Yellow Jacket Swarm Claims Sarasota Man's Life

A 47-year-old Sarasota man is dead following a run-in with a swarm of yellow jackets Friday.

Christopher Nelson was on the railroad tracks at 19th Street and East Avenue Friday afternoon when he disturbed an underground nest on a portion of the tracks that rarely see use, Fox News reported.

That disturbance riled up an angry swarm, which ultimately stung Nelson several thousand times, the station reported.

While Nelson was still alive when paramedics responded to the scene, he later succumbed to his injuries at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, WFLA reported. He was in anaphylactic shock due to the number of stings, the fire department told Fox.

The Sarasota County Medical Examiner’s Office will make the final determination as to cause of death, the sheriff’s office stated.

The wasp nest was destroyed over the weekend, WTSP reported.

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“It’s probably one of the biggest nests I’ve seen,” professional exterminator Mike McClain told the station. McClain has a 35-year history in the industry, and says yellow jackets can be especially dangerous since they have the ability to sting more than once.

“That’s why this poor guy was overcome,” he told the station.

Yellow jackets live in colonies that may contain up to 1,000 workers. These wasps are “known to be aggressive defenders of their colonies,” Orkin points out on its website. Otherwise, they are “not quick to sting.” Those stings can cause severe allergic reactions in some people.

It takes about 1,500 stings to kill a grown man, Fox News reported. For someone with an allergy to the venom, however, a single sting may be enough.