A woman has described the terrifying moment she and her dog were stung by dozens of hornets while enjoying an idyllic walk through Bradley Woods.
Tamsin Harman was walking Reggie, her cavalier King Charles spaniel, in woods off Stuart Place when he discovered something interesting to sniff – a hornets’ nest.
The 41-year-old said: “It was frightening. I was taking Reggie for his usual afternoon wander in the woods on Wednesday when he started to lag behind.
“I called for him to come but he had found something so was giving it a good sniff.
“I carried on walking because Reggie always catches up.
“The next thing I could hear was Reggie squealing and yelping.
“I ran over to him and he was spinning round trying to bite his back end.
“As soon as I got over to him I could feel things landing on me, it felt like hot ash all over me.
“I was trying to see what was wrong with Reggie and saw a hornet caught in his fur on top of his head. I clipped Reggie on his lead and ran out of the woods.”
Tamsin’s wife, Gemma Harman, added: “I was at home and Tamsin came through the back door crying in pain, Reggie was still yelping.
“We took him straight to the vets where he was given an injection of painkillers and some to have at home.
“I then took Tamsin to the doctors where she was given steroid cream.
“She had eight stings around her body but the worst sting is on her hand, which has now swollen up.
“We don’t know how many hornets there were, but Tamsin described it as a swarm or nest. She said they were everywhere.
“We’ve told Kirklees Council about it who said they’ll be out in a week to have a look. Reggie is going to the park from now on.”
Hornets are pests which aggressively guard their nesting sites when threatened.
Their stings are more dangerous than those of bees and in 2014 it was reported that an entire family had been killed following a relentless attack by a swarm of huge hornets in Borneo.
