I had a very good reason for semi-stripping in the middle of the school run – Hayley Matthews

After I parked outside the school the other day, close to an overgrown hedge that spills out onto the pavement, I jumped out the car, opened the back door, grabbed my rain jacket off the back seat and swung it round my back to put it on.
Wasps are important pollinators but Hayley Matthews' is not quite as keen on them as she once was (Picture: Getty Images)Wasps are important pollinators but Hayley Matthews' is not quite as keen on them as she once was (Picture: Getty Images)
Wasps are important pollinators but Hayley Matthews' is not quite as keen on them as she once was (Picture: Getty Images)

What I didn't notice was the swarm of angry wasps pinging out the hedge like something from Angry Birds.

I also didn't notice the few I scooped up in my jacket whilst putting it on until they started stabbing me in the back with their little stingers.

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If you've never been stung by a wasp before, trust me you will know when it happens! It's a stabbing, piercing, burning pain that sends you into a bit of a panic.

As I saw them flying past my face, I realised it was wasps and without giving it a second thought, proceeded to strip my handbag, jacket and t-shirt off over my head, whilst screaming in the middle of the road.

Suddenly I realised that, in the shock of the moment, I'd taken off almost all of my clothes (except a bra top and leggings).

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Join Morgan Freeman in the fight to save the bees! – Hayley Matthews

I'd been so desperate to make sure a wasp wasn't up my T-shirt that I semi-stripped amid the parent stampede towards the school gates.

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Mortified! What makes this harder to take is I've always been in "team pollinators", saving the bees and wasps, going about with a mobile sugar-water unit to keep them hydrated in the warm weather.

Well that was until they literally stabbed me in the back. So I'll carry on saving the bees but think I’ll be bodyswerving the wasps in future!

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