What to do for bee stings?

Question

What can I do to get fast relief from a bee sting?

Answer 1

If stinger is in wound, make sure you remove it, as already described in your answers.

There are lots of remedies.  I use baking soda with water to make a paste.  But if you are in the field and get stung, you'll want a more immediate solution.  

Chew plantain leaves to make a paste and put on the sting.

Or use mud.  

Also mentioned are an onion, or a tomato slice, or egg yolk, or vinegar (that surprised me), or honey.

I've heard you can use mayonnaise, which makes sense because of its ingredients.

If you are not allergic to bee sting and have arthritis, you can rejoice because bee venom is an old treatment for arthritis.

Answer 2

Scrape out the stinger. One of the best ways to remove a stinger--and avoid any additional pain--is to "scrape"--it out of the skin with a credit card, a knife or a long fingernail, advises John Yunginger, M.D., professor and pediatrics consultant at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. "The biggest mistake people make is trying to pull the stinger out. In doing that, you squeeze the tiny venom sac attached to the stinger and accidentally release more venom into your skin." If you scrape the stinger out, this sac goes undisturbed.

Rub an aspirin on the sting. "Rubbing a wet aspirin on the area where you were stung can help neutralize some of the inflammatory agents in the venom," says Herbert Luscombe, M.D., professor emeritus of dermatology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and senior attending dermatologist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, both in Philadelphia. If you are allergic or sensitive to aspirin taken by mouth, though, you shouldn't try rubbing it on your skin.

Get tender relief with meat tenderizer. "Make a paste with meat tenderizer and water and apply it to the sting," says Philip Koehler, Ph.D., an entomologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Laboratory at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "The reason meat tenderizer works is because insect bites and stings are made up of protein--and meat tenderizer breaks down this protein." Use Adolph's, McCormick or another product that contains papain--the active venom-busting ingredient.

Answer 3

Check this article out.  It looks pretty helpful for your problem:

http://www.slate.com/id/2088863/

Answer 4

Mix baking soda and water and pour it on the bee sting.

Answer 5

I always heard spit from tobacco helps alot.

Answer 6

put mud on it

Answer 7

Baking soda and water, smokeless tobacco works, chew some and then rub it on the sting.  

Answer 8

Put salt on it.

Answer 9

Make a paste out of baking soda and water and place it on the spot.  It will help draw out the bee venom which will give you some relief.  Taking an antihistamine (if you aren't allergic) will help too.

Good luck and I hope you feel better soon,

Tex

Answer 10

I have been keeping honey bees for several years now and i feel pretty confident about answering this one. Some form of benidryl or antihistamine will help with the itching and possibly the swelling if taken soon after the sting. You will receive lots of input about thinngs like meat tendorizer, tobacco,baking soda an other topical treatments. they are all just wives tales. I have tried and they none seam to work. the venom of a wasp is different than that of a honey bee. a honey bees venom is an irritant used to defend the hive while a wasps venom is used to kill its prey. My best advice is to not rub or scratch and let it run its course. it is normal for it to be sore for a coupel of days

I have had one itch for as little as a few minuts or as long as a weak

Answer 11

There is a certain sting cream, go into your chemist and ask for stuff to relieve bee stings. Then leave it. DON'T SCRATCH IT, IT WILL MAKE IT WORSE>  

Answer 12

Scratch a flat surface along your skin to scratch it out.  If you have pulled it out, you have squeezed more venom into the wound.  If you are allergic, seek medical attention immediately and keep the sting below your heart to avoid blood from traveling there quickly.  If you have epinephrine, inject it into your leg as prescribed.  If it just hurts, rub some prickly pear juice on it.  It should relieve it.  Or use some ointment like Neosporin Pain Relief.

Answer 13

Rub mud on it. It will remove the stinger and the poison