I received my club newsletter this week. In this material was a recomendation from an M.D. for using pennies taped to a bee sting site for 15 minutes and no swelling etc. Curious to see if anyone out there has tried this method.
Konasdad, well, I am certainly going to give that a whirl, should I need it. Too bad I didn't know about it when my eyelid got stung!!!! lol. Best of this beautiful day, great life, great health. Cindi
Quote from: Cindi on May 09, 2007, 10:32:03 AM
Konasdad, well, I am certainly going to give that a whirl, should I need it. Too bad I didn't know about it when my eyelid got stung!!!! lol. Best of this beautiful day, great life, great health. Cindi
Putting coins over your eyes will mimic the old practice of doing that on a dead person. All you'd need to do is lay down for a nap with your arms crossed over your chest and you'd scare the bejibbers out of anyone who saw you!!
It's probably the copper and not that it is a penny is what would do what ever it does to keep it from doing what it would do if you didn't do what you did. If you need further explanation just ask. ;)
since i've tried the "hot nail" method, i'm really not interested in any other. and just today i saw a pen shaped gadget against mosquito bites, it says that the point gets to 47°C and a mosquito bite is no more a problem, i guess it would work for bee-stings aswell.
I use a bleach pen. It really does work :-D
Well - I got stung twice today (~20 mins ago). Once in each leg just above the calf. Yes I was wearing shorts - very smart of me ;)
I've got benedryl cream and pennies on the stings, so I'll let you know how that works for me.
I think this is the 2nd and 3rd time I've ever been stung. The first was when I was a little kid and I don't remember it too well (surprisingly).
Now I know what you mean by the burning and itching. I'll have to quickly do a search for the "hot nail" method while they are still fresh.
I was taking a mite-count-sticky-paper thing out from my mentor's hive (he's away for a few weeks), and figured I could just jimmie it out with some tweezers really quick-like. WRONG! :D
Ugh, I was stung today, underarm, below the bicep...I was weeding in the garden...guess I didn't see her...My second time ever, and it hurts. I ran into the house and found a penny, placed the penny on for a bit...it wasn't working so I got an ice pack and used it for a while...then when I looked at the sting site in the mirror, I could see where I had pressed the penny...It was WAY off base! I am going to get a presciption for EMLA cream. We use that in the hospital to numb the skin before IV starts on kids and some adults...Good news, I am not allergic..bad news..lost a bee...
The penny thing was a bogus email that went around again after bees were in the news
you can check it out on snopes or fact or fiction sites.
everyone I know sent me that email last week.
:)
Since plantain works better than I can imagine anything working, I don't bother with anything else...
I have tons of plantain growing out here..just smoosch the leaves and put it on the sting?
Well 6 hours since gotten stung, putting benedryl ointment and the pennies (urban legend?) on it, the stings are a little red, a tiny bit tender, but better than I thought. No swelling 8-)
I'm excited to try some of your suggestions, but don't go too far out there ;)
Michael, I know that plantain works for stuff. When the kids get mosquitoe bites, we run for the plantain. I far well know that it would work for bee stings too, why not, think about it, insect venom. Best of a beautiful day, great llife and good health. Cindi
I never tried it but......
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4873609.html
I think bees are mentioned here...
http://venomshock.wikidot.com/snake-bites-on-humans
Well what works best for me is the old baking soda and water treatment, soon as i put it on it goes away, that what i learn to use from my grandparents
Personally, I always used the hottest water I could take on the sting for about 8 minutes. Works great. Sometimes you can't immerse the location so I came across this idea is all. Tried plantain once and it worked okay, not as good as hot water, but available at the hive area and convenient.
>..just smoosch the leaves and put it on the sting?
Yes
beekeeperrookie. Baking soda and water, how about good old calamine lotion (LOLL), except I don't like the pink. Have a great day, wonderful life, good health. Cindi
I know Dallas has tried silver dollars, he doesnt have anything smaller!
Plantain works on bee stings, so does comfrey. In either case crush the leaves and apply directly to the sting site. The comfrey leaf is large enough to wrap around a finger, hand, or arm so is probably the easiest to apply.
Brian, now that is interesting about comfrey. Another use for this beauty. I have an enormous mother plant of this stuff. It is now blooming, what a beautiful plant. I find the bombus loves it more than any other pollinator. I have to cut this 5 foot jungle down twice a summer, it is wonderful for the compost pile, full of nutrients for the soil!!!!
When we first moved into our home about 17 years ago, comfrey had overtaken many parts of an area. I over the year had done much cleanup with the comfrey that had overtaken, and I am not exagerating. I used roundup as it was so deeply invaded. I left a small clump that I have always controlled by digging out roots. NOw the comfrey can grow wild in the spots where I throw the root cuts and it does, it can grow to its hearth content.
I know that comfrey tea, once upon a time, was used for a soothing nerve drink (and many other uses), but it contains alkoids that can be harmful to the liver, if taken in large amounts, so it is now recommended for external uses only. It can be used for bruising, broken bone pain relief, and many other things. Google comfrey, it is an amazing plant.
The borage that I grow everywhere that the bees love to high heavens is a cousin to comfrey. They both share the droooping blue blossoms that rain does not bother. The bees climb inside to sip the masses of nectar. Borage blooms all summer, self-seeding along as it goes, it ends with frost kill. Borage self-seeds so invasively that it comes up everywhere, once you have this plant, it is yours until the end of time itself, through this self-propogation. My property is a mass of seeds of many of these high nectar/high pollen plants that I sowed last year, I think that the birds carry them too, and the ants. They are germinating and growing like wildfire, along with the seeds that I have sowed this year. Next year, I don't think that I will have to sow any seed, it is all done for me now by nature itself. Yeah!!!!! They can grow in the back 3 acres anywhere that they choose to, it is their choice now, not mine. Have a wonderful day, great life, and beautiful health wishes to all. Cindi
pennie works with amonia or first bite.
hmmm, not alot of copper in pennies nowadays...the old pennies yea...maybe its a metal reaction thing that counteracts the itch...good science question. Of course most wives tales are rooted in some truth.
Quote from: Michael Bush on May 09, 2007, 10:59:51 PM
Since plantain works better than I can imagine anything working, I don't bother with anything else...
I have nephew that has a degree in horticulture - he interested in bees also. He just told me that same thing - I had no idea. He says it'll work on bees stings. One of his Professors is a Master Beekeeper and told him about the plantain. Recently, I seem to have had alot of opportunities to find out.
I haven't been out Identifying plants in a while so I googled a few of the plants mentioned here. I breifly was under the missunderstanding that commom mullein (prolific in my yard) was plantain... oopps! the links below are pictures and herbalists comments.
thanks, Bee1
http://www.redmoonherbs.com/articles/plantain.php
http://www.learningherbs.com/bee_sting_remedy.html
http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/p/placom43.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfrey
http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/common_mullein.htm
http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/mulgre63.html
Bee1, you took some time to set in some very good sites. I checked them out, awesome. The common mullein grows everywhere eh? Evidently the bees love this plant, personally I have never seen them on it, but then perhaps it is like buckwheat, which is only attractive to bees mornings and late afternoons. Something to watch for. Have a wonderful day, great life, great health wishes to all. Cindi
Hi Cindi, The mullein does grow great, and I love it because it is so big, however, i don't let every plant grow in my yard - I'm afraid it would take over, we keep just a few. I haven't seen a bee on it yet either, that will be interesting to watch.
Quote from: Cindi on May 16, 2007, 10:34:05 AM
... but then perhaps it is like buckwheat, which is only attractive to bees mornings and late afternoons.
And cool about buckwheat, I'll have to watch that too. We use/have used that as cover crop/soil enhancer in our veg. garden.
Bee1
Would some one please come over to my house and show me where this stuff is growing? I keep hearing that it is everywhere. I guess I just don't know what I am looking for. Nothing matches the pictures.
Jerrymac, I thought maybe you lived outside the plant range, but it just ain't so.
http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/bi/2000/Ethnobotany/common_plantain.html
Maybe someone who lives closer will take you on a plant identification hike.
-Bee1
As luck or misfortune would have it...I asked my DH before he mowed the meadow, to leave the comfrey and large plantain...Next morning, I notice before he mowed that my beloved deer had mowed those plants for me! HAHAHAHA...those deer, my goodness, I am happy they do not like honey ( or do they )?
I enjoyed looking at those site Bee1...
And to the fellow whose eyes got red and such...have your EpiPen ready...911 may not be enough for you next time...hhhhmmm
Peace
Sharon, I am sure that deer don't like honey. We have deer around our area too, but since we had the back landscaped and so much underbrush removed, they don't come here anymore. I don't mind one little bit. They can be such a nuisance with regard to eating things that they should not, and our place is too big for all the guys around here to pee around to keep them at bay :evil: Have a wonderful day, great life, great health. Cindi