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Wasps swarm Muncie couple's wheelchair ramp

A Muncie couple was swarmed and stung by wasps living under their wheelchair ramp.

MUNCIE, Ind. (WTHR) - A Muncie couple is so concerned after a wasp attack they won't go up the ramp to their side door.

In Muncie's Middletown Gardens, we asked the Asberrys if we could walk up the ramp. "You can but don't get too close. The bees will get you," said Susan.

The wasps got Susan Asberry, her husband Michael and their little dog Pepper this week.

We asked if she was worried about the wasps.

"Yes, yes I about died. I lost my pulse in the ambulance," said Susan, a visiting home health aid and cares for her husband Michael who suffered a stroke.

Susan says Michael noticed a sound on Monday. A buzz, Susan said.

"I heard a humming before but I just thought it was over there."

But now they've learned it was coming from under his wheelchair-accessible ramp. A buzzing sound. They reported it to management at Muncie's HUD office. But the next day, without warning, Susan says, "They just attacked me. They swarmed me. They went in my hair and they attacked me all over. Especially my hair, and all over, just started stinging me. I started screaming."

Stung over 35 times, she says. They went for Michael, too. He was stung 10 times.

And Pepper, at least 40 stings, she says. "We're trying to get to her. I had to run out the other door with bees on me. I ran and got Pepper loose."

She says the mailman grabbed the dog and got the wasps off of her, but Pepper is still in the animal hospital with complications.

"It's just been a nightmare. Now we're basically homeless," Susan says.

Susan and Michael are afraid to go back up that ramp. They're staying with a friend. They said they're not asking for a lot. They just want a safe place and want the older wooden ramp replaced with a new one. Since Michael uses the wheelchair, this is the only way he can get into the apartment right now.

Even though they say management used a fogger to eliminate the wasps under that ramp they're still seeing them, Michael said. "I don't have any way of knowing if there's another beehive in there."

We've put a call into management, but it's the weekend. We're waiting to hear back.

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