Image by John Livingston, professional video grapher, used with permission.

I was helping a friend with some chores yesterday when I felt the first sting. Within a minute I’d been stung another 10 times at least. One of the good things about being a science geek is knowing what might be going on before others do and what was going on was clear as day: these bees were swarming, they were probably Africanized.

I screamed a warning to him to get in the car immediately. I was wearing scotch guarded jeans and a hoodie, he only had shorts and a T, so I practically shoved him toward safety using my body like a lineman protecting the quarterback . Nevertheless, in the 20 foot run it took us to the to the truck I was stung at least fifty more times — they followed us like creatures from a horror movie, a few somehow got through the vents and cracks in the closed SUV and flew around inside! I was using my hands to cover my face on the mad dash so that’s where most of the stings were. But a few of these plucky little bastards managed to get through my jeans and elsewhere. The local area hospital didn’t want to give me adrenaline unless I showed signs of anaphylaxis; it enables clotting and I’m a recently minted heart patient on blood thinners.

Well, apparently I’m not allergic to bee stings as I was released the next day. BTW, if you think that right hand looks bad in the photo, it was the size of a cantaloupe for most of the night.