Overreaction to bee stings: can leatrile help?

[marion.orca]

Is there a difference in the strength of the venom from each bee ? , as in some bee venom is more potent than others from the same colony. The reason I ask is, after a hive inspection yesterday, I was stung on my finger whilst in the process of suiting up and lighting the smoker, so just wasn't quite ready for the one that zoomed over on a kamikaze mission with the full intention of seeing me off before I'd even started. I then got another through my jeans on my thigh. The difference in my bodies reaction to both of these was amazing - just a small red dot on my leg - no swelling, but huge swelling on my finger and back of the hand, which hasn't really gone down at all overnight. I do take anti-histamines every day, as I have a bad reaction to midges, which I think will also help with any bee venom reaction. Or is it just that parts of the body are more sensitive than others ? one thing is for sure though - it won't be doing it again !

[gavin]

All of the above Marion. Individual bees vary at least because as they mature they have more venom in their venom sacs, maybe some are just different anyway. More than likely the exact spot stung has a bearing on how bad the effect is, and certainly some parts of the body are much more sensitive than others (I'm thinking face, tender parts of the arms and the main part of the body before anyone starts!).

Also the state of the person or his/her surroundings. I say this because the reaction to a controlled dose while I was being desensitised varied unpredictably rather than gradually changing over time as the concentration rose. I'm assuming that the dose used was controlled.

Plus there's the generally accepted fact that the first stings of the year are worse than after your body has acclimatised.

[Neils]

I agree, stings to my hands (and face!) normally swell up a lot, elsewhere it's much less of a problem. It's been explained to me before, simply that bony bits of you (like hands and face) tend to react worse because there is far less muscle to "absorb" the venom so the reaction is concentrated into a much smaller area and can only go in one direction so hence looks and feels a lot worse than getting stung on the leg or body.

I do think that venom potency varies between bees and I think that flyers tend to be the worst, also the depth of the sting and how quickly you can get it out also seems to me to make quite a difference.

I can't claim at the moment that my reaction gets any better over the course of summer, sometimes a seemingly innocuous sting will balloon up while one that feels much worse passes with hardly any reaction at all.

[marion.orca]

Thanks for the replies - I can see now the logic in the surface area of the sting and the more sensitive areas. It did puzzle me as I'd never had a reaction like that before - so I'm not, after all a peculiar form of human !

[Neils]

Well, we didn't like to say.

[The Drone Ranger]

On a training course I attended a girl was stung on the top of the head
Her reaction to that sting was quite unusual
First as the bee got into her hair she ran round the group (at speed) screaming
then she ran some distance away in a straight line
When she was barely visible she turned round and ran all the way back
The venom was taking affect as she leapt in the air and came down on her bottom.
She covered her head with her hands and proceeded to cry her eyes out
She went on to be a pretty good beekeeper (well pretty at least)

The best plan if stung is alwars slide the hive tool along the skin to the sting and scape it away as soon as you fell it prick you
With jeans they can trigger a pretty crazed attack once the bees get going because they seem just the right kind of weave to let stings through
And although they don't get as deep into you other bees seem to join in the stinging much more readily till you look like a pin cushion