Wasp attack leaves woman with over 500 stings – BostonHerald.com

A merciless swarm of angry wasps rose up out of the ground and attacked an Attleboro woman Saturday night – putting her in the hospital with more than 500 stings – and even attacking firefighters who fought them off with icy blasts from fire extinguishers.

The 51-year-old woman, who apparently disturbed an underground nest, remained in intensive care yesterday, family and fire officials said.

Firefighters found her conscious and “covered” in yellowjacket wasps when they arrived on scene, said Attleboro Fire Chief Scott Lachance.

Firefighters furiously fought off the wasps with a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher before racing the woman into a waiting ambulance, he said.

But wasps in the woman’s clothes kept rampaging inside the ambulance, stinging three firefighters – two of whom went to the hospital Sunday morning with minor allegric reactions, Lachance said.

The woman, whose name has not been released, was initially treated in the emergency room at Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro.

A woman who identified herself as the victim’s sister outside the home yesterday said the woman remains in intensive care.

“We’re very upset,” she said.

Attempts to locate the nest have been unsuccessful, Lachance said.

Gary Alpert, an entomologist at Harvard University, said if wasps attack, just run.

“You run because they are an aerial bombardment . . . They can maneuver like anything,” Alpert said. “You just can’t swat them out of the air fast enough, you’ve got to run.”

Yellowjacket colonies are at their most dangerous in September, as they run low on food and worker wasps become especially protective of their dying queen and young wasps that still need to mate, he said.

A yellowjacket’s venomous sting can at worst kill a person who is allergic or send them into shock, and at least cause “excruciating pain” that can require hospitalization, Alpert said.

“It’s designed to hurt something as big as a bear,” Alpert said. “It’s immediate and it’s painful.”

A yellowjacket swarm also stung 11 sixth-grade students and a teacher multiple times in Dover, N.H. yesterday after a student stepped on a ground nest, said Superintendent Jean Briggs Badger in a statement. They were treated by fire medics and a school nurse.

via Wasp attack leaves woman with over 500 stings – BostonHerald.com.