I was bitten by the eastern corsair when one landed on me while I was collecting in Southern Arkansas, and I inadvertently slapped at it. It sunk it's proboscis into arm, and I felt it for several hours, plus the toxin caused some swelling at the spot. It was an extremely painful bite. I thought that my arm was going to shrivel up and die.

Two years ago, I was stung on the forehead by a large Ophion Ichneumon while collecting, and that swelled for a good two or three days. It was very painful, usually the pain only lasts for only about a 1/2 hour.

In 1993, I was bitten by a small Clubionid spider (an ant mimic) only about 8mm in length on the little finger. I didn't realize that I had been bitten until the next day, i woke up to find that my finger was swollen and painful. I had to wrap it in ice for an entire day to relieve the swelling and pain.

That same year, I was stung by a hornet in the ear when a friend of mine and I stumbled onto the nest at Sand Ridge State Park. The pain was very intense for a good hour or so, until I was able to use honey salve on the sting. Fortunately, neither of us were stung any worse despite walking over a very large nest with hundreds of workers. After I was stung I started to run for my car, and covered my head with my insect net. We got the heck out of there and told the rangers where the nest was located, since we had seen equestrians riding on that trail earlier.

Near misses and definitely bites that I'm glad that didn't happen. Found a black widow crawling on my leg while collecting in Southern Illinois. She was very close to biting me, but I was able to flick her off of me before she did it. In 1987, I discovered that the cabin I was staying in at Dixon Springs State Park was infested with Brown Recluse Spiders and had to check my bedding every night to make certain that nothing had crawled into my bed. If I had been bitten by either spider, there would have been serious consequences.

Most of us who have ever been in the field have probably been bitten by something, and usually by something very painful.
Jeff Prill

"Tarantula hawk stings are considered to be the most painful of any North American insect. Christopher Starr wrote an article entitled, "A Pain Scale for Bee, Wasp and Ant Stings." On a scale of one to four, Pepsis formosa was one of only two insects to rate a four. This compares with a one for a Solenopsis xyloni (desert fire ant), two for a Apis mellifera (honey bee) and three for a Dasymutilla klugii (velvet ant)."

I'm glad I've become acquainted with assassin-like bugs in the last few days via this website, b/c I think I've tried picking them up before, thinking they were harmless.

There's this website I'm sure you are both familiar with (http://www.highway60.com/mark/brs/linda_bite.htm) that shows examples of bites from brown recluses. However, I'm wondering if you guys think the bites on that site are actually from a spider...some of them seem too sickly severe to be so.

Also, I handle a lot of wild spiders (wolf spiders especially) and none of them ever seem to be aggressive. I usually just place my hand flat in front of them, and then gently tap my finger of my other hand in the area behind them, so that they scurry into flat hand. After a few minutes of handling them they seem to call down--not sure if it's b/c they are tired or b/c they've become acclimated to my touch. Have either of you come across a spider where you put your hand near it and it looked as if it were going to bite? I suppose crab spiders occasionally look like they are on the defensive when I put my hand near them, yet none have bitten me (yet).

I just wonder how many spiders are trully aggressive--meaning that if you calmly invade their space they will become either defensive or on the attack. So many websites I've read have told me spider X is aggressive, then when I go and test their proclamation, it fails, every time.

Nick

Jeff, remind to never go in the field with you. You sound like a pain magnet!

My experience with spiders is that most bite defensively. Most bites occur when they are handled in such a manner that they cannot readily escape. Bites often occur when they get trapped in clothing and feel confined. What triggers this biting response can vary so it's always best to avoid putting them in the position to bite.

Actually, I believe that there is an even more potent sting. The bullet ant of South America can deliver a sting so painful that people still feel intense pain a month or two after the infliction. Actually, I believe that it is the most intense pain that anyone can feel in the natural world.

Also in South America, there are Saturniids, genus Dirphia, a species from Argentina; the caterpillars are eusocial creatures climbing trees in groups. The urticating hairs contain a toxin so potent that it can kill, but the pain is so intense that insanity sets in before the person dies an agonizing death. I remember seeing them on a program on the Discovery channel when they used to have excellent science on that channel. I might be exaggerating somewhat, I haven't seen the show since, but I remember people died from the toxins and that it was very painful.

Dasymutilla spp. (Mutillidae=velvet ants) also deliver a very painful sting. My friend Kevin accidentally picked one up when we were checking pitfall traps. It was hidden under leaf litter and it zapped him a few times in the fingers before he let it go. He was in agony over it for several days and actually needed a shot of epinephrine. Let me put it this way, he was screaming in pain all the way to the campground. It wasn't pretty. He told me that he understood why they call them cowkillers, the pain is so intense that cows wouldn't be the only large creature killed--he assessed the Blue whale as being capable of succumbing to the sting.

I live in the Midwest, we have obstacles called trees and underbrush preventing us from seeing stinging and biting insects. Sometimes, we're so close to danger that we don't know it until one of the creatures comes flying at us. Example, European Hornets having a nest only a few yards away from where we set up our light sheets. Believe me, the sheet was covered with them. We got the heck out of there.

Thirty one years ago, I stumbled on a nest of Vespula wasps. They had nested in the hollowed out trunk of a willow, but the tree was still alive. One dive bombed me, and a second one was coming at me. I captured one with my net, but more workers flooded from the trunk and I took off running, jumped into a pond and hid under the water. This was in August when they are their most aggressive. Their sting is no picnic to endure, one did get me a few years after that--another nest in the ground. The sting was on the arm, hurt for several days, very intense. My wrist was swollen for a week.

On a different note, while on a trip to Southern Illinois, Kevin and I were collecting in a field with grass as tall as our heads when suddenly Kevin heard the rattle of a rattle snake. I yelled at him not to move and we stood there in one spot for about a half an hour until we thought it was safe to make a mad dash out of there. We didn't know where the snake was, the grass was too high and we realized that one wrong step would be like stepping on a land mind. So, we stayed still. Again, we're not inviting it, we just simply happen to be in situations where these creatures are present, and sometimes they win. We carefully made our way back to the car and counted our blessings.

Like I said, we're gluttons for painful moments in this discipline.
Jeff Prill

Well, I won't list everything that has stung me, but I would have to rate Arilus cristatus, the wheel bug, as my greatest pain in the field. I picked one up to show someone at a rest area, knowing full well they could bite and thinking I had it in a "safe" position, when it nailed me on the thumb. It caused intense, burning pain for about 4 hours, and then a tingly, bruised feeling for another 2 days.

Here's a fun one - the pale, striped oedemerid beetles in the Florida Keys that they call "blister beetles". I got several under my shirt collar and sleeves while blacklighting, and felt nothing but them crawling on me that night. The next morning I had deep blisters up to 2" in diameter on the side of my neck and under my arms. But then, the rash from beating the poisonwood trees covered up the blisters. I "felt" the Keys for two weeks after returning home!

What doesn't kill you ... makes you stronger.

Cheers!
Bob

Here were some cool photos of those killer caterpillars Jeff mentioned if anyone's interested in seeing them. Their jagged spikes don't look too invitational. http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu/caterpillars/dblinks/cklistcat.lasso?herbsp=Dirphia

"What doesn't kill you ... makes you stronger."

lol! I find it odd that many of these seemingly innocuous bugs have such potent bites--my first instinct, since they look so oddly adoring, would be to pick them up.

Hahaha very funny. It's one of those times when you have to ask yourself, "do the benefits outweigh the risk?" Then you sit there weighing the pros and cons and risks, and by the time you've made a decision, your soon-to-be-captured bug has vanished.

If any of you folkses find wheel bugs often, do ya think you could let me know? I am looking for some for a colleague of mine.

Luckily, I have never gotten anything major stingor bite-wise....regular wasps is about it.

Almost got hit by a cicada-killer once tho....they are damn scary...

Years ago I was visiting my grandpa (he was a Bee-Keeper) in NJ. I learned how to behave near the hives and all went fine until I decided to "push the envelope".

As luck would have it, the most perfect of A1 Papilio troilus always were at flowers beside a hive box. I just had to catch such pristine specimens. So I
.
.
.
sneaked up ever-so-slowly to the flower. Since I had made no fast sudden move, the bees just left me alone. Then I had to net the butterfly and take off running for twenty or so yards. This system worked for a whole afternoon I was feeling great Did I quit while I was ahead?????? Duh----of course not. The next morning I again went to the spot where the "bestest" of specimens always seemed to be. I sneaked up just like the day before and then made my quick net sweep and turned to run,.........but, I failed to consider that the grass was still dewey from the night before.
.
.
.
I slipped and went face-down into the grass and promptly had three bees sting me in a one-square inch area of my ass. Then, of course, there was insult to injury as grandma had to take tweezers and remove the three pulsating stingers from my butt My sitting angle was tilted for a day or two and realize that in the 70s, boys and men wore shorts that were short, not the "half-way-to-pants shorts" of today.

Overall----in my decades of collecting, I have been pretty lucky That day, however, still gives me a special meaning to the phrase "pain in the ass".

Perhaps later I'll share my second most memorable run-in with hymenoptera-ic pain and suffering.....which, by the way......... resulted from my trying to actually help wasps as opposed to killing them.

LOL!!!

Bullet ants in Texas? That's definitely alarming...I'd never heard about Bullet Ants entering the U.S. I can see why you'd be surprised, too. Bullet Ants aren't supposed to be here. Wow.

You ever heard of the Candiru before? It's a little one-inch catfish from South America. The natives that live along the Amazon fear it even more than the piranha, and here's why. Let's just put it this way...you don't want to relieve yourself in the river. The Candiru is attracted to urine for some odd reason, and the unenlightened have relieved themselves in the river before. A few hours later, they find themselves in the hospital getting one of these little buggers taken out of their urethra, with a nasty infection to boot. Not pleasant.

My record ouches-at-one-time are 42 yellowjacket, another time 18+ bald-faced hornet. I guess after a while you get used to it, to a degree.