Blinded by a tree stink bug.

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puk

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Gilford NH
Friday , last week , I was a short ways up a red maple when I was sprayed in the eyes by an insect. It felt like pins poking into my eyes and it had a very distinct odor , almost synthetic. After regaining my composier and vision I noticed , just above me, a tree stink bug. I grabbed it and tucked it away to show the boss. In twenty something years he has never had a run in with these little buggers. My question is: Has anybody on this forum had this kind of experience? Oh yea , it took 48 hours for the blury vision in the right eye to subside. Interested in hearing from yuzz.
 
No stink bugs here...I have had big problems with yellow jackets and family of racoons that were very angry with me...
Tom
 
Been at tree work here and in nature all my life . Guess the stars weren't aligned cause i never seen that happen before or the bug. I aint doubting you either and i hope your eyes are ok . BTW weren't you on that mtv show a few years ago?
 
When threatened the stink bug pisses acid!

I've had some shocking burns on the neck where these idiots crawl and then think they're gonna cop it and wham.

Ya neck stings, feels like a burning sensations, within 3 days all the skin turns brown, and then a week later peels off like bad sunburn.

Then the new skin underneath takes a month to "climatize" to match the surrounding skin.

And mate, you copped that piss in your eye!!! Dude, wear glasses. :D
 
Lots of beetles emit a "Stink" when handled, and therefor are called "Stink Bugs". Some can inflict a painful bite. What did it look like? Got a picture?

This one is common down here, and can nail you if handled carelessly. http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/trees/wheel_bug.htm

Blister Beetles and Bombardier Beetles also can inflict painful wounds when harassed, as Ekka describes. In fact, the Bombardier Beetle doesn't just piss it. He blows it out his butt with steam. The one in this link is African, but there are Australian and American species as well.

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/96/17/9705

A Google search will give you more details. Sounds to me like you got off easy.
 
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woodchux said:

I think that is Hemiptera Pentatomidae Euschistus servus, commonly called "Brown Stink Bug". It only EXUDES the stink from pores on each side of the thorax, doesn't spray it. When puk said "... sprayed in the eyes by an insect..." I thought of the Bombardier Beetle, from the slightly different order of Coleoptera.
 
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I too got it in the eye by a green stink bug. Never even knew what they were before. I was out clearing some arecea palms and one flew behind my glasses and shot me in the eye. I closed my eye in time but it messed up my tear duct and made my eye lid peel like super bad sunburn. The day after it happened my eye was black and blue from it. This bugs are nasty if you have the bad luck of being hit in the eye area. I feel for the other guy who was sprayed directly in his eye , that must of been a real b!tch. I don't know what the bugs shoot out but it feels like some sort of acid. So watch out for those tiny green stink bugs.
 
Learn something everyday , I see them bugs alot ,but I didnt know they piss acid . :jawdrop:
 
got me in the face

One night after a Christmas party we loaded up in the van, and a bug flew in landing on the side of my face. I immediately tried to wipe it off, when it blasted me. All I could tell was that it was some type of beetle. My wife checked out the burned spot when we got home; It had crusted over in the 10 min. drive. Nasty. I peeled it off.

Why are things always taking a leak on us? Imagine the burning sensation they must have! Maybe they need a prescription.
 
I inhaled one of those not too long ago and it sprayed on the way down. I don't know which kind it was but I think i'd rather be sprayed in the eye.

ouch.


i see them things all the time and never thought twice that they would ruin your day. hmmm.
 
When threatened the stink bug pisses acid!

I've had some shocking burns on the neck where these idiots crawl and then think they're gonna cop it and wham.

Ya neck stings, feels like a burning sensations, within 3 days all the skin turns brown, and then a week later peels off like bad sunburn.

Then the new skin underneath takes a month to "climatize" to match the surrounding skin.

And mate, you copped that piss in your eye!!! Dude, wear glasses. :D


Ouch,

Austraila's a real hellhole. Hope you can find a ticket out.
 
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stink bugs

I've been surrounded by stink bugs since I got here but NEVER had the experience of the other day...was handling fish tail palm so was gritting my teeth with the itch and ignoring it when my neck was getting worse...I knew this was something else and ran over to the client holding the hose to get 'whatever it was' off. Sure enough, two stink bugs. I'm three days in and they are scabby, nasty and brown... and I'm getting married in 2 weeks (!!!) I just hope they go away in that time, it's bad enough as a woman in the industry having scratched up hands, grubby nails and big muscles at the weekend but a grotty, scabby neck on my wedding day - ha ha!...anything to put on them? Aloe vera perhaps?

When threatened the stink bug pisses acid!

I've had some shocking burns on the neck where these idiots crawl and then think they're gonna cop it and wham.

Ya neck stings, feels like a burning sensations, within 3 days all the skin turns brown, and then a week later peels off like bad sunburn.

Then the new skin underneath takes a month to "climatize" to match the surrounding skin.

And mate, you copped that piss in your eye!!! Dude, wear glasses. :D
 
I hate stink bugs, until recently i thought they just stank...we knocked over a few norfolk island hibuscus (my most hated tree) and as usual they were covered in stinkbugs, millions of the little fekers, one managed to get caught in my collar and released the stink... i could smell it straight away and after about 5 min or so my neck started to burn, not painful but you knewit was there. that arvo i did the 2 mirror trick and could see a weeping sore, it stayed that way for about a week.
 
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