Father of two dies after being attacked by a swarm of wasps

Farmer disturbed wasp nest while he moved a bale of silage.

A ROSCOMMON MAN died in hospital hours after being attacked by a swarm of wasps.

Forty-seven-year-old Oliver Gacquin, a father of two, was attacked by the swarm when he moved a bale of silage at his farm near Curraghboy in Co. Roscommon last Wednesday, while his father and 13-year-old son looked on.

He was buried yesterday, the Irish Daily Mirror reports.

Gacquin’s 86-year-old father, John told the Irish Daily Star what happened:

He just couldn’t get the wasps out quickly enough. We live just 250 yards away and he ran into the kitchen of our house trying to swat them out of his hair with a towel. My wife told him to run out quick to his own house and get in the shower to cool his head, and that’s what he did…By the time I arrived he was already slumped down in the shower.

It’s thought Oliver Gacquin may have suffered an allergic reaction. Allergy experts say it is rarely the first sting that causes the allergic reaction, so people should always watch for signs such as feeling faint.

Such deaths are extremely rare, although a British farmer, Mark Evison, died in a similar fashion last summer. Symptoms may include feeling faint, tingling, feeling faint or even collapsing and vomiting.