Aussie mum's brutal injuries as property owners warned of painful threat hidden underground
The 33-year-old farmer, who lives on a 20-acre property in Victoria's Yarra Valley, told Yahoo News the entire ordeal began last Thursday when she headed out to drag a harrow — a tool used to break up the soil and animal droppings across a paddock.
'[I] was harrowing the horse poo before Saturday's predicted rain. It's a nice empty, flat paddock with zero long grass as it had just been grazed,' the anonymous woman said. 'I was pottering along about 8km/h and hadn't noticed any wasps hanging around when all of a sudden I was swarmed. The pain was immediate and intense.'
Unknowingly, the mum of three had accidentally driven just a bit 'too close' to a European wasp nest hidden in the ground.
The non-native species — otherwise known as vespula germanica — is considered to be a significant pest in Australia. Unlike honeybees, the European wasp, which has also been recorded in South Australia, NSW and Western Australia, can sting multiple times.
As the insects surrounded her, the farmer told Yahoo her adrenaline kicked in and she leapt off her bike and 'ran like f**k'. 'They'd gotten down my shirt so I ripped my shirt off as I was running, and my hat and hair tie have come off in the process,' she said.
'I just kept running until the only ones left were the ones tangled in my hair, which were repeatedly stinging my head.'
The 33-year-old was stung about 20 times overall — mostly on her back. Four stings on her arm 'blew up', and she suffered others to her head, face and stomach.
'I've never had an encounter with a wasp before, and kinda figured that if I left them alone, they'd leave me alone. I've since been told they're naturally very aggressive and people are often attacked just from walking by them,' the woman added.
'It's definitely made me more wary of them. I often have my three young kids out in the paddocks with me too.'
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About an hour later, the farmer started to have a 'strange heavy feeling' in her chest despite her heart rate being normal. 'I barely slept that night from the pain. I also had 48 hours of diarrhoea which is the body's way of flushing out the toxins from the venom. My arm is still a bit swollen a week later.'
The woman said she decided not to seek medical attention as she wasn't experiencing any respiratory systems.
'I managed at home with ice, calamine lotion and homeopathics. I didn't see the point in clogging up the emergency department. I have since heard that once you are stung, you're more likely to have a worse or even anaphylactic reaction next time.'
According to Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia, people who have had a local reaction like a rash or swelling after being stung have less than a 10 per cent chance of having a severe allergic reaction to future insect stings or bites.
Given that she lives 'down a dirt road that no one can ever find', the mum did visit her GP on Monday to pick up a couple of EpiPens just in case. 'He agreed the chest symptom wasn't a good sign, and diarrhoea is a 'severe' symptom.'
When she was feeling up for it, the 33-year-old searched for the nest that had made her so ill, and found another two in other paddocks.
'We've been here six years and this is the driest year we've had. The ground has opened up and there's cracks everywhere. It's the worst we've ever seen the European wasps too,' she said. About 80 per cent of European wasp nests will occur in the ground, according to Victoria's Department of Health.
'All three have been powdered but there are still so many wasps around and a pest controller told us on a property this size, we're likely to have a dozen or more,' the farmer said.
'I've put traps out all over the place and I'm catching heaps, but it just seems like a drop in the ocean. There are so many."
According to Victoria's Department of Health, the best method of wasp control is to locate the nest and eradicate them using the appropriate insecticide, especially early in the morning or at night when they're less active. If you don't feel up for it, call a professional in your area for help.
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There is also a cement truck which appears to have been involved in the crash. Live Traffic NSW are advising motorists to slow down to 40km/h and plan for their commute to take extra time. - NewsWire Sydney has been plunged into traffic chaos after a five-vehicle crash on the Anzac Bridge, with cars backed all the way up to Leichhardt. The crash happened in the eastbound lanes about 6.30am on Monday. Live traffic cameras show three of the four eastbound lanes are blocked, and the gridlock stretches back almost 3km down the A44. The right-hand westbound lane is also blocked by emergency response vehicles. An Ambulance NSW spokesman said five vehicles were involved in the crash; three cars, a motorbike and a truck. All people who needed to be checked by paramedics had minor injuries, the spokesman said. The male motorbike rider was still however taken to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Images show at least four police vehicles and two road crews are on scene. A damaged dark-coloured sedan stopped sideways across two lanes was put onto a tow truck about 7am. There is also a cement truck which appears to have been involved in the crash. Live Traffic NSW are advising motorists to slow down to 40km/h and plan for their commute to take extra time. - NewsWire Qantas set for big fine after illegally sacking workers Australia's largest airline is staring down the barrel of another nine-figure fine for illegally sacking more than 1800 workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Federal Court will hand down a hefty penalty to Qantas on Monday in what will be the latest court blow for the airline after a scandal-plagued recent tenure. Qantas outsourced its baggage handlers, cleaners and ground staff in 2020, in a move the court ruled was designed to curb union bargaining power in wage negotiations. It appealed the ruling to the High Court but the decision was not overturned, paving the way for Monday's penalty. 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But the former CEO did not address the scandal when he spoke at an aviation conference on Thursday, instead spruiking his ability to keep the airline afloat in unprecedented times. "But here's the real insight: resilience isn't a reaction … it's a decision made years in advance, often when it's uncomfortable, even unpopular," he said. "Qantas was the only major Australian airline not to go bankrupt during or after the pandemic … that wasn't luck. That was resilience."
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I found the same number he called appearing to impersonate other cruise company hotlines and popping up in Google and ChatGPT. Welcome to the AI scam era. Experts warn that old scammer and spammer tricks that have swamped the web, social media, email and texts are now also manipulating AI information - and Rivlin is among an early wave of victims. 'I'm pretty technologically advanced, and I fell for this,' said the founder of the Rivlin Group at lpt Realty. I'll walk you through how to guard against experiences like Rivlin's, and what companies such as Google should do to stop crooks from warping AI information. - - - How scammers fooled Rivlin and Google Rivlin told me that the bogus customer service number and the impostor representative were believable. The rep knew the cost and pickup locations for Royal Caribbean shuttles in Venice. He had persuasive explanations when Rivlin questioned him about paying certain fees and gratuities. The rep offered to waive the shuttle fees and Rivlin agreed to pay $768. Rivlin said that he was suspicious of oddities, including an unfamiliar company name that came through on the credit card charge. When two bogus card charges landed the next day, Rivlin knew he'd been tricked. He canceled his credit card and the charges were reversed. Rivlin mostly blames the crooks and himself for falling for the scam. But I've seen so many versions of similar trickery targeting Google users that I largely blame the company for not doing enough to safeguard its essential gateway to information. So did two experts in Google's inner workings. Here's how a scam like this typically works: Bad guys write on online review sites, message boards and other websites claiming that a number they control belongs to a company's customer service center. When you search Google, its technology looks for clues to relevant and credible information, including online advice. If scammer-controlled numbers are repeated as truth often enough online, Google may suggest them to people searching for a business. Google is a patsy for scammers - and we're the ultimate victims. Google's AI Overviews and OpenAI's ChatGPT may use similar clues as Google's search engine to spit out information gleaned from the web. That makes them new AI patsies for the old impostor number scams. 'Manipulating these new answer engines using techniques from 30 years ago is like shooting sitting ducks,' said Mike Blumenthal, analyst at Near Media, a consumer search behavior research company. (Blumenthal told me about Rivlin's Facebook video relaying his experience.) Blumenthal and I found Google and ChatGPT identifying the same number that fooled Rivlin as a customer service number for other cruise lines, including Disney and Carnival's Princess line. In a statement, a Google spokesman said that AI Overviews and web search results are effective at directing people to official customer service information for common types of searches. The spokesman said that the company has 'taken action' on several impostor number examples I identified and that Google continues to 'work on broader improvements to address rarer queries like these.' Royal Caribbean's customer service number is 1-866-562-7625, which the company says it shows on its websites, apps and invoices. Disney and Princess didn't respond to my questions. OpenAI said that many of the webpages that ChatGPT referenced with the bogus cruise number appear to have been removed, and that it can take time for its information to update 'after abusive content is removed at the source.' (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.) - - - What you and companies can do to ward off this scam - Be suspicious of phone numbers in Google results or in chatbots. Rivlin said that he looked for Royal Caribbean's customer service contact number in its app. No luck. Google or chatbots are natural next spots to look for business numbers, but it's worth being extremely careful of numbers they show. Eyeball associated links in Google or ChatGPT before you call. Read more advice on fake customer service scams. - Why is Google making it easier for scammers? The company knows the long history of people being fooled by bogus customer service numbers they find in search results. You'd be safer if Google didn't show AI Overviews - which seem like authoritative 'answers' - for business number searches, said Lily Ray, vice president of search engine optimization strategy and research at the marketing firm Amsive. 'By allowing AI Overviews to appear for business phone number queries, they're opening up a new opportunity for scammers - and one that scammers are clearly already using to their advantage,' Ray said by email. Ray and Blumenthal say that Google has databases of vetted information, including for businesses, and that the company should ensure search and AI results only grab information from there. Back home this week after a great trip, Rivlin said that he's watching for more bogus charges or attempted identity theft. And Rivlin wants to spread the word that even being well informed about scams and a believer in AI didn't make him immune to AI-enabled trickery. 'I can't believe that I fell for it,' he said. 'Be careful.' Related Content Ukraine scrambles to roll back Russian eastern advance as summit takes place Her dogs kept dying, and she got cancer. Then they tested her water. D.C.'s homeless begin to see the effects of Trump's crackdown Solve the daily Crossword
