Bravo, how gracious, on both sides!
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Okay, now Iām interested. Ever since COVID, I just cannot find ethyl rubbing alcohol at my local pharmacy, but only isopropyl. This frustrates me, because I know that ethyl is the standard for specimen collection. So, is isopropyl a scientifically acceptable substitute? Iād hate to waste good rum for the purpose.
I could say that this whole nightmare of a pandemic is my most harrowing experience with an organism; but viruses are not organisms.
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For me, bad experiences fall under two categories. Bites/stings and, yes, excrement!
I always get bitten by mosquitos and fire ants (Tropical fire ants (Solenopsis geminata), not Red imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) as I live in Sri Lanka which is on the other side of the world). I have had many narrow misses (and maybe fallen victim to as I can never know until Iām sick) with Aedes mosquitoes and their numerous diseases, even managing to accidentally capture an image: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/68718025
Iāve been bitten once by a Common Housefly Catcher (Plexippus petersi) as well.
And, of course, I HATE excrement. Once I ended up with a small dollop of House Crow (Corvus splendens) excrement on my NOSE, the type which looks like curry paste! 
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Isopropyl is a good short term preservative that tends to dehydrate soft specimens. When I used it, the museum or University collection replaced it with formalin (a carcinogen). Isopropyl is not good for genetic studies.
Ethyl is the best all around.
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But formalin also degrades DNA, right?
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Isnāt vodka just ethyl alcohol? I visited a tiny distillery last year and I think I recall that is what they said (not that I have a ton of faith in my memory for such things these days).
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Most is 40% ethanol (=ethyl alcohol) by volume. The other 60% is mostly water.
So maybe a very high-proof vodka would serve as a preservative? e.g.,āSpirytus vodka tops the lot at 192 proof and should remain, since the highest possible distillation for an ethanol-water mix is 94.68 percent.ā
Yes. Iāve used 80 proof Stolichnaya to start preservation on samples in the field and transferred to stronger when we got back to base. Yeah, I know. It wasnāt mine. What can I say? Alcohol preservation needs to be watched if the volume of ethanol is not much more than the sample because the alcohol becomes more dilute as it draws water from the organism being preserved. Typically the ethanol is changed at least once and preferably more often if it is going to be stored for any length of time.
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My experiences havenāt been harrowing, exactly, just slightly terrifying. The ones I can think of involve bees - this Western Honey Bee licking my toe juice (yuck!) and a yellowjacket which crawled around on my lips for a while. Both times I just stayed still until it flew away, and it was fine. I also had a bee caught in my hair once, but it was extricated without difficulty. Still scary though.
Then there was the time I was set on a beesā nest when I was 3 years old. One of my first - and worst - memories! I was stung in multiple places, and my mom was as well.
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I had a similar experience with a Silver-spotted Skipper that thought my sweat was the best thing since sliced bread. Not really harrowing as much as a constant experience of āsomething lightly thudding into my headā. Photo of the culprit: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14792724
My harrowing non-iNat experience was when I was weeding around some roses several years ago and happened to disturb an underground nest of yellow jackets. I had the surreal experience of thinking of whether or not roses could shoot thorns until I realized I was covered in yellow jackets. I got stung on any parts of my face that werenāt covered by my headphones, sunhat, or glasses. I was in pain.
Thankfully I was in more danger by being almost run over by my dad driving up the driveway at the same time I was running away screaming bloody murder than I was the wasp stings, due to not having any allergies.
Somehow I survived without an enduring fear of yellow jackets, but I still get very cautious weeding that area.
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Iām not in any Military, but have read a lot of Military history (Vietnam was a brutal conflict, for the French and for the US). One of the military āTruismsā is that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. In this instance, it sounds like you found that out the hard way! Glad it all worked out - and being an old guy myself, those are always the best stories.
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Once on a school field trip to a local state park to observe nature, someone on my class accidentally stepped into an underground hornet nest and they ravaged our class. Many even got on the school bus and kept stinging kids until we got to school. I was in second grade.
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One day during a camp I was in, I spotted a ladybug on a leaf and I naturally went to go grab it. One moment I was reaching my hand out, the next was running out of the bush in pain. It turns out there was a massive nettle inside, the biggest I have ever seen. My ear swelled up and I couldnāt put pressure on my right leg for 3 days.
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Yes it does.
Remember, this was the standard 50 years ago. It has changed, Iām not the one to ask. I ended up in a career in computers! LOL
@pmeisenheimer
Peter, do you have some incite here?
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Yes. Samples stored in formalin have fragmented DNA and DNA-protein cross-linkages making extraction and amplification challenging.
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My encounters with nature/ organisms were not part of what I was attempting to do at the time. The worst was taking out my 2 small dogs for their last wee of the night, stepping off the porch and being no more then a yard from an adult black bear coming round the corner of my home.
It startled me, I panic yelled and the bear ran down to the barn and sat down in the snow (100 feet or so) and looked back at me. It appeared to be as startled as I was.
Another time I was kayak fishing in the lower Esopus Creek. A bass had pulled me toward shores so I let the boat stop at the bank. The bank ledge was 2 ft or so higher then the waters edge. When I hit shores I was dealing with releasing the fish. The bushes above me started to sway and rumble all about as something was coming over. I quickly tried to paddle backward. A young beaver ploped on the bow of the kayak and slid into the water. My surprise.
These are just a couple that have happened over the years.
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Wow I love reading all these cool stories! Here are mine:
Once when I was hiking barefoot a fire ant crawled on my foot. It didnāt bite me or anything, but I was so extremely scared I just screamed and cried. I have had a phobia of them ever since. 
Once when I was younger I woke up to grunting and shuffling below me, coming from the basement. I ran to my parentsā bedroom screaming āBear in the house!ā My mom said she already knew and that my Dad was out there. I heard gunshots and yelling. Later my Dad came in and said that he had chased the bear away. I was very scared.
My last one was where once I was outside, just hanging around when suddenly I heard a mountain lion scream. Very close. I ran as quick as I could back in the houseā¦
Thank you everyone for reading!
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Wow! I used to have nightmares about bears getting into my house, I can only imagine how terrifying itād be to actually have one!
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Holy Cow! Where did you live? Iām actually glad places exist that still have that level of wildness to them, although it must be terrifying to experience.
My neighbor in northeast Pennsylvania had a Black Bear raid his garage - apparently the bear was savvy enough to manipulate the door handle without even damaging the door. Somehow I never even managed to see one there, though. There was even a time when he called and said a bear was approaching our property from his, and I still didnāt see it! I feel like I have some sort of anti-bear ward on me. I only once saw a wild mom and two cubs eating from an apple tree on a trip to New York.
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