Have you been stung, bitten or faced other consequences due to handling animals, or messed up with a dangerous animal without realising it? (extreme experiences too)

Nature Talk
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There are a few moments in my life that just got me cooked. Two of them below:

1: Wasp incident: 2 or 3 days ago I were playing on a swing like structure (idk what it’s called, like it has seats on both sides) and it was swing at nearly 90˚. Then a wasp sat on the head of my brother who was right next to me. he said “I think there is an insect on my head”. Just grabbed it. At that point I were so scared and busy in the thrill that I thought it was a beetle. I grabbed it and it stung me. Luckily I reacted fast and let go immediately, and there were no implications. really close.

2: Ant: One I were playing I think football about 2-3 years ago and then I grabbed a big supermajor of an Indian black ant. It bit so badly and I don’t know how they removed it with a leaf but I could literally cry at that point.

3: Bee on the window: Several times in the last 3 years, there has been a small black bee on the window. I try to grab it in the right way but when it gets a bit off, it makes a small sting that lasts several minutes.

4: Worst experience: Once my brother showed me an assassin bug and I made a mistake while holding it. That pained for atleast 3 hours, probably more. Happened about a year ago.

And “close incidents”.

5: Bad beetle behaved well: I once grabbed a blister beetle my brother showed me (he didn’t;t cause a tragedy this time), nearly 3-4 years ago. That was a blister beetle, Hycelus sp., and I had no idea that it was that species. I just thought it was a cool red and black beetle, showed it to friends, took photos and released it. A little while later I tried to find out what it was. you can guess how shocked I were. I encountered that species several times later. In fact on one occasion I kept it between notebook pages to prevent it from escaping (don’t ask why I thought of that) and it leaked a yellowish-brown fluid that I believe is their defensive secretion. I can’t believe we walked away unharmed by the first beetle. Luckily never had a blister from it again.

6: Bad tick behaved well too: One of the things that honestly freaks me out is ticks. One day again my brother got me an insect. I were making ids and it was just outside the house. It was 3-4 months ago. Thought it was similar to female flightless Drosicha since we had seen the winged males before. Then I let it crawl on my hands. A few minutes later I counted to the legs. 8. Searched it down. Argasidae, probably the type genus. You can guess how panicked I were. I had no idea that ticks with soft backs exist. Luckily I am fine and it did not bite or it was possible that I wouldn’t have written this.

What are yours?

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In retrospect, I think I’ve been pretty lucky considering what I do to get something on iNat.

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Wow, that tick, that really is an extreme step for iNat.

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not exactly a ‘dangerous’ animal but i did have a fledgeling red-bellied woodpecker climb up my arm and neck and onto the back of my head while volunteering at a wildlife rehab place… all the adaptations typical woodpeckers have to scale trees actually makes them very difficult (and equally painful) to get out of your hair :sob::sob:

5

I have been stung by a few caterpillars in the course of my Inat photography. Once I was photographing a hopper and leaned forward while my eye was on the viewfinder and took a Spiny Oak-slug Moth caterpillar to the side of the face. My worst is probably a sting by a Southern Flannel Moth caterpillar on the finger while lifting a leaf to look underneath. Luckily mine was a light brush so I didn’t have the really bad symptoms many people experience. For me it started with a burning on my finger as if I had brushed it against a pan that had just come out of a hot oven. That burning feeling remained for a couple hours, during which I developed muscle and joint soreness up to around my elbow on that hand. It all faded within three hours.

6

I don’t generally take risks with wildlife (unknowingly doing so is of course always possible). Heat is usually my biggest danger. But, in college I worked on a mouse study where we had grids of traps laid out in several places in a natural area. There was a prickly pear cactus I managed to kick every time I finished that line of traps. Fortunately I had a bit of room in my shoes so I didn’t usually get poked. I also had so many scratches on my shins from saw palmettos until I bought some longer socks :joy: (Pants plus quarter socks wasn’t sufficient.)

On another line, a nest of yellow jackets moved in around a particular trap that I usually checked. The first time, when I discovered it was there the hard way, I got stung many times. (I had to make sure the trap was empty and closed!) The second time, we were trying to see if we could do something about it and I got stung many more times. We left that trap closed for the rest of the study; fortunately the data collection period was almost done. Now if I hear buzzing in the ground I give it as much space as possible.

We also picked up soooo many ticks climbing through the vegetation. Obviously still not crazy about ticks, but that experience actually made me less freaked out about them.

I volunteered gathering data for a sand skink study and I tripped and landed hand first on a prickly pear cactus.

One time a scrub jay landed on my head and tried to break open the button on top of the ball cap I was wearing.

Yeah, thinking about my experiences my risk-taking often involves getting ‘attacked’ by plants to get a better angle on an animal (butterfly). Especially the prickles of Rubus species.

7

I was just going to say, stinging caterpillars! Several years ago when I was working in Arizona, I didn’t know stinging caterpillars even existed and I also wasn’t seeing the caterpillars as I was pushing through the mesquite leaves. Took me days of field work to figure out where I was getting these burn marks. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37289241

8

There are a couple of different questions being asked in this thread:

  1. Have you been stung or bitten?
  2. Have you messed with a dangerous animal (or another organism) without realising it?

With regard to the first question (“Has it happened?”), there are some existing threads that address this, including:

I’ve been tagged by a Hognosed Viper Porthidium nasutum in Costa Rica. It was my fault; I was posing it for pictures. It was a dry bite. Taking a venomous bite is a common experience among herpers — especially venomous keepers, many of whom have had near-death experiences. Personally, as I get older, I tend to be more careful. Close calls can be a powerful teacher, for those of us who survive.

9

Yup - stung, bitten, pinched, stabbed and slashed by insects, scorpions, ticks, crabs, mantis shrimp, octopus, fish, snakes (non-venomous), and probably others I’ve forgotten. Sometimes it was bloody and painful, but I have never been seriously injured and never required any treatment beyond home remedies.

10

See my list.

11

You reminded me of a few more - domestic dog, domestic cat, mites, anoles, leeches, fire worms.

12

You were lucky. I found one of those little buggers in my beard once :sob: I had to shave it all off and use duct tape to try to remove any of the little spines (along with whatever hair was left on my face). In addition to the localized burning pain, I got a throbbing, achy pain down the length of my entire arm. I missed school for a day or two after that because it lasted that long.

13

I’ve been stung by quite a few ants in my time—most of which are not particularly unpleasant (I’m talking about RIFA’s wimp sting.)

I’ve been stung by Pachycondyla harpax twice, both on the same day. I was holding it for a photo in the woodlands and it stung my thumb and wriggled out so I picked it up and it stung my other thumb. As far as stings go it was pretty mild. I mean it was incredibly painful but for the whole of 12 seconds before disappearing completely with no swelling.

I’ve been stung by Pogonomyrmex barbatus 4 times in my life, despite handling them many times more than that. My first sting was when I was a (pretty stupid) kid, and having rarely seen them, decided to pick up as many as I could. I had like 3 in my left hand when one of them stung. The second sting was much later, but also on me, I had stumbled upon a mating flight and was picking up alates to look at. One of them crawled up my leg and stung my ankle. The final two were from what I think were a particularly aggressive colony near my house. I don’t think I was doing anything different than I usually do, and I’ve been stung twice in two visits there. Not particularly fun stings, but it feels cool to say I’ve experienced those before.

I’m combining these two because they contrasted quite a lot, which are Odontomachus clarus and haematodus. I was stung by clarus after picking it up —which puts the blame on me for this one. I was surprised by how little it hurt and wondered if it was a dry sting. I’m not sure even now, as it made the area feel a bit raw for a day, but it never actually hurt. O. haematodus was an experience. I had flipped a log in the woodlands and found a whole colony under a log. I was leaning in for photos and one nicked me on the ring finger. It was absolutely painful, and in my opinion hurt more than Pachycondyla harpax, despite being much less intimidating.

There’s a couple others, such as some unidentified ponerine I call Neoponera apicalis because it looked similar enough and I’m not sure what else it could be, but I guess a black Neoponera in the Yucatan Peninsula doesn’t narrow it down too much (If anybody has clues let me know!) In any case it was a more traditional ponerine experience, and more lasting pain.

I shouldn’t really mention it here (It’s so quintessential to Texas life that it’s almost mundane to experience now) but I’ve been stung by RIFA many times. It’s a lower level of pain compared to the others, but it lasts a hell of a lot longer with the itch.

I’ve had a couple of close calls with Myrmilla. I wasn’t familiar with the old world velvet ants, and figured they (like most wasps) were completely harmless. Which resulted in this picture which I’m sure would give some people heart attacks. Never got stung funny enough, despite handling like 7 of these guys like that.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/383552977

A funny thing I should mention is that I’ve never been stung by a bee, and at this point in my life it’s a bit of a record for me, which I am trying my hardest not to break. Due to this I tend to be more rowdy and uncaring around wasps, which is a bit backwards I’ll admit. I’ve only been stung by a wasp once anyway, and it was some kind of Vespula sp. (another “if anyone has an idea I’d appreciate it”) but I thought it was a hoverfly as I was walking past and swiped my hand. I felt an immediate burning pain and had a bit of an overkill reaction, snapping the wasp’s abdomen in two, and throwing it to the floor. Due to snapping the wasp’s abdomen, its stinger remained in my hand, prompting me to think it was a bee before looking down and checking on the corpse. I then dug out the sting and threw it to the ground. Definitely not my proudest moment in regard to entomology.

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I put on a shirt once that had a small brown recluse in it. It bit me and caused a serious reaction.

15

I was once stung about 50 times while moving bee hives. It was painful, but fortunately I’m not allergic to them.

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As a child at the beach I had been warned that Portuguese Man-o-wars were washing up and not to touch them, but I had no idea how long their tentacles were. I saw one in the surf, stood a safe (I thought) 5m away and suddenly had a tentacle wrapped around my ankle. That really stung.

17

Depends on your definition of ‘dangerous’.

Toddler-age me would vehemently insist that this qualifies.

18

I’ve been injured exactly once that was my fault (not counting mosquitoes and ceratopogonids biting me, since I’ve barely ever seen them actually in the process of biting and it also wasn’t my fault), namely a Nabis that got fed up with me fiddling around for a good angle and bit me on the finger.

Not much happened, it was just a bit painful with a small red spot where the bite was.

19

I don’t see how it’s possible to go through life without ever being stung by a bee, a wasp, a hornet or a yellow jacket or bitten by a horsefly. All of them have gotten me more than once.

20

Yes, but the question asked is in the title and includes the important caveat "due to handling animals" which somehow was removed along the way.

Were you handling the bees, wasps, hornets, yellow jackets and horse flies?

I had dengue from a mosquito but I wasn’t handling it (or even aware of it) so I don’t consider myself to have “messed up with a dangerous animal”.

My count for bites due to handling is zero because I rarely handle.