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Thread: Sting Reactions

  1. #1
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    Default Sting Reactions

    So yesterday I had a reasonably bad reaction to a sting.

    Within 15 minutes I was hot, shaking, dizzy, being sick and developed a rather fetching rash and apparently went red as a beetroot. I never felt short of breath or that I was seconds away from keeling over but I did eventually take myself, with the help of a friend off to Hospital to get myself checked out. They gave me a bunch of a steroids and antihistamines kept me in for an hour to make sure I didn't expire and sent met off with a week long course of antihistamines and the somewhat less than helpful advice of "don't get stung if you can help it".

    So I guess the question is, should I be considering packing it in? Is a thicker pair of gloves that the bees can't sting through and being far less tolerant of aggressive colonies enough?

    Might it just have been a one-off reaction or is that a really silly assumption to make?

    I realise that this is an internet forum and the proper thing to do is probably go see my GP before going anywhere near a beehive again, but I've been stung before with no real adverse affects at all and certainly nothing like this so I'd be interested in hearing other peoples experiences and if there are any useful links to what's known about reactions to stings, why it happens and why can get worse.

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    Senior Member HJBee's Avatar
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    Could it be down to the strain of bee etc - I am sure there will be experienced folk far more educated on that than I who will give their views - but to me it's a common sense theory? Glad to hear you are better today, but not that you may feel the need to give it up.
    Last edited by HJBee; 02-07-2012 at 05:32 PM.

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    I'm hoping not to have to, but I don't yet know whether I should consider that a warning or a one-off that might not happen again.

    I've had stings off that colony before with no issues. That reaction came right out the blue, if anything I thought I was getting less of a reaction to stings up until yesterday. Going to Hospital might have been a bit melodramatic, but I felt it was better to be safe.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Nellie View Post
    . Going to Hospital might have been a bit melodramatic, but I felt it was better to be safe.
    Your symptoms are the same as I had. The person with me phoned the equivalent of 999, and a doctor talked him through what to do, whilst he immediately dispatched an ambulance to collect me. The round trip for the ambulance was 1 1/2 hours. The first thing they did on arrival was to give me some injections. They wouldn't have bothered with all that for nothing, so no, you weren't being melodramatic.
    In my case, the village witch was running around screaming that I was vomiting blood. What a waste of a good Medoc!!
    It was the first time I'd had such a reaction, and the rash part covered my whole body. OK, I did have 30 odd stings, but you had the same reaction with one. See a doctor.

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    Nellie you need to get in touch with your local allergy testing team to establish if you realy have developed an alergy and,if you have ,take steps to be de-sensitised.One of our local Ass'n members did exactly that and can now handle his bees confident that he's not going to collapse or worse.He also carries an epipen-but these have a limited shelf life so should be replaced regularly.

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    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Gavin went through a desensitization process after developing a severe reaction and that sorted him out.

    Was this just a routine sting on the hand?
    Not all stings are equal and most of those I get a glancing stings through the nitrile glove or through trousers or a shirt sleeve.
    If the bee gets proper contact it can pump a right bit of venom in.

    As far as I can tell everyone is different with regard to sting reactions and a reaction can come out of the blue.

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    Gavin went through a desensitization process after developing a severe reaction and that sorted him out.

    Was this just a routine sting on the hand?
    Not all stings are equal and most of those I get a glancing stings through the nitrile glove or through trousers or a shirt sleeve.
    If the bee gets proper contact it can pump a right bit of venom in.

    As far as I can tell everyone is different with regard to sting reactions and a reaction can come out of the blue.
    That's definitely true most of the stings you get, you will scrape them, or move the cloth, or they come through a glove.
    When that happens it's very rarely any reaction other than "ouch" then, like on Casualty, its followed by a set of F's B's and C's

    My cat Oliver (sadly gone now) used to regularly bite me (he was bit ill tempered)

    Fortunately he only poisoned my hand once when he sunk his teeth into a finger joint
    That need a week on antibiotics and a severe reduction in his treat ration to sort out,

    Sometimes a bee sting seems to be delivered by an Olympic athlete of a bee, endowed with venom which would not disgrace a tarantula.
    It's when one of those monsters finds the equivalent of the finger joint that real pain and swelling seems to result

    People often have to be desensitised and oddly its true that people who have been stung hundreds of times can suddenly develop severe reactions to stings.

    Old people like me seem less likely to react because their immune systems are not capable of mustering an overreaction to anything LOL!

    Grizzly is right though

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    Quote Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger View Post
    Old people like me seem less likely to react because their immune systems are not capable of mustering an overreaction to anything LOL!
    h
    I wish that was true. :-(..Any sting in soft tissue and I swell.. 8 hour Benadryl helps

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    I can remember my Grandmother reacting very badly to a bee sting in her early seventies -reaction similar to what Nellie has here described + she took on the tempoary appearance of a barage balloon... Being totally distrusting of Doctors she spent the evening sat in our kitchen waiting for "it to pass". This, a solitary sting from a bee which had settled on a sheet on the clothesline, was after approx 40 years of beekeeping having never previously shown any such reaction whatsoever. I don't think we're ever 'home and dry' where possible reactions are concerned but how many of us really give it regular and serious consideration?

    I dread to think of the cumulative number of stings which I've so far got away with but I'm sure it's pretty much a 'numbers game'.



    EDIT: I am in no way suggesting that
    ...spent the evening sat in our kitchen waiting for "it to pass"
    was (or is) a sensible thing to do.
    Last edited by prakel; 03-07-2012 at 07:03 AM.

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    I work my bees bare handed so very very occasionly get a sting.I've kept bees for over 40 years now and have never shown any adverse reactions apart at the very start of my beekeeping when I would swell temporily and itch like fury.That lasted over the first year.Subsequently the reactions diminished until I hardly knew I had/have been stung.I also suffer from hayfever and have to take a regular course of anti-hstamines.I often wonder if this contributes to my non reaction or wether regular odd stings have desensitized me.I am keeping everything crossed that I never show a reaction but still believe in barehanded beekeeping.Don't risk it Nellie-go and get de-sensitized.

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