Bee stings

[HARoberts]

Has anyone experienced their reactions to bee stings getting worse over time? A couple of years ago when I was stung I would get a little localised swelling. Now, I still get localised swelling and also a tickly/itchy sensation in my throat and joints. And, weirdly with the last two stinging occasions I’ve woken up the next morning with terrible back pain which has lasted weeks - and it’s not from humping the boxes around as I get my hubby to do that
Thanks

 

[user 819]

Sounds like your body is becoming less tolerant to them, might be worth speaking to the medical profession in case a reaction becomes more severe.

 

[Bluebell1985]

Anecdotally I heard beekeepers are supposed to suffer less severe reactions over the years and even develop resistance to age related conditions such as arthritis.

 

[pargyle]

My tolerance has improved over the years and I hardly react to stings on my hands and arms but stings to my face do produce a lot of swelling. People react differently to bee stings and there have certainly been cases on here where people have become more allergic as time has passed. The itchy throat is a strong sign of an allergic reaction and you should be very cautious about this as full blown anaphylactic shock is life threatening.

Do you taken any medication and has that changed ? I take tablets for hay fever as I suffer badly - ran out of my usual Loratadine and had to take Citrizine Hydrochloride for a while and I found that bee stings were more pronounced when I was taking the different tablets.

 

[HARoberts]

My tolerance has improved over the years and I hardly react to stings on my hands and arms but stings to my face do produce a lot of swelling. People react differently to bee stings and there have certainly been cases on here where people have become more allergic as time has passed. The itchy throat is a strong sign of an allergic reaction and you should be very cautious about this as full blown anaphylactic shock is life threatening.

Do you taken any medication and has that changed ? I take tablets for hay fever as I suffer badly - ran out of my usual Loratadine and had to take Citrizine Hydrochloride for a while and I found that bee stings were more pronounced when I was taking the different tablets.

Thanks. No I don’t take medication generally but I do take piriton when I get stung to alleviate the symptoms.

 

[spiderplantman]

I was absolutely fine (save for the swelling etc) for the first four or five times I got stung, and then one day I rocked up to a hive to put an entrance reducer in because of wasps and foolishly didn't suit up thinking I'd only be there at most four seconds. Took longer than expected as the reducer had swelled in the rain so it was tricky to get in. After several minutes faffing, two bees came out and stung me between mouth and nose. Quite right too. The hubris!

Felt fine at first, got back home, started feeling panicky and nervous, then whole body came out in an instant rash that was so itchy you would have thought I was Lady Macbeth trying to get blood stains off. Then got breathless and that was the point we called 111, and they got the ambulance round asap and had a trip off to A&E.

Long story short, now have a pair of Epipens and a proper pukka bee-suit and I wear wellies and gloves for ALL inspections and even routine little piddly jobs near the hives. Also booked on an anti-bee-venom-allergy treatment.

Of course, since then, I've been stung (through the veil when collecting a swarm) and had no reaction at all, so I don't know if the venom was particularly potent that day and it was the double-sting dose wot done it...

I did see something the other day about an angry bee can increase the potency of its venom, as opposed to a reactive-sting, so perhaps it was me winding them up with the reducer got them to brew up a mankiller dose. No idea - better brains than me on here might know if this is true.

Edit: Angry bees produce more protein-dense venom - phys.org

 

[Ian123]

Anecdotally I heard beekeepers are supposed to suffer less severe reactions over the years and even develop resistance to age related conditions such as arthritis.

Some indeed do develop resistance. Others can go the other way, my mother did and gave up. That’s how I ended up with about 12 hives to run aged 12 or 13. Ian

 

[juliabusybee]

Has anyone experienced their reactions to bee stings getting worse over time? A couple of years ago when I was stung I would get a little localised swelling. Now, I still get localised swelling and also a tickly/itchy sensation in my throat and joints. And, weirdly with the last two stinging occasions I’ve woken up the next morning with terrible back pain which has lasted weeks - and it’s not from humping the boxes around as I get my hubby to do that
Thanks

 

[juliabusybee]

Hi
Alarm bells are ringing !!
This sounds like you are possibly heading for an anaphylactic shock art sometime in future
This is what happened to my husband and it’s something you really want to avoid as you can’t get an epipen from drs until after you’ve had an anaphylactic shock .. believe me it’s mega scary …
x

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

you can’t get an epipen from drs until after you’ve had an anaphylactic shock .

Not true

 

[Markthebuilder]

Every time I think I I’m becoming resistant/ Emune My next sting that has me swelling up like a balloon

 

[drex]

Allergic reactions can go either way over time. In my opinion the OP should speak with their doctor as it sounds like a systemic reaction ( affecting sites distant to the site of the sting) , and could turn nasty.
Epipens are prescription only at the discretion of the Doctor , and that will vary from doc to doc.
Dr. Ex.

 

[GuyNir]

Not true

Agree, not true. I routinely get Epipen from my GP.

 

[thorn]

Anecdotally I heard beekeepers are supposed to suffer less severe reactions over the years and even develop resistance to age related conditions such as arthritis.

I wish.

 

[Bluebell1985]

I wish.

Haha I read it whilst doing some form of report at uni many years ago. I'm going to keep telling myself it's true as it's one of the selling points I've used to convince my partner to let me keep bees. SHHHHH

 

[bobba]

This is eactly why I am a full-armored keeper. Gloves boots, cap, sleeve protectors.

I just try to reduce stings as far as possible, I know I wont stop them all.

Only been stung once this season, 4 got under my not properly zipped up vial. I managed to squash 3 of them, the other had gone ontop of my cap and was later releced. But I got stung through the viel by another bee in the panic.

 

[user 819]

Nice bees/stock help in reducing stings as does being at one with them.

 

[Newbeeneil]

My reactions have reduced over time from swelling for 12 hours and itching for 4 days when I started 6 years ago to forgetting where I've been stung within 15 mins now.

Interestingly I went to a talk by a specialist who deals with stings and runs a clinic to built immunity a few years back. It was a brilliant talk but one interesting fact he quoted was that data from French beekeepers indicated that those beekeepers who were most likely to suffer from an anaphylactic shock had been keeping bees for about 15 years. Before and after that time the likelyhood was reduced.
He couldn't tell why this was the case, just that's what the data indicated. Statistics eh?

 

[The Poot]

This year I got stung on the ankle (bees in my boots) and the main swelling occurred to the back of my head - the site of previous / last stings!
My palms itched like crazy too - both signs of allergic reaction. Scary. So bought “stingproof” suit. Was stung through it on my shoulder blade last week, with no reactions

 

[user 819]

Like you Neil a sting is lost on me after a while, not had many this year, think about three possibly.