The Animal Who Shall Not Be Named

SPEAKER_1 (0:08)

You're listening to Strange by Nature, your guide to the strange, weird, unbelievable, and improbable wonders of the natural world.

Kirk Mona (0:23)

Hello, everyone, and thanks for being here today. I'm Kirk Mona, and joining me are Rachel Gimza and Victoria Thompson. We're all naturalists who together have scoured the world for weird and wonderful wonders, just to please your mammalian brain's desire for novelty. Isn't that nice? Let's do this.

Victoria Thompson (0:44)

All right, everybody, welcome to the show. Good to be with you, as always.

Kirk Mona (0:49)

Absolutely.

Rachel Gimza (0:50)

So excited to be here.

Victoria Thompson (0:51)

You know what this episode is? What number it is?

Rachel Gimza (0:54)

293

Victoria Thompson (0:55)

293

We are continuing our countdown to episode 300 And as a reminder to our listeners, we are asking listeners to send in a little voice memo with your name, where you're from, and like most memorable episode, something you like about the show. And we're hoping to play those when we reach episode 300, but we need you guys to send those in.

Kirk Mona (1:19)

That'd be so cool to have all of you be part of the show.

Victoria Thompson (1:22)

It would be.

Kirk Mona (1:24)

Now, I did realize that we didn't say where to send them. We should probably point that out. Don't send them to your aunt. Don't send them to the New York Times or anything like that. You want to send it to contact at strangebynaturepodcast.com.

Victoria Thompson (1:43)

Thank you, Kirk. Maybe we can go back and insert that into the previous episode.

Rachel Gimza (1:46)

That might be a good idea.

Kirk Mona (1:49)

Well, then my correction here will make no sense. Now, we can't.

Rachel Gimza (1:52)

Now, we're stuck. Well, hey, put it in the notes.

Victoria Thompson (1:57)

Show notes, yeah.

Kirk Mona (1:58)

For those of you who are listening to the show or keen, you know, we actually give our contact email address at the end of every episode.

Rachel Gimza (2:05)

That's also true. All right.

Victoria Thompson (2:09)

Well, with that, I get us started this week.

Rachel Gimza (2:13)

Yay.

Kirk Mona (2:13)

Yes. What do you got?

Victoria Thompson (2:15)

Well, a little bit of an unpleasant story. Recently, a friend of mine and a friend of the show, Amy, had a terrifying encounter with some yellow jackets.

Oh, yeah.

Kirk Mona (2:29)

Her young son-

Rachel Gimza (2:30)

I had that this last week.

Kirk Mona (2:31)

Tis the season.

Victoria Thompson (2:32)

Yes, it is the season. Her young son accidentally-

Kirk Mona (2:35)

My dog got tagged too.

Victoria Thompson (2:37)

Her young son accidentally stumbled on a ground nest of yellow jackets and was stung several dozen times.

Yeah. Dozen?

Rachel Gimza (2:47)

Oh, no.

Kirk Mona (2:48)

Yeah, like, from 50, I think.

Victoria Thompson (2:49)

And Amy was also stung around a dozen times while helping him strip off his clothes.

Luckily, they are both physically okay. They got to the hospital. No allergic reactions. But yes, they are traumatized.

Kirk Mona (3:06)

And- Oh, man.

Rachel Gimza (3:08)

Sorry, Amy.

Victoria Thompson (3:09)

Yeah.

Kirk Mona (3:09)

Yes, condolences.

Victoria Thompson (3:12)

Yeah, Amy was solo parenting that week too. It was a rough time. That's rough. The incident got me thinking about wasps and bees and their venomous stings, and it reminded me of this topic that I had had on the list for a little while.

Rachel Gimza (3:26)

I'm intrigued. As someone, okay, I haven't gotten stung like- I haven't gotten stung at once 50 times, but I have been stung many, many, many, many times.

Kirk Mona (3:36)

Dear listeners, Rachel gets stung.

So often. Last year, I got stung three times. And by bumblebees.

Rachel Gimza (3:44)

Okay. This year, I got stung by a bumblebee.

Kirk Mona (3:45)

Who gets stung by bumblebees?

Rachel Gimza (3:47)

I've been stung by a bumblebee, I think, three or four times.

Victoria Thompson (3:50)

Are you molesting them or something?

Kirk Mona (3:52)

No.

Rachel Gimza (3:53)

Okay. The first time, when I was three, I just walked out of a Burger King and it just like was there and I thought it was a fly because I was three and I like swatted at it. And I don't know what my parents were doing, but it did chase me around the Burger King till it stung me in my thigh.

Kirk Mona (4:09)

So I really got stung by a bumblebee this year too.

Rachel Gimza (4:12)

I did get stung by it. Yeah. I've done this year, but I was disturbing a nest. I didn't realize there was a nest. And then by the time I saw that they were upset and like, oh no, it's too late.