Hornet From Hades, (and a leech, too)

I felt it before I heard it, and I never saw it. I was trimming plants in our garden, felt the sting and heard the buzz. You wouldn't believe the size of the wasps and hornets here. I have a potato-sized red splotch where it stung me, and I thought for sure it was the same kind of horrid thing that stung our puppy. When I showed it to our Thai partner, Tanom, he laughed at me and told me there was no way it was a wasp. "It's too little! If it were one of those big wasps you would be in a lot more pain, and it would be huge!" I just kind of stared at him. Then I thought about our puppy, and how his entire leg was swollen, and the sting site turned into a big infected pus-filled crater. Hmmm....mine just itches a lot and feels swollen.
After that I went out into the garden to do a little more trimming. When I went to put the tools away I felt a little stingy thing on my hand. I looked down and there was a miniature worm on me. I yelped and scraped it off my hand with the shears...it was a "thaat," a leech! Disgusting. I have seen them before in rainforests, but didn't think I'd find one in our garden!

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