On 11 Sep, 11:43, "Mary Fisher" wrote:

People always cite fear for children or dogs as justification :-)

Killing one colony makes no perceptible difference to the number of flying
stinging and biting insects in the air all around us. The reality is that
very few people are stung and then rarely more than once - except people
like me who are dealing with them and interfering with their brood. Then
they become defensive.

Over the last couple of weeks my 20 month old (inquisitive) little boy
has been stung twice; he has a nasty habit of finding the most rotten
looking fallen apple hiding in the long grass and then picking it up
and running around with it. I'm not certain he's put two and two
together that the wasp / bee sting is related to the manky apple in
his hand.

Of course, we do our best to make sure all rotten fruit is moved away
to prevent just this problem, but he always finds one. Mind you,
although it is uncomfortable for a couple of minutes, there are many
things worse than being stung, so maybe he'll grow up toughened as a
result! He's already been stung more times in his 20 months than I
have in my 35 years!

For the record, the thing that makes me recoil in fear of pain more
than anything else is treading unwittingly on an upturned three pin
plug! Anyone else have strange pain phobias!?

Matt