Wasps 'attracted by pensioner's hearing aid' ...................~Wise

Wasps 'attracted by pensioner's hearing aid'

A Gloucestershire pensioner says a swarm of wasps attacked him as he was gardening, after being attracted by his hearing aid.

Ron Packer, 82, was pruning in his garden in Stroud, when he disturbed the wasps' nest and was stung on his hands.

He moved some 10ft away to examine the stings when a swarm of wasps came at him and clustered around his hearing aid, stinging him eight times.

Mr Packer said: "They stung me at the front and back of my hearing aid area and really homed in on it. I was badly stung and was left with a boxer's cauliflower ear.

"I did think that it's something that should be drawn attention to, so people could turn the hearing aid off if anything like that happened."

Mr Packer said it was lucky he was pretty agile, and could get away from the insects. He has had the NHS hearing aid for 30 years and says it is very powerful.

Duncan Collett-Fenson, from the Association of Independent Hearing Healthcare Professionals, told the Gloucester Citizen: "There could be a connection. If Mr Packer's hearing aid had worked its way loose during his gardening then it could have been prone to feedback.

"That would have made a very high-pitched whistling or buzzing sound that the wasps could have picked up on." But he added: "Hearing aid users shouldn't worry too much about this."

Don Streatfield, from the Gloucestershire Beekeepers Association, said: "Wasps and bees are attracted to electrical goods, particularly ones that vibrate. And they attack in swarms, because when they sting they emit a pheromone, or chemical, telling the other wasps to help them."

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