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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/Teh_Real_Pootattoo on 2026-06-25 11:17:52+00:00.
Usually, you can see few of the little bastards lazily buzzing around above ground but not this time.
I have an old Dodge Dakota I decommissioned about 11 years ago and parked it under a tree because replacement parts are junk.
In 156k miles, I've rebuilt the HVAC system, Replaced radiator, water pump twice, 3 timing chain sets, Master cylinder, Rotors and front calipers more times than I can count and there's the rub...
After replacing the brakes on all 4 corners because one of the front calipers seized AGAIN, I took it on a test drive afterwards and everything was fine, No problems!
That is until I stopped at Wallyworld to pick up a few things.
Checked the front wheels before I went in and they were cool to the touch.
When I went to leave, the first time I hit the brakes, there were no problems.
The second time I had to stop I could tell one of the calipers had seized because I could feel the rotor on the right front had warped and could smell the pads burning, so I stopped at a grocery store to let it cool off a while. the left one was fine.
After it cooled off I was able to drive it home.
By the time I got home, both front calipers had seized and trashed the rotors AGAIN!
That's when I decided to park it under a tree and bought a Tacoma.
Well recently, I decided to clean it up and get it ready to either junk it or get it running good enough to sell (Because classic...) and that's when my fuck-up happened.
The bed of the truck had 11 years worth of layers of dead leaf accumulation, so with tailgate down, I grabbed a heavy rake and went to work.
About half way towards the front, I stabbed the rake into the layer cake of dead leaves and suddenly saw a black cloud rise up from the mess and I thought "What!?, are those flys!?"
About a half second later, I realized they were ground hornets as they swarmed me and the stinging began.
I ran, They followed me!
I swatted them and they just got madder!
I made it into the house, and lucky for me, I had a can of hornet spray right by the door.
I ripped my shirt off and killed everything that followed me in and took a shower.
When things settled down, I went outside and emptied the rest of that can of hornet spray on what was left of the leaves in the truck and killed any survivors.
Didn't finish cleaning out the bed till the next day.
All in all, They only stung me about 10 times
As a precaution, I took a Benadryl and an Ibuprofen, Now I'm just itchy everywhere I was stung.
"TL;DR"
I was attacked by a swarm of ground hornets when cleaning the dead leaves out of the bed of my 32 year old truck...