea why. fire ants. :mad:

i came out from under there with a whole bunch of them on my back, biting away. my buddy told me to turn around and turned the garden hose on my back. felt much better then.
 
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