I was sitting out on my back porch this afternoon minding my own business enjoying the sunset and the laughing of Kookaburras in the nearby trees when suddenly my foot was in great pain. I jumped up out of my comfortable chair and started dancing around on one foot whilst trying to somehow sooth the wounded foot. I looked down eventually and saw the partly squashed body of a large ant moving, I squashed the wretched thing with my bare foot and really ground it into the tiles.

That got me thinking about the different types of creatures that have attacked me over the last 43 years. I worked out that I`ve been bitten by 12 dogs,clawed and bitten by 5 cats,pecked at by 3 birds,stung by 2 bees,bitten by 1 spider,stung/bitten by 1 cricket,bitten by a large number of ants and stung at least 3 times by Blue Bottles.

Anyone got any personal creature attack stories they would like to share?

Do toddlers count?

Just thinking about those needle sharp little teeth Jabberwok , they sure do count!

One Spring about eight years ago, I and several co-workers were repeatedly attacked by one mockingbird over a period of a few weeks. She had nested in a small ornamental tree a few yards from the entrance to our building. I received a couple of scratches and a few plucked hairs.

The following Winter, the tree mysteriously fell over. I can't say if anyone was actually responsible for the event (they said there were high heel prints in the flower bed) but I brought a pot of Jambalaya to my friend Wanda the following day.

Well, there have been horses, cats, mosquitos, a pike, a praying mantis, a python, two parrots, fire ants and toddlers.

The scariest one for me was with a crocodile of children in a rough area, Some lads set a dog on us and the children panicked and ran. I yelled at them to freeze, and threw a container of chili powder I had with me over the dog's face. Whilst it was incapacitated, we ran for safety. Two children were bitten, not badly. I got scratched. Police never identified anyone.

The worst for me, among many insect bites, hamsters, and a duck, was a large German shepherd (dog) that came out of nowhere and lunged at me while I was on my bike riding at night. It sunk it's teeth into my wrist and hand, pulled me off the bike to the sidewalk, and jumped on me. I boxed it in the nose and it ran. I still have the scars on my body and unfortunately, the dog was put down. It had to be because I was the 4th person it had gone after. The second worst was a catfish that sunk it's teeth into my foot. I was fishing with my brothers, one of them snagged it, brought it in, and when it hit the deck of the boat it was still very much alive. That almost scared me more than the dog and it hurt like *%$@. My foot swelled up twice it's normal size and I was on crutches for a week. Oh, to be young again....

I was once bitten by a bearskin rug! I was hurrying across a hardwood floor in my nylon-stockinged feet when I slid right into the beast's mouth. That evil upper canine tooth punctured my instep, which was inflamed and sore for weeks (lucky, no rabies ).

I can't recall being bitten or stung by anything serious, just the odd wasp and of course mosquitoes, but even these don't react much on me.
Once I was relaxing on a beach-chair in north Africa, and felt something nipping my foot. On raising it, I saw a fat yellow scorpion clinging onto my skin. Fortunately it had decided to use its claw rather than its sting, and I just brushed it off - and it didn't even draw blood
I read somewhere that scorpions with large claws, which this one had, don't have very venomous stings, so I probably wasn't in much danger anyway.

Verbonica, that is one of the most bizarre things I have ever heard! Falls into the category of 'quite possible, but never in a million years would it actually happen'...

Sandy, that catfish probably stung you with a dorsal spine since catfish don't have real teeth. Not that I've ever seen, anyway. They have Velcro-like grabbers. The fact that it swelled would indicate a toxic reaction.

For my part, I can't think of any critter other than insects that have ever attacked me. Oh yes, my father-in-law's cockatoo drew blood with his beak once. Or maybe a claw--can't remember.

One day I got hit in the eye with a rock--I thought. Actually, a bumblebee had slammed into me and stung my eyelid in less than a second. My eye swelled shut for 24 hours, and the swelling didn't totally subside for a few days.

I've been stung by a scorpion twice: once was very painful and the other negligible. And a huge ant, Paraponera clavata, gave me some grief once. Twice I've had wasps come after me en mass. Not fun.

I was wondering just how much grief you got from that bullet ant Queproblema. If anyone else was wondering here is an insect pain chart that is easy to relate to.


* 1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.

* 1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.

* 1.8 Bullhorn acacia ant: A rare, piercing, elevated sort of pain. Someone has fired a staple into your cheek.

* 2.0 Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.

* 2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W. C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.

* 2.x Honey bee and European hornet: Like a matchhead that flips off and burns on your skin.

* 3.0 Red harvester ant: Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail.

* 3.0 Paper wasp: Caustic & burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of hydrochloric acid on a paper cut.

* 4.0 Tarantula hawk: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath.

* 4.0+ Bullet ant: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch rusty nail in your heel.

From here.

Fortunately, DSR, the ant, which we called a conga ant, stung me on the arm, so it wasn't as bad as it would have been on a more tender spot. It happened about mid-afternoon and I was doing pretty well by about eight that evening, totally fine by morning. This was some 30 years ago.

Here's a short article on the ant, and it was precisely at the base of a tree that I ran into it.
http://godofinsects.com/museum/display.php?sid=1401

I'm glad I haven't experienced the whole Schmidt gamut!

Here's a fun catfish quiz!
Hint on #7: "McDonalds" is wrong.

http://incolor.inetnebr.com/catfish/quiz44.html

Well I`ll tell you, you sometimes learn about some unusual things when you go searching for some simple things.

I was searching for some information about catfish teeth and found this site. I was that intrigued by that "sport" I spent a couple of hours reading different stories about it from various site on the net.

I've been bitten by a dog when I was a baby and I still have the scars around my eye. It was my mother's dog and she was jealous of the new baby.

I have also been bitten by fire ants and bull ants, and our pink-and-grey galah Joey. We are not sure if Joey is a he, a she or an it, but I'll say "he" for convenience. He hates women and even though I feed him and give him treats every day, that cuts no ice with Joey. He only likes Maynooth.

I've been stung a number of times by bees and wasps when gardening (which isn't very often as I hate gardening).

I'm not even going to try to count the number of times I've been clawed and bitten by cats, dogs, guinea pigs, mice and assorted other pets I've had over the years.

But I guess the most unusual animal encounter for me was when I was pee'ed on by an emu when I was working/studying at the zoo as a university student back in the 70s. The vindictive creature aimed at me through the fence and I don't know why as I had never had anything to do with the emus up until that point.

And I just remembered - I've been pooped on by a boa constrictor when I was visiting the Singapore Zoo.

OMG, MG! You've 'seen' it all! I guess I've been clawed, bitten, pecked, you name it, (even pee'd on by a snake) but never even been close to an Emu!

I was stung by a Yellowjacket, at 8 months pregnant...The Doc said probably OK, but come in. No prob. I'd been stung before, but didn't know about the baby.

A dog grabbed me by the arm, and yanked me off my bike, and then, (I swear!) laughed, while I limped home.

Treading on a wasps nest in the middle of some bracken in Scotland ranks amongst my worst experiences. My mate who was walking behind me had a phobia about wasps and ran downhill screaming and flailing wildly as soon as he felt the first sting.

I ran uphill, as I was by this stage uphill of the nest, expleting loudly as I felt each sting pierce my skin.

My mate waited at the bottom of the hill expecting me to re-appear sometime soon. When I didn't he began to panic at the thought that I had been overcome and he would have to come back to the nest to rescue me. He started shouting for me, I could hear him but he couldn't hear me - because of the shock it took us several minutes to remember that we had mobile phones on us and he discovered that I was still alive.

When I stood at the top of the hill I counted the stings on my body and they came to seventeen so I thought I'd got away fairly lightly. When I was halfway down the path back down the hill (going the long way as we should have done in the first place) I counted again and the total came to 26. I took my trousers off and discovered 4 wasps were in there.

Suffice to say, I've never taken a similar short cut since.

Other than that I've been bitten by a Jack Russell, had hundreds of mozzie bites and been attacked by an eel when canoeing and some aggressively territorial fish when snorkling.

A few wasp and bee stings, a nasty horsefly attack and a dog bite from a yappy pekinese. I, like most of my family, react very badly to mosquito bites (despite consuming tons of marmite which is supposed to keep them at bay) and I once had to drive back from France barefoot as both feet were so swollen. We looked a sorry state when we stopped for refreshments. Three of us shoeless, including my elderly mother.

My cat bit me a lot until he learnt what a very loud "no" meant, but he continued to scratch. He dug his claw in so far once I got an abscess and blood poisoning and had to have surgery (I have a deep scar) and six weeks off work. My employer sent some sort of investigator round as they did not believe I could be so ill from a scratch.

I have been stung by bees/wasps on 27 separate occasions - so far. I also have been bitten by horseflys countless time.

I was butted by a big milkcow - right in the face - once. Does that count?

Innumerable insects, dog once actually two dogs the one time, ferrets every damn day. Crabs when fishing, yabbies doing the same. Nothing very exotic..yet.

I forgot a couple of creatures that have attacked me!

Years ago I was quoting on a floor sanding job (unbelievable money but wretchedly hard work) and I noticed my legs were getting itchy I was trying hard not to scratch but then noticed the lady that had escorted me to the house was also looking uncomfortable. We both lasted only another minute before we raced out of the place and rolled our trouser legs up only to see dozens of fleas hopping on us. We both looked pretty funny scratching madly and trying to flick the fleas off us. The two lasses that had previously rented the place were a little "slow" and owned a number of cat that were the source of the fleas, I still find it amazing that anyone slow or otherwise could live in such a flea infested residence.

The other beasties that got me were bird lice. I was pulling down a timber fence prior to erecting a new colourbond one fairly late in the day with a mate and we had made several cuts in the timber when we were both attacked. These little creatures drove us absolutely mad, trying to get the fence down whilst hosing yourself off with cold water in winter isn`t much fun at all. I gave up after 10 minutes and took off leaving my mate there. I stopped at the first chemist I could and it was magic to see the people queued make way for me, I was scratching madly and my eyes were both red and closing up. The chemist gave me some cream but I just had to stop at my parents house on the way home and charge into their shower fully clothed and wash myself down for ages,using all their hot water. I rang my mate that evening and said that as my eyes were both swollen closed there was no way I was going back to the work site, he finished the job by himself and totally understood why.

It was early evening, one beautiful summer night on the farm, so I went out on the patio to enjoy the weather. A short time later, I noted that there were dozens and dozens (maybe even hundreds?) of little brown bats flying around in the immediate vicinity. I didn't think much of it. I was just standing there, watching them, thinking... good job bats, eat those misquitos! Soon enough, things got creepy. I'm not sure if they were trying to tell me to get lost, or if I had drawn the misquitos and they were dropping by for a quick meal, but they started dive bombing me, or at least, the area directly surrounding me. They were swooping in so close to me that they had to have been, literally, micrometers from my body and coming in from every angle. You would think that when I moved, I would have accidentally 'ran into' one, but, no. At one point I threw my arms over my head, thinking one of them was going to make a mistake and get stuck in my hair or something. Never happened. They adjusted their flight patterns just enough, and so quickly that none of them actually ever touched me. It was amazing, and very, very unsettling at the same time. I stood there for several minutes, mostly because I was afraid to move away, but eventually got weirded out, and ran for it! I guess it doesn't count as bitten, stung, pecked or whatever, but it was definitely... something!

I have also been bitten by a very angry, 7-foot long, escapee, boa constictor. (It was my roomate's pet.) One day it got out of its cage and made its way into the bathroom, where it wound itself around the piping under the sink. Maybe I should have left it alone for awhile, since it was quite obviously upset, but I didn't want it to get lost somewhere. As big as it was, it could fit into remarkably small spaces. I was also worried that I would later find one of our house cats missing. So, I took hold of it, and was attempting to dislodge it from its makeshift hidey-hole under the sink. This proved to be very challenging. The snake was incredibly strong, and had set its will upon staying put. I really didn't want to hurt it by yanking on it too hard, or accidently bending its scales backwards, or whatever. Eventually I did get it out of there, but I had an awkward hold on it, before I had time to readjust it in order to grasp it behind the head. It was displeased with me at this point, and so, with one lightening quick strike, it launched itself out and bit me in the arm. Now, constrictors may not have much by way of teeth, but as I found out, the hard way, they do have very powerful jaw muscles. The bite itself felt like a very hard snap-pinch that was nearly, but not quite hard enough to break skin. Long story short, I was able to get the serpent back into the cage, with a perfectly shaped, oval of a bruise, on my upper arm. The incident was not, unfortunately, the last of the snake's adventures. It escaped again a short time later, this time getting wound up in inner the workings of a gas stove. He was wrapped up and wedged in there so tightly, that we had to call 'a guy' from animal controll to get him out. 'The guy' was able to get the snake out, and both of them were unharmed during the process. Abraham, the snake, went to live in a local zoo directly thereafter. You may now view him from the comfort and safety of the repile house at the Henry Villas Zoo, in Madison, WI. I am sure he is much happier there.

Additionally, I have been attacked and pecked by chickens, and bitten by a horse. Once I stepped, barefooted, on a bumble bee, and yes, it stung me - right in the arch of my foot. Youch!

Some funny stories here! Oops, I meant unfortunate!

Roofoo, you are braver than I am, I have touched snakes, but have never held one, and plan on keeping it that way.

No exotic stories from me, although I could mention that so-called ankle-biters should be renamed calf-biters, as that's where I was bitten three times while at customers' homes, and all three owners had assured me their darling little Poopsy wouldn't bite. Still, three times in 24 years is not too bad.

Oh yes, I almost forgot the caterpillar. Last year I accidently brushed against a furry caterpillar with the lightest touch possible with the tip of my middle finger. In no time flat, my arm was numb almost to the shoulder. Well, I say numb, but that's not entirely true because it hurt like &*#@! I could not believe the pain. It was four hours til the pain subsided, and another four hours til I got the feeling back in my arm. I've since been told those particular kind can send one to the hospital.

Oh yes, I just remembered the llama or some such creature at the petting zoo at a country fair. I had a corn on the cob in my hand as I was passing by, and it sort of attacked me, or the corn, or or... all I know is I was looking at some very nasty looking teeth very close up. I gave up the corn cob, as it seemed the wisest thing to do. The owner only saw the last bit of the incident, told me I had 'fed' the critter, and kicked me out of the petting zoo. I've never been kicked out of anywhere before in my life, and my kids were mortified that their mom would embarrass them in such a manner.

All in all though, I've remained relatively unscathed by nature.

The worst thing that has happened to me is when I was about nine and was carrying a string of freshly caught catfish. One of them managed to get a barb into my shin. That hurt worse than any bee or wasp sting I ever experienced.

I remember being attacked by fireants as a child. Not sure how long it took to recover from that....

More recently I can clearly remember being bitten on the forearm by a cat I had taken in last winter. I developed an infection at the site so I had to go to the doctor and begin a rabies series that lasted over a month in all. The cat wasn't rabid but I didn't want to take any chances with my hubby being deployed at the time. Now I have a scar and a rabies certificate!