Twice now, I have been bitten or stung from something in a bale of hay. I buy hay locally, it's just a grass hay the horses love it. A month ago, I took a bale to the covered feeder, cut the strings and grabbed flakes of hay and was throwing them into the feeder rack. About half way through, when I put the flake in the rack, I first thought I grabbed a thorn of some kind that pierced into my middle finger. But very soon I knew better, my hand started to swell and I could feel a flush of heat on my face. A definite reaction. Never saw anything in the rack of hay.

I thought it a fluke, but be dammed of it didn't happen the exact same way again yesterday afternoon, same hand/finger, same reaction, hand swollen. I thought I saw a flash of "black" in my peripheral vision, but again could find nothing in the rack. I looked for a wasp nest inside, under the rack, nothing.

Anyone ever have something like this happen? Even as hot as it is, I'm wearing leather gloves from now on. And what would happen if a horse bit down of whatever this is?

Sounds like the way a scorpion sting feels to me.

I don't swell up from them though.

Maybe you're just good at finding the needle in the haystack...

+1 on the possible scorpion. What followed after the initial pain? Scorpion sting is usually followed by numbness.

Might have been a spider I see them in hay bales around here !

A scorpion in Va. ?

None of those around here, thankfully!

This swelling got worse and spread into my wrist area over today, so I went to the doc. Got antibiotics and steroids. Don't know about the steroids, but I'll see what a couple days does on the other.

I've found bumble bees nesting in hay before
Buy some gloves

Me, too.

I exercised my Google Fu and discovered that there are two types of scorpions native to Virginia and the sting of the most prevalent one has symptoms exactly as the OP described. Whoda thunk it?

Ed

This year has been hell for wasps and hornets.

I found a hornet nest moving hay and got stung 6 or 7 times. One took a chunk of meat out of my forearm and gave me 'popeye arm'. Hurt and itched for a week.

Invest in a pitchfork. Four-tine should work well for throwing hay slices.

I came across a few scorpions as a kid in northern GA. Wouldn't be a shock at all if there were a few in VA.

Probably a spider. They love hiding in hay.