Getting attacked

[Jerry Bodine]

In 1958 my parents came to visit me in L.A. while on their vacation and I gave them the west coast tour of beauty - L.A. to Vancouver BC to L.A. On the return trip south we passed through Yosemite, where I spotted a half-grown black (species?) bear milling around a campground area and wanted to get a pic as close as I could (no interchangeable lenses for my old Minolta A). Take a snap, move closer, take another,move closer, take another. Just then a hotrod came razzing through the area backfiring. The bear's eyes got big as silver dollars and he started to run. I was in his escape route and he came straight at me. Everything I did at that point was instinctive as he skidded up to me on all fours. I held my ground while he grabbed the back of my knee in his mouth and I let that leg swing freely. Then he let go and ran off in another direction without breaking my skin or poking holes in my pants - just four fang bruises. Poor thing was in panic mode. Started shaking at that point when a guy stepped out from behind a large nearby tree after witnessing it all and said "Geez, you got guts!" to which I replied "Maybe so, but they're little ones." Parents had stayed in the car and had not seen the incident. Mom said if she'd seen it she might have had a heart attack. Glad she didn't see.

[Drew Wiley]

I've never had a bear incident in the back country. But back in the bad ole days, when I was a little kid, when bears were deliberately fed garbage in Yosemite for the sake of tourists sitting in bleachers (just like a football game), there was one humorous incident. Not many people used tents car camping in good weatherback then, but just ropes between trees and blankets hung for privacy. We were camped up at Tenaya Lk with miserable army surplus sleeping bags. In the middle of the night, a black bear licked my sister on the face. She woke up screaming, and ran into the station wagon. The bear was even more terrified and ran right over me. At least the sleeping bag cushioned me some. And he just keep running, knocking over multiple trash cans en route, and probably trailing ropes around his body.

[Wayne]

Beetles in the family Coccinellidae are called ladybugs, lady beetles, or ladybird beetles depending on your location. Plenty of entomologists use these terms too including myself. Asian lady beetles (Harmonia axyridis) do indeed bite, and they invade houses during fall migrations at least in the Great Lakes Region and cold parts of the country, but not so much in California. Other lady beetles can bite too, but Asians are large enough to sting a tiny bit. No big deal, but not very lady-like.

True "spotted ladybugs" (Coleomegilla maculata ssp.) are or were, historically, restricted to extreme southern California but since common names are pretty useless and vary from place to place you might be referring to convergent lady beetles, Hippodamia convergens, which are famous for their massive annual migrations to and from the western mountains. These have, unfortunately (and still are, unfortunately) bred and released by the tens of thousands if not millions every year, but this is promoted only by that special breed of entomologist know as meddling agricultural nuisances. The native populations of convergent lady beetles have declined considerably in parts of the Midwest and Canada, and this decline coincides with the explosion of adventive species like the Asian lady beetle and several others. Perhaps something similar is happening in California.

[ImSoNegative]

I've never had a bear incident in the back country. But back in the bad ole days, when I was a little kid, when bears were deliberately fed garbage in Yosemite for the sake of tourists sitting in bleachers (just like a football game), there was one humorous incident. Not many people used tents car camping in good weatherback then, but just ropes between trees and blankets hung for privacy. We were camped up at Tenaya Lk with miserable army surplus sleeping bags. In the middle of the night, a black bear licked my sister on the face. She woke up screaming, and ran into the station wagon. The bear was even more terrified and ran right over me. At least the sleeping bag cushioned me some. And he just keep running, knocking over multiple trash cans en route, and probably trailing ropes around his body.

Now that is hilarious haha

[John Olsen]

Attack donkey! I got permission from the landowner, but her donkey didn't agree. He kept bumping me as I set up the tripod. Eventually, shouting and pushing his nose away got him to leave me alone. The farmer was probably laughing like crazy. It's a good thing this was before YouTube so I couldn't be globally humiliated.

[JMO]

Old School Wayne, Thanks for the clarifications re Coccinellids. As another entomologist (MS & PhD Purdue Univ) who has more recently been bitten by the Large Format camera bug (no Latin name that I can recommend) it is good to know that another entomologist is on-post here. I am in SE Wisconsin, where the weather recently is coming around to being favorable for the annual swarms of Asian Ladybird Beetles seeking overwintering places on the south and southwest sides of area homes (especially during warm and sunny afternoons). Regards....

Beetles in the family Coccinellidae are called ladybugs, lady beetles, or ladybird beetles depending on your location. Plenty of entomologists use these terms too including myself. Asian lady beetles (Harmonia axyridis) do indeed bite, and they invade houses during fall migrations at least in the Great Lakes Region and cold parts of the country, but not so much in California. Other lady beetles can bite too, but Asians are large enough to sting a tiny bit. No big deal, but not very lady-like.

True "spotted ladybugs" (Coleomegilla maculata ssp.) are or were, historically, restricted to extreme southern California but since common names are pretty useless and vary from place to place you might be referring to convergent lady beetles, Hippodamia convergens, which are famous for their massive annual migrations to and from the western mountains. These have, unfortunately (and still are, unfortunately) bred and released by the tens of thousands if not millions every year, but this is promoted only by that special breed of entomologist know as meddling agricultural nuisances. The native populations of convergent lady beetles have declined considerably in parts of the Midwest and Canada, and this decline coincides with the explosion of adventive species like the Asian lady beetle and several others. Perhaps something similar is happening in California.

[Jody_S]

Horse flies and deer flies. No laughing matter, in the Canadian arctic. They can kill a full-grown caribou. You need to stay in the open in the wind, and if there's no wind, in your tent with a plentiful supply of deet. I was in polar bear country, fortunately I didn't encounter any... (obviously, as I'm still here to type this). But it took several weeks for the scars from the flies to heal. I had huge welts around my neck and wrists, the only places I had exposed skin while walking through the woods a couple of times.

I was once offered a job guarding a mine in the Quebec far north from polar bears. When I asked why the position was vacant (where was the last guard?), I was told they hadn't found him yet. Much as I love the arctic, I regretfully turned down the job.

[John Kasaian]

Wasps. Actually got attacked at Shadow of The Giants Nature Trail in Nelder Grove where California Ladybugs annually gather en mass just like Drew Wiley explained.

[Bob Sawin]

I was camping along Banks Lake and woke up one morning surrounded by a large flock of wild turkeys. It was entertaining to watch them.

[swmcl]

I love that donkey story ...