I hadn't been stung by anything since I was a teenager, until today. My wife asked me to change a light bulb outside, so I got the ladder up and climbed up with a new bulb in my pocket and didn't notice the little nest way up in the fixture next to the burned out bulb until I started screwing the bulb out and felt like someone jabbed a red hot needle in my hand, right between my thumb and index finger. Then I saw the darn nest and the less than cordial vermin coming out of it. I escaped with only the one sting.
I got stung by all manner of bees and wasps when I was a kid, but I don't ever recall one that hurt this much. I was able to make sure there wasn't any kind of stinger left in there and I sprayed some antiseptic spray on it, which helped somewhat, but that sucker must have had some serious venom because there was a large swollen spot and pain was shooting through the length of my thumb. That was around 4:00 pm and now, over eight hours later, it's still hurting. The swelling has gone down and there's no visual indication that anything happened, but the spot still has a constant pain. It doesn't appear that I'm having any kind of allergic reaction, because other than the pain I feel ok and the swelling and redness have disappeared, but I'm still wondering what kind of critter that was. I've never felt a sting that painful or that hurt for this long. Any ideas?