Bee sting

What is a bee sting?

Symptoms of a bee sting

Remedies / treatment for bee sting

References

What is a bee sting?

Bees are flying insects familiar for pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. There are nearly 20,000 known species of bees in seven to nine recognized families, with many additional species not yet identified.

A bee sting is the sting of one of these true bees.

There are many other related stinging insects, such as the wasp, yellowjacket and sawfly. All their stings can be painful. The most aggressive stinging insects are vespid wasps (including bald-faced hornets) and African bees. All types of bees defend their nests, some more aggressively than others.

A bee sting is different to other insect bites. Bees have different toxic venoms to other biting insects. Therefore the body's reaction to stings and bites may differ significantly from one species of stinging insect to another.

When a honey bee stings a person it dies after making the sting. This is because its stinger screws into your skin like a corkscrew, and cannot easily pull out. When the bee pulls away, its abdomen tears out of its body, instead of its stinger from the victim. When a bee stings an animal or insect with a soft thin skin it can easily pull out its stinger and fly off unharmed.

A honey bee will rarely sting when it is foraging away from its hive. It will normally only sting when roughly handled. However, when close to its hive, it will aggressively defend itself and the hive. When a bee stings it releases alarm pheromones which induce other bees to attack the victim.

Symptoms of a bee sting

• Pain. The sting may be painful for a few hours.
• Swelling and inflammation. Swelling and itching may persist for a week. If the sting area remains inflamed for more than a week, or is larger than 7-10 cm (3-4 "), it may indicate an additional infection or reaction which should be attended to.
• About 2% of all people have a severe anaphylactic allergic reaction and urgently need an antihistamine. This is urgent and life-threatening. Often, these people will carry their own kit. Symptoms include:
  - difficulty breathing, or wheezing;
  - a rash that spreads to areas beyond the sting;
  - swelling around the face, throat or mouth;
  - difficulty swallowing;
  - rapid pulse;
  - dizziness or a sharp drop in blood pressure which may lead to drowsiness or unconsciousness;
  - muscle cramp;
  - sweating;
  - nausea;
  - headache;
  - restlessness and anxiety.

Remedies / treatment for bee sting

• Immediately remove the stinger if it is still lodged in the skin. A delay of a few seconds causes more venom to be injected. It is not important whether you pick it off, or scrape it off. Just do it quickly. (1)
• Wash the area with soap and water then dry.
• Use a cold compress such as ice wrapped in a cloth, to reduce pain and swelling. (2)
• Try not to scratch the stung area.

There is anecdotal evidence that the following remedies may work. Please contribute your experience to Grow Youthful, with a Yes or a No vote.

• Gum turpentine applied to the skin will soothe the sting area.
• Apple cider vinegar.
• Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate).
• Green paw paw.
• Meat tenderiser.
• Toothpaste.
• Tiger balm (whose ingredients include camphor, mint oil, menthol, cajuput (cajeput) oil and clove oil).
• Urine.

References

1. Visscher PK, Vetter RS, Camazine S. Removing bee stings. Lancet. 1996 Aug 3;348(9023):301-2.

2. Balit CR, Isbister GK, Buckley NA. Randomized controlled trial of topical aspirin in the treatment of bee and wasp stings. J Toxicol Clin Toxicol. 2003;41(6):801-8.