6/25/22 12:33 PM

Not allergic, but after so much wet here late, getting the first truly sunny day. Well, stupid enough it made me smile when I just scratched it and got reminded.

;)

6/25/22 1:14 PM

Had a few of my old racings mates up to the new homestead 3 weekends ago for smoked animal flesh and fermented barley drinks. Literally just sitting quietly by the fire a wasp nailed me on my forearm. Had a swollen, angry red area from wrist to elbow for a full week. Itchy, sore, nasty.

Yesterday, rode out at about 0600 to beat the heat....swallowed enough bugs I didn't need to eat after the ride.

6/25/22 1:36 PM

Proteins baby...

6/25/22 2:27 PM

I've had many stings (not sure what the insects were) that resulted in a red spot and a couple of days of itching after the initial pain. But I have had two with very significant swelling resulting. I assume they must be different bugs to result in such different outcomes. And this reminds me of a painful sting on the thigh I got (right through the bike shorts) where as long as I kept riding, the pain was constrained but when I coasted it seemed like the affected area grew quickly. So I kept pedaling and after a couple of hours, things had settled down. It seemed like the constriction of the muscle kept the venom from spreading, and of course the high blood flow from exercise helped metabolize the sting.

6/25/22 3:35 PM

In TN the horsefly bites would actually damage the material of the shorts. Leaving a hole once it stretched. But those suckers hurt too.

You learned to palm them, roll into your closed hand and toss/slam to the ground. I doubt it did more than stun them and loose your scent so the same one did not get multiple sorties.

This Bee, I stopped and pulled/fought jersey off in case of secondary sting. Then I saw if was a full zipper upon putting it back on. I also had an un-helmeting event to free a hitchhiker early in the ride.

There is a nice divot due to my fingernail stinger extraction method. ;)