On my topic about bees and wasps, @snakesrcool suggested that
So here it is.
What animals have injured/stung/bitten you?
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Spider monkey nearly bit half my finger off when I was little needed stitches, I’ve also been bitten by emu, ostrich, horse, big rainbow spider, king crab, eel, snapper, cat, weta, skinks, older sister, baby swan, parrots, pukeko, goat, goose, duck, seagull, frog, pig, lots of stuff
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Stupid fire ants. First time I ever got stung by them I was capturing a rattlesnake (for permitted research) with a team. The log I was standing on rolled down into a fire ant mound, and they streamed up my leg, but…rattlesnake is more dangerous. By the time the rattlesnake was safely enclosed, and I was able to attend to the fire ants, I’d been stung a couple hundred times above my sock line. Ended up with a swollen “doughnut” of flesh all around my calf that itched something awful for about a week.
Of course then, 8 years later I started doing a PhD involving fire ants…
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Animals: Blister Beetle, Honey Bee, Eastern Yellowjacket, Bald-faced Hornet, Common Eastern Bumblebee.
Plants: Nettle
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Cat, Dog, pig, horse, cow, goat, hamster, gopher, mouse, garter snake, gopher snake, fence lizard, alligator lizard, insects, frogs, arthropods of all sorts, a wide range of fish, tokay gecko, Amazon yellow naped parrot, blue-and-gold macaw, parakeet, lovebird, Schneider’s Dwarf Caiman, snapping turtle (baby), and a number of other birds and reptiles that I don’t remember exactly what species.
Not bitten by, but grabbed by or attacked by: black bear, jaguar, ocelot, pig-tailed macaque, long-tailed macaque, rhesus macaque, gibbon (don’t remember what species), rattlesnakes (struck at by them a few times, but managed to avoid getting bitten).
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I got (gently) bitten by a tarantula I was showing to a classroom of children during an animal program on arthropods. Either it’s jaws were not strong enough, or its heart wasn’t in it, as the fangs barely broke the skin and there was no venom. This was normally a very docile animal. But, it was on it’s 3rd program that morning, so I figured it was getting a little tired and cranky. Actually, I was secretly pleased some children got to see that the tarantula was not very dangerous even when it bit.
I also got bitten kind of deeply when I was breaking of a cat fight. I think the fang hit a nerve, because the pain was all out of proportion to the wound. And, it immediately swelled up really big, so I had to go to ER and get a shot.
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Besides the standard bee stings, I’ve been bitten by a katydid. Katydid bites don’t hurt or break the skin, it’s just startling when the walking leaf decides to investigate your finger with its mouth.
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When I was a kid, I tried to get a seagull out of some plastic at the beach. It didn’t take too kindly to that! Bit me right on the finger.
Also been stung by bees like five times, but that’s less exciting.
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I’ve had 2 botflies, so, those were biting me a bunch couple times a day at feeding time…
Others include- cactus mouse, various bats (not penetrating my glove, but still hurt), bull snake, various birds unhappy with banding, cats, dogs, tiger salamander (just bad aim at feeding time), beetles,
Also I used to work at a preschool, so, a good number of human children.
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Hmm, my list is a lot shorter. Bees, of course. Also chickens (especially my crazy hen Cornbread, who attacks people like a rooster), cats (but only playfully), Stinging Nettles if plants count, and myself.
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Several domestic farm animals, none in a major way (horse, sheep, cow, goat). Cats and dogs. Though the blood drawn from cats has mostly been claws, and dogs almost always soft jaw, but I have had one from an attack which scarred for a while.
More interesting probably. A couple snakes (Milk snake, and Eastern kingsnake). Accidently stood on a fire ant mound once. Several bees (mostly growing up) and a few wasps. Many beetles, but none in a way that was more than a pinch (Like huhu bettle). I handle quite a lot of inverts but they usually are very chill, have handled a lot of spiders but never been bit.
The only lasting scar I have from a bite is from a (Pet, not mine) rabbit which latched onto the back on my hand and swung around off it.
Birds I have been bitten by at work include weka, kereru, seagull, and penguin. But those are basically harmless pecks. But I have been got pretty good a couple times by Westland Petrels.
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Venomous bites/stings, ordered by how memorable the pain was:
1: Melanolestes picipes
2: Phymata americana
3: Stichodactyla haddoni
4: Vespula germanica
5: Asthenosoma varium
6: Meiacanthus oualanensis
7: Paracanthurus hepatus
8: Ceratina sp.
9: Orius insidiosus
Honorable mention to the Cicindela that bit me on the finger and then spat stomach acid into the wound. Also, the Calosoma scrutator that ejected its caustic chemical defenses directly into my eye. Oh, and the Zoanthus that flung its toxic mucus into my eye.
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Other than the usual bee + wasps, I’ve also had leeches and some Ixodes ticks.
I worked briefly in an insectary when I was younger. When going to wipe down the Dorcus titanus stag beetle enclosures we always carried a small bucket of water to dunk hand + beetle into when the insects dashed out from whatever they were hiding under to latch onto your fingers and refuse to let go. Theirs was more of a crushing bite rather than a pinch and could occasionally draw blood.
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Ah, this is a fun one. I’ve been stung by a bee and bitten/venomed by a yellowjacket (…I deserved it). I’ve been bit by a hamster, a cat, a dog, and a lemur (…I didn’t). I’ve been scratch by a great-horned owl (…maybe deserved it, it’s complicated) and dive-bombed by IIRC a blackbird (…I think not). A rhea once objected to my photography and bit my lens. I’m probably leaving out a number; but I’m especially grateful for the near-misses.
…oh lord, and a bunch of mosquitos and ticks and suchlike.
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Am I really the first one to say “Humans”?
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Hmm… unprovoked would be a number of mosquitoes, horseflies, and ticks, and one kissing bug. Somewhat provoked would be Polistes fuscatus-group, most large Illinois colubrid species (shout out to Thamnophis, Nerodia, and Coluber for providing the vast majority of bites), Pleistodon skinks (they don’t like being held, imagine that!), a few praying mantises, and one velvet ant (that was a dumb idea). I saw someone else mention Pirate Bugs, those too.
Somehow I’ve avoided being tagged by anything seriously venomous, probably because I never handle stuff like that.
Also humans toddlers.
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Most recently, Dexter.
Otherwise, I think the most interesting creature I have been injured by is a jellyfish, though a highly territorial damselfish I saw once while scuba diving certainly tried to hurt me.
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Insects- countless species of wasp, At least 5 species of bull ant, dragonflies, beetles, bees, other ants, nests of red ants, earwigs, antlions, attacked by butterflies
Arachnids- many species of spider, the ones i remember are black house spider, grey house spider, sac spider, huntsmen spider.
Also centipedes.
Reptiles- King skinks and bobtails, nearly every other species of skink, I had a tiger snake headbutt my leg.
Seagulls, parrots, (they hurt) pelicans, a bird of paradise and a magpie that divebombed me when I thought it’s baby was injured.
A dog, a cat, a horse.
My most memorable experience was with a moray eel I happened to be feeding and videoing at the same time.
It decided to grab my hand, instead of the piece of food.
This from a video, about 5 seconds after the bite. I wish I had taken a photo later…
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Homo sapiens
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Humans. Blackflies. Mosquitos (in many countries, and malaria to prove it). Tics. Cats. Dogs. Green monkey. Horse. Cow. Leeches. Goat. Horseflies. Deerflies. No-see-ums. If we’re counting stings, Bees. Ants. Hornets. Yellow jackets. Wasps. Sand fleas. Probably forgetting a few.
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