(I found this draft sitting in my account from last August.)
My daughters and I got attacked by yellow jackets on Sunday. We were traipsing around in the woods in a local park, and suddenly my youngest, about 15 feet from me, starts screaming like I've never heard her scream before. I look over, and she's standing still, with a bunch of yellow jackets on her and many more swarming around her; presumably she had stepped on a nest (they nest underground). I always worry, and I know I'm not alone here, how I might react in such a situation, but gratifyingly, before my conscious brain even figured out what was going on, I bounded over, grabbed her, and ran. I got us 50 feet away or so, and then swatted the bugs off of her; meanwhile, a bunch of them are stinging me. Once she was clear, I got rid of the ones on me. All in all, we got off pretty easy; she got 6 or 7 stings, and I got about a dozen. My middle child, who was outside of the main fray, got a couple too. Fortunately, none of us is allergic. The worst part, perhaps, is that youngest was already sort of freaky about bees, and now will surely be moreso. The pain went away pretty quickly, but two days later, they still itch.