Strange Sting Reaction

[tillie]

When I got home this evening around 9 - just a little light outside - I got an email from Mel of the Sonny-Mel SHB trap, telling me that if I enlarged the holes in the traps, I would have traps full of dead bees.

Well, on Saturday I installed traps with larger (close to 3/8" holes).

I didn't want to kill bees so I went out in the little light that was left with a veil, gloves and my hive tool.  I didn't think to rubber band my pants' legs.  I only opened one hive, lifted up the inner cover and took out the trap.  No bees were in the trap, thank goodness, although they were crawling all over the outside of the trap.

Suddenly I realized there was a bee under the bottom of the leg of my jeans, stinging the back of my hamstring through my sock.  I went inside and took off my jeans and my sock, but it was a very painful sting and was in longer than my usual sting experience. 

Almost immediately the palms of my hands and the soles of my feet started itching like crazy.  It was so bad, I wanted to tear my palms off and my hands were bright red, as were my feet.  I got in the tub, thinking that might help, but it didn't and the itching went on for about one hour in a desperate way.  Now that it is 2 hours later, my hands and feet don't itch and the area of the sting really hurts.

Strange reaction, huh?

Linda T, still itching in Atlanta

[rdy-b]

look at it this way one less sting to go intill you get amunity  :) hope your back to your self soon sometimes in a medical emergency like this a little wine helps 8-) RDY-B

[JP]

Wow, Tillie what a strange reaction. You must have been worried silly. Glad you're ok.

[tillie]

The wine's a great idea - there's an open bottle in my fridge - one glass and I'm off to dream of bees (hopefully not stinging ones!)

Linda T in Atlanta

[scott]

RDY-B,

Thats good news, at the rate that I am going, it wont be long until I have amunity.??
Hope you feel better Linda.

Scott

[Kathyp]

not strange, but dangerous.  you had a systemic reaction.  on the small end, you get itching, maybe hives, etc.  on the big end, you stop breathing.

your first stop should have been the benadryl and next ice on the spot. 

you may never have such a reaction again, or the next might be worst.  if i were you, i'd get some liquid benadryl and keep it close at hand.  i'd also carry my cell phone with me to the hives.

you have an advantage with your hives being next to the house, but a little forethought could stave off disaster.

[tillie]

I did the Benadryl, but in spite of my Girl Scout be prepared history, my Benadryl expired in 2005 (this is what comes of being a doctor's daughter - meds are usually a no-no) :roll: :roll:

I didn't do the ice. 

It's so odd.  Last week I got stung on the side of my hand and had no reaction at all.  Sometimes I have those large local reactions with itching that goes on for days and other times it's nothing.

The wine is helping  :roll: thanks for the suggestion, rdy-b!

This is a lesson to me - I'll update my Benadryl tomorrow first thing - well maybe second thing - but I will do it.

Linda T in Atlanta

[Kathyp]

i know how the different stings go.....most of the time mine don't do anything but itch a little, but i have had a couple of big nasty ones.  so far, i have been lucky and not had more than large, hot, swelling.

just when i think maybe i'll not have any more bad ones.....i get nailed big!   :)

[Cindi]

Linda, oooh, what a nasty sting reaction.  I know the itchiness that you speak of.  One time I got stung just above the lip.  I had gone to do something without a veil (which I never, ever work the hives without a veil now), it was a disaster. 

I lifted up the second box (this was my first year of beekeeping) and I lifted it straight up.  Well, guess what?  Of course a frame from the beneath box pulled out too.  Now I was left with a frame hanging off the bottom of the box.  Try and get that frame right back into the place where it should have been.  I did it, but man where there some annoyed bees.  I got stung a couple of times, one above the lip and if memory serves me, one near my eye. 

The itchiness that took place in places where the sun don't shine scared the dickens out of me.  I took a shower, thinking that maybe I was simply sweat overloaded or something.  The itchiness got worse.  I drove to our town and told the pharmacist that I needed something for the itchenss caused by bee sting.  Got benedryl.  Took benedryl and went and laid down for a couple of hours.  The itchiness went away quite rapidly, but man oh man alive.  I thought I had the worst case of crabs that I could ever have possibly imagined  :roll:  Always keep benedryl handy, it should actually be in the "hive" kit that we all know we should have nearby when working the bees  :)  Have a wonderful day, I am glad that you did not have a worse reaction than this intense itching.  Cindi

[BeeHopper]

Linda,

That reaction is indeed a departure from your previous reactions. This past Saturday, I donned just a hat and veil ( no smoker ) to add some supers, got stung on the forearm, scrapped off the stinger and went about my business. In less than 1 hour my arm between the elbow & wrist swelled up like Popeye's arms in the cartoon :shock: I had expected to get sick or something, but nothing else happened.
It is now beginning to go down. I am wondering if different types of honeybees have a different chemical makeup in their venom  :? Last year it was the Buckfast, this year, all Italians.

[Kathyp]

beehopper

i am guessing that it has more to do with the amount of venom pumped in, and the location of the sting.  i get stings through my clothes that do nothing but leave a small mark and itch for a few minuets.  the bad ones that were so swollen and lasted for days, were bare skin, sack left behind, dead on strikes.  they were like tillies in that i didn't get the stinger scraped off quickly, and got the full benefit of their poison.

[annette]

Well, dear people,

This has really been an education for me and now I will be more prepared and have some liquid benedryl in my work bucket just in case.

Anyone carry an epi-pen?? (I think that is what they are called). I was thinking of getting one from my dr.

Got stung by a really mean wasp yesterday. Thank god it was not a bad reaction, but I did take a benedryl right away.

Take care
Annette

[DayValleyDahlias]

FYI, if you are going to drink wine after a bee sting, white wine is better as it doesn't stimulate increased histamine release...

Benadryl make strips now, they melt in your mouth, although  theyare 12.5 mgs, you just need to pop more...

We went ahead and got 2 adult Epi-Pen kits ( 2 cartridges in each ) and 2 Pediatric Pens...oh you can also take a Pepcid AC to help block histamine II...

We never know with bee stings eh?

[BeeHopper]

Wow  :shock:
I have never put much thought into Bee Stings other than to expect them. I think I will carry the benadryl.

Hey BeeMaster, how 'bout a BEE STING 101 section  :-D

[KONASDAD]

Last year I saw a bee sting my wrist, only I felt the pain about a foot up my arm and on the other side. My arm blew-up and I got staph infection. I did a little research, and if you have an extraordinary initial reaction to a sting, you might have a sting where the bee has gotten into something infectious to you. Dirty water, or spoiled trash etc. I think you had a similar experience. I get stung, and not much reaction unless its in a tender part. Also, the best bee sting reducer is MB's suggestion, plantain weed. Chew it for a second or two, place glob on spot and rub, no reaction w/in a minute or less. Also works on all types of bug bites and minor skin reactions to the great outdoors-nettles, scartches and the like. Great stuff. Second best, hot water as hot as you can stand it for a few minutes.

[Brian D. Bray]

The reactions I get definitely vary due to loction of the sting site.  I can get stung on hands, arms, and legs with no reaction.  Get stung directly over a blood vessel and I swell a bit.  In more sensitive spots like lips and near eyes I swell a fair amount.  The other factor is time, the longer the stinger remains in the skin the more likely of swelling.  The itching is more likely to occur at or near a nerve location.

That's my evaluatiion after nearlly 50 years of beekeeping.

[Cindi]

Colloidal silver water for the pain and sting, of  guess what?  The stinging nettle itself!!!!!  Yeah, ha, gotta love this liife we're livin'  Beautiful life, beautiful day.  Cindi (with an "i")  :)

[Ocean]

Hey tillie , i'm glad you posted this, because here is what happened to me, last week i was gardening by the hives, as usual not wearing anything.. Out of nowhere i get stung in the neck.. i really never panic or get excited about the sting, but this time i actually ran into the house and was stressing out about the sting and how should iget it out, because i couldn't see it. Well after maybe 3 minutes i finally got the stinger out. After all this stress, i started thinking why did i get stung in the first place, after another 5 minutes or so, i start feeling all itchy , my head started to itch, and my whole body, i'm thinking it's because of dirt or maybe i missed my shower, so i quickly jump into the shower and start scrubbing myself.. this was the best scrubbing i ever had lol, i could'nt stop scrubbing because i was itching all over... well now these thoughts come into my head.. what is going on... i come out the shower and look at my face and my arms, starting to get some red spots, so now iam thinking i'm in trouble... all these different thoughts coming into my head about alergic reactions blah blah blah, i run into cvs and start talking to the pharmacist, she recommended benadryl, but warned me that i should'nt be driving, because it would make me drowsie.. I needed to go to school, and work later that day, so i decided that i will pass, i came into my car, looked at myself in the mirror and thought to myself that this came upon me worse than it really is, because of the panic i developed within my head :(. I made an agreement with myself that i won't itch my body anymore and ignore the reaction, after about 1 hour i was compeltely over the reaction and itch went away... I've been beekping 3 years, once i got stung maybe 30 times, when i was working with bees that were attacked by the bear, and i felt kinda of high, but wasn't itching, but this one sting to my neck caused this huge reaction. I don't know my conclusion is not to stress the sting, if you do get stung, because many people start stressing out, and thats the experiance that we actually afraid of, rather than anything else...

good luck
eldar

[annette]

Boy I have to agree with you Ocean that the mind can play havoc with most anything and especially something that hurts. Staying calm and not being attached to the reaction goes a long way in healing.

Annette

[Kathyp]

on the other hand....the adrenalin he released might have saved him...the internal epi-pen  :-)

just had to do it...couldn't help it.....:-)