attack of the honey bees

Dale and I went for a short hike today and on the way back down the
treacherous path, I stopped several feet behind Dale and listened. I
heard what sounded like a swarm, and since there wasn't anything
around us except rock, air, and path, I looked down at the path.
About two feet from my foot I saw what appeared to be a rotten piece
of wood beneath the path with a hole on the side, sticking out into
the air a bit. Little yellowish-fuzzyish-striped bee things were
popping out of that hole two at a time as if they were pissed. I
should have gone back the way I'd come (there was another route on the
other side) but instead I went forward, over the nest, and for some
stupid reason paused just on the other side of it, starting stupidly
at Dale as the sound of the swarm increased. I think I thought that
standing still would fake them out. Well, I decided that wasn't such
a good idea after all, so I slowly moved away, being careful not to
hit any of them or squish them. Well, they were sufficiently ticked
off and I belatedly realized this so I said, "AH! Dale, they're all
over me!" and as I began to move away more quickly, he stepped towards
me to fan them away (which, also belatedly, we both realized he should
not have done). Just as he moved forward, one of the little fu**ers
stung my back and I screamed as I kicked up my heels and ran
[carefully as this was a treacherous spot of path to NOT be careful
on], then within a second or two my left ring finger began blazing. I
was aware of a bee crawling on my finger and I didn't dare to brush
her off in case she wasn't the original perp, but she was caught by
her own stinger. Just as I was realizing this and brushed her off,
Dale went "OW!" and began running behind me, saying something about
his eye (which in the back of my mind was concerning me a bit, but I
was more concerned that one of us might be allergic, and here we are,
running along the side of a rocky cliff, with a steep and narrow
incline in front of us, and a wire handhold on the other side to worry
about. So I said, "Get over this first, then we can stop and look at
things. And Dale - if you feel your throat start closing up, dammit,
tell me right away." He mumbled his "OK" and then went on about his
eye and my finger was already swelling around my rings, throbbing down
the back of my hand, and my back was screaming in its own blaze of
glory, but we made it up over the little pass and onto a safer path of
rocks within sight of the woods so finally on our descent I looked at
his eye. He'd been stung about an inch below, where the bags usually
form, and sure enough, he had a little swelling going on. He looked
very serious and asked if it would be dangerous. I said, "No. But it
might swell more than that, and it may swell enough where you can't
see out of it a bit. When we get home, cold compresses and advil will
help keep the swelling down but I don't think we need to worry about
it." In the meantime, I tried pulling off my wedding ring and
couldn't. I started back down the rest of the way and Dale says, "You
should get that off while you still can." I said I knew, but I'd wait
until we were sure of our footing, which was only a few more feet. So
when we reached the path, I twisted and pulled until it slid off. His
swelling had already doubled by the time we got to the end of the path
(not that far), and so had my finger. We were both complaining of a
throbbing but my back was fine. I reckon it's because the stinger had
to go through my shirt, and was probably yanked out by my movements,
whereas we had to remove the stingers from his eye and my finger, and
in our haste, probably squeezed the venom in further (I mean, I didn't
see the sac, I just saw a stinger that had to be removed ASAP dammit
the little fu**er!!!) so...

Anywho, I'm truly amazed, that despite my stupidity of pretty much
standing on top of the hive, we only got stung three times throughout
all that. I wasn't sure what they were at the time but I knew a few
things:
1. They came out of a hole in the ground.
2. They sting.
3. The stinger is left behind.
4. They were smaller than the space between my hand and knuckle.
5. They were fuzzy, with dark (black? dark brown?) and yellowish
stripes.
6. They swarm when threatened.
7. They don't chase you once you start running (thank GOD).
8. The sting causes a stinging sensation followed by swelling,
redness, and a throbbing sensation that slowly intensifies for a while
before backing off, and it continues to hurt like this for more than
an hour (so far).
8. Neither of us appear to be allergic enough to them to know we're
allergic to them.

I did some research and, based on pictures alone, determined that it
had to have been a bunch of honeybees. I'd never heard of them making
a home in the ground before, though, so I kept researching, but the
only ground dwellers I could find don't look anything like what we
annoyed. It turns out that honeybees look for openings to 15 litre
cavities, so I can only guess that there was a cavity in the ground
that wasn't obvious from above because by golly, everything else about
their descriptions DO match what we ran across.

We told the guy that maintains the area since he's an older gent and
he keeps a lot of updated signs about the trails. We figured it might
be good to warn folks about, and since he works on the trails, good to
warn /him/ about. He said that he'd found a hive, probably the same
location, about 20 years before and had to kill them off at night when
it's hard to navigate up there. I'm hoping he doesn't try doing that
himself this time at his age. Hard to see combined with that path is
doable, but not too safe. At least he's thoroughly familiar with the
spot, though.

Anywho, we're good other than the continued throbbing. The swelling
stopped on our way home. Dale can see fine, just looks like someone
smacked him under the eye a bit, a litte discoloured. My back still
stings now and then but Dale tells me there's no swelling at all, just
a sizable red patch around the stingsite. My finger, I think, is
probably the worst for the wear, since I use it to type with and it's
very stiff from the swelling. We both popped some Advil and I'm about
to put ice on the finger.

I'm so thankful it's just a throbbing nuisance. Heck, it's not even
as bothersome as a mosquito bite. At least it doesn't itch!

~nv