Honeybee Stings

• What is a Sting?
• Protecting Yourself From a Sting
• What Should I Do if I Get Stung?
• Symptoms
• Treatment for a Regular Sting

What is a Sting?

The thought of being stung by a bee is one aspect of beekeeping that can discourage a potential beekeeper. Bee biology illustrates why:

Picture from Beekeeping in Western Canada (1998)

As this image shows, a bee has a barbed lancet that punctures the skin. Evolution has designed the bee to maximize the amount of venom injected into the target.

Protecting Yourself from a Sting

First, a bee does not want to sting. Her first inclination is not to unsheathe her stinger and poke an unassuming passer-by, because stinging is fatal. Stinging disembowels the bee. (This may be some consolation to anyone who has been stung.)

Stinging is a bee's last line of defense, and she will give plenty of warnings before attacking. She indicates her annoyance first by zigzagging close to your neck and face. Then she bounces off clothes or skin. If she does the latter, walk away calmly and slowly.

Here are rule to follow to prevent stinging:

• Don't swing at, or bat, a bee; this will definitely be seen as an aggressive act.
• Do not wear perfume or cologne; perfume smells like flowers and be attractive to bees.
• Wear light-coloured clothing; bees consider dark colours threatening.
• Wear long-sleeved, bulky clothing; a bee's stinger is only 1/8 of an inch long and the more layers, the better.

What Should You Do If You Get Stung?

Don't panic, a statement that is easily said from a beekeeper.Look closely at your bee sting, to see if the stinger is embedded in the skin.

Do Not Pinch the Stinger!

Do not pinch the stinger. Do not use tweezers to remove the stinger. You will squeeze more venom into the wound if you do. Instead, use a fingernail or a plastic card (like a bank card) to scrape the stinger out.

After a bee has stung, and her abdomen is separated from the stinger, the bee will release an alarm odour. The alarm odour attracts other bees that arrive prepared to attack, making it a good idea to leave the area after you have been stung. (Scientists who have studied this odour believe it smells like bananas. (I refrain from eating bananas in my bee yard as a precaution. I have no evidence this works, but it makes me feel better.)

Symptoms

A normal reaction to a bee sting is localized swelling and itchiness. If stung regularly, most people become desensitized to the venom and react less. However, some individuals are fatally allergic to bee venom. Such sensitivity is usually indicated when symptoms occur in parts of the body other than the immediate area of the sting.

These symptoms include:

• Constriction of breathing passages
• Itching and hives
• Wwelling way from the bee sting
• Nausea, and/or abdominal cramps
• Dizziness and confusion that may lead to unconsciousness and anaphylactic shock

Treatment for a Regular Sting

The best treatment is to refrain from scratching and to apply ice to the area. Scratching will spread the bee venom in the skin, affecting a larger area. I once scratched a sting and in a few hours I had a red, hot, grapefruit-sized mass on my arm. Applying ice helps to alleviate the itch and mitigates the pain. Topical ointments can be use, but the best thing is to avoid getting stung in the first place.