Ground Bees! Ugh.

This was one of those weeks when it feels like sometimes danger lives a little too close on the farm.

But spoiler alert - while there were a few moments of panic - everything is fine.

Aidan was stung dozens of times by ground bees while mowing weeds in a pasture on our property six miles north where Bill grew up.

He'd been going along mowing with our walking tractor (similar to a large rototiller with mowing blades) when all of sudden he noticed movement, looked down, and saw dozens of bees crawling all over his pant leg!

Aidan learning to mow with the walking tractor circa 2017.

Before he could even comprehend what was happening,

much less react,

they were swarming all around him!

And stinging his arms and neck!

He took off running to try to lose the bees!

But they’d also gotten inside his untucked t-shirt and were stinging his back and sides too!

He pulled the shirt over his head, as he ran, losing his headphones in the process, and flung the shirt off.

Bill saw Aidan running and flailing his hat and arms crazily around his head and, as a veteran of being attacked by an angry swarm of bees himself,

knew exactly what’d happened.

He rushed to the truck, disconnected the attached trailer, jumped in and drove to where Aidan was headed almost a half mile away from where he’d been mowing.

With bees still swirling around the discarded shirt, and the tractor still running, they drove away.

Phew!

When Aidan was a kid, he’d had several concerning insect bites where he'd really swell up and feel sick enough that’d we'd ended up calling the doctor.

Nothing ever developed needed a trip to the hospital, but it worried us enough at the time - with having lots of bees of the farm including the honey bees we raise - that we asked our doctor for Epi-pen prescriptions to have on hand just in case.

That was all running through Bill’s head as they headed home.

He mentally kicked himself for not thinking to bring one with to the pasture.

Thankfully the worries were unfounded though, as once we attended to the stings, it became obvious Aidan was fine.

close-up of Aidan's side with white lotion slathered on

Uncomfortable yes, but fine nonetheless.

Once that was established, Bill donned his bee suit, and he and Liam went back to the pasture to collect the tractor, Aidan’s shirt, headphones, and the shoe he’d lost in his sprint!

They discovered he’d driven directly over a ground bee nest,

and the mower blades had torn their home all up.

No wonder the bees were so mad at him!