A mother-of-four claims that she and her family were terrorized by swarms of wasps during their stay.
According to Fox News, 40-year-old Suzy Cross says she awoke in the early morning hours to discover herself sheathed by a large number of the insects.
“I could feel something crawling in the sheets,” Cross said in an interview with the Mirror. “It was super creepy so I kicked and felt a sharp sting.”
“I peeled the covers back and screamed, I turned the light on and they were everywhere, coming from a nest in the corner of the room. All hell broke loose. The kids were shrieking and shaking,” she added.
The London rental property—where she, her husband and four children were to temporarily roost—which used the word “buzzing” in its rental listing to describe the dwelling—had been acquired by Cross for somewhere in the area of $500 a night.
For the night’s residuum, the family claims they sojourned in one of the apartment’s other rooms, while Cross’s husband Stephen attempted to prevent the wasps from escaping the main bedroom into other areas of the apartment.
Although pest control was called in the following day, the family ceded the apartment to stay at a hotel.
A spokesman for Airbnb said in regards to the situation: “We were disappointed to hear about this experience and fully refunded the guest at the time. More than 2 million people check-in to Airbnb listings each night and while negative experiences are incredibly rare, we work hard to make things right when they do occur.”
US Wasp Attack Statistics
According to the CDC, during 2000–2017, a total of 1,109 deaths from hornet, wasp, and bee stings occurred, for an annual average of 62 deaths.
Deaths ranged from a low of 43 in 2001 to a high of 89 in 2017. Approximately 80 percent of the deaths were among males.
According to a study by Ohio State University (pdf), an estimated 1-2 million people in the United States are severely allergic to stinging by insect venom.
It is believed that while only 90-100 stinging related deaths are reported annually, the number may be significantly higher due deaths mistakenly diagnosed as sunstrokes, heart attacks, or other causes.
It is said that more people die each year from insect venom than from spider or snake bites.
Unlike most other allergies, allergic reactions to insects are known to cause fatal disruptions to breathing and circulatory systems, referred to as anaphylactic shock.
