That's How It Happened

In 3 years of beekeeping, I've been stung approximately 30 times. A single sting hurts, but only enough to be mildly annoying. The pain last only around 20 minutes. In my limited experience of stings it's about equal to a horsefly bite, or a (non-fatal) box jellyfish sting. It's not nearly as painful as a South African fire ant bite, which I now very studiously avoid. It is the "middle C" of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, scoring a 2. In comparison the Giant Tropical Bullet Ant scores a 4.0: "Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail in your heel." There's some speculation that the jellyfish Carukia barnesi may be more painful, causing a severe whole body pain, lasting up to 48 hours, known as Irukandji Syndrome (after the tribe in Northern Australia who were the first to be stung). The name of the jellyfish and the aetiology of the syndrome come from a Dr Jack Handyside Barnes. He spent many years self-experimenting with different jellyfish stings around Queensland. Finally in 1961, he captured a Carukia barnesi and deliberately stung himself, his 9-year-old son Nick, and a local lifeguard Chilla Ross. The Smithsonian have more details:

"The three returned to the Barnes family home where, 20 minutes after being stung on the beach, they began to feel the venom’s terrifying effects. Chilla Ross began screaming, “Let me die.” Nick remembers vomiting “as Dad carried me upstairs, then I was lying on a bed swallowing painkillers. I felt pretty terrible”—so terrible, in fact, that he found himself “thinking that dying mightn’t be a bad idea.” But he survived, as did Ross and his father. Three years later, Jack Barnes described the ordeal in the Australian Medical Journal, writing that all three of them had been “seized with a remarkable restlessness and were in constant movement, stamping about aimlessly, swinging their arms, flexing and extending their bodies, and generally twisting and writhing.”

Worst. Parenting. Ever? If you are feeling brave, there's a video of a Discovery researcher writhing in agony having been stung.

Labels: jellyfish