Severe reaction to bee stings

[Adam Bee]

The “L” of V&L Honeybee Suppliers (Viktor and Lucy) was dangerously allergic, and as a professional beekeeper, she was successfully desensitised. They have a bbc article on their site that I linked to in another thread, so it is possible.

 

[4sausagedogs]

Many thanks for all your advice etc
I may book an appointment with my Dr and see what they suggest going forwards

 

[Karol]

<Snip>

I spent an evening in a lecture from a guy from my local hospital who does the desensitising courses. It was an extremely interesting talk but what stuck in my mind was his comment that if you have had a reaction it does not mean you will necessarily have one next time you are stung and vice versa. Reactions can be very random.

I suspect one reason may well be whether or not the sting hits a blood vessel.

Another comment he made was statistically beekeepers are most likely to have a reaction after 15 years of beekeeping!

This may be down to older beeks slowing down and spending less time at their apiaries meaning that they get stung less often and lose 'immunity'.

His last point for the evening was that during the previous year only 4 people had died from anaphylaxis caused by bee AND wasp stings in the UK. The figure for the whole of US was 40.

Anaphylaxis is only part of the story. Hymenoptera venom contains compounds that cause mast cells in the body to over react (part of the anaphylaxis pathway). Mast cells are part of the immune system and congregate in the blood vessels supplying the heart especially where there's hardening of the arteries. When mast cells over react for example in response to a bee sting, they release chemicals which can cause plaques in furred up arteries to rupture leading to heart attacks and strokes up to two to three weeks after the sting.

 

[Antipodes]

Interesting Karol. There is a beekeeper here who recently had a sudden anaphylactic reaction to a sting after his xthousandth one, and had to give up. I wonder do the chemicals in the stings build up in the body over time to sometimes suddenly be a problem for some individuals with just one more sting, or does it work another way?

 

[Tomlow bee]

Some years ago, a bee crawled inside my rubber glove and stung me on the inside of my right wrist right by where the blood vessels come close to the surface. I did not feel the sting which is unusual and didn't discover it until over an hour later when my arm started to swell up, then had a rash over most of my body followed by numbness in my checks and mouth. Drove to doctors and was given steroids to take which removed the symptoms.

Not had any reaction since even when i stupidly did not completely do up the zips on my veil and half a dozen bees got in and stung me in my hair. Difficult to apply antihistamine cream to stings in your hair! I still get the occasional sting but not a problem as long as antihistamine cream applied fairly promptly.

 

[bingevader]

1 is too many

Whilst I have the utmost sympathy for your lost, I don't understand your comment.
You still keep bees.
What are you suggesting should be done?

 

[citrus]

Firstly B+ I am so sorry to hear of you loss .. that really is awful.

I have to say that this post is pretty pertinent to me as this weekend we moved 10 hives and sadly towards the end of the move I got a bee or two in the hood and got stung on the lip. Not saying mine is a severe reaction ... but a few stings isnt going to be good news.

Perhaps lifting heavy hives a gap opened up in the suit .. anyway a painful lesson !

So sunday night at 2200 til now are the photos in the link below

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3du5MXYes5UrMuYHA

Took piriteze and pain killers ...basically my tongue and mouth are fine ..so based on previous posts on here I didnt go to a&e etc .... they have enough to do

.. so its just like jbm mentioned ... a touch of the elephantmanitis for a day or so

Lessons learned:

check and check and check suit again
always take anti histamines before a big job
always have some anti histamines in the van

 

[applejack33]

I use Piriton after the event. Works well for me. Local chemist persuaded me to buy "Piriteze" when they were out of stock of Piriton. Told me Piriton would make me drowsy.
The Piriteze leaflet has no mention of insect stings or bites, whereas Piriton does state insect bites. Always check the small print!

 

[B+.]

Whilst I have the utmost sympathy for your lost, I don't understand your comment.
You still keep bees.
What are you suggesting should be done?

They say you have to walk a mile in someones shoes to understand them. I would say; you wouldn't want to.
When something like this happens, you either walk infront of a bus or do something to try to make sense of it. That's what I'm trying to do. If you've seen any of my posts, you'll know that I breed Amc. I'm part of a programme that improves the qualities - the way everyone SAYS they want, but not many really do.

 

[citrus]

I use Piriton after the event. Works well for me. Local chemist persuaded me to buy "Piriteze" when they were out of stock of Piriton. Told me Piriton would make me drowsy.
The Piriteze leaflet has no mention of insect stings or bites, whereas Piriton does state insect bites. Always check the small print!

Well was driving home so that was all i could use but the nhs just mentions taking "oral antihistamines"

https://www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/knowledgebase/antihistamines/

any idea how long you should take them for ..for the duration of the reaction ? .. or is it like a burn ... the first few hours are important and then not so much you can do ?

 

[Poly Hive]

I have no idea if PIRITON is still a drowsy drug but some 20+ years ago I was driving back from north of Inverness to Stonehaven some 130 miles after dropping off some mini nucs. I had gone into a colony to collect some grafting material and frankly got hammered. So... I was persuaded to take two Piriton and by the time I got to Forres I was seeing the lines on the road lifting up and flowing past my left shoulder. Hmmm... interesting thinks I, best stop for a bit so I did and walked a bit and jumped around then got back behind the wheel. A little later the lines were performing again but after a bit they gave up and I made the journey safely getting back about 3-30am.

Be careful with these chems.....

PH

 

[bingevader]

They say you have to walk a mile in someones shoes to understand them. I would say; you wouldn't want to.

My sister died in her early twenties, we watched her suffer for the preceding ten years.
My brother died in his late thirties leaving a wife and three children.
Is there any condition that we couldn't say, "1 is too many" about?

When something like this happens, you either walk infront of a bus or do something to try to make sense of it. That's what I'm trying to do. If you've seen any of my posts, you'll know that I breed Amc. I'm part of a programme that improves the qualities - the way everyone SAYS they want, but not many really do.

Yes, I've seen them. I think it's great. I think we need a strategy across the country for the development and uptake of disease resistant bees.
There's plenty of whining on here directed at us "hobby" bee-keepers, but we're not the ones who are going to be able to make the changes.
I don't have the colonies to breed for a specific trait.
My bees are only as good as the colonies I purchase and the drones my queens then mate with.

 

[coffindodger]

For Poly re Piriton:The anticholinergic properties of chlorphenamine may cause drowsiness, dizziness, blurred vision and psychomotor impairment in some patients which may seriously affect ability to drive and use machinery.
Although bingevader says hobby keepers are not able to make changes, I suspect that if we had direction then we could by virtue of selection of purchases, removal of aggressive queens (& hence drones). Whilst we have beeks such as those who may post on here claiming that we should only have Amxxx then nothing will happen until GM bees are available. Then we will have lovely bees with no genetic variability and vulnerable to every disease going. It is for the knowledgeable and experienced to give good guidance and a clear strategy now before that happens.

 

[B+.]

Although bingevader says hobby keepers are not able to make changes, I suspect that if we had direction then we could by virtue of selection of purchases, removal of aggressive queens (& hence drones). Whilst we have beeks such as those who may post on here claiming that we should only have Amxxx then nothing will happen until GM bees are available. Then we will have lovely bees with no genetic variability and vulnerable to every disease going. It is for the knowledgeable and experienced to give good guidance and a clear strategy now before that happens.

Believe it, or not, two-hive owners have quite a lot of bargaining power because of the size of the market. You just have to be clear about what it is you want to buy. The suppliers will listen if you're determined enough.
IMHO, when you buy a queen, you are doing it for two reasons:
1. The quality of her female offspring.
2. The quality of her male offspring.
There is lots of attention paid to the quality of the workers (productive, disease resistant, non-swarming, docile, etc) but this is only part of the picture. The other female caste includes the queens she may produce. If you are buying a queen for less than ~ £50, she will probably be open-mated. So her daughter queens will only carry 50% on average of her genes. The daughter queens female progeny will, therefore, only have 25% on average. Clearly, raising queens from open mated queens is not a very good strategy.
It may not be immediately obvious, but, the quality of the drones is where you can most impact the quality of bees in your area. The drone has no father so 100% of his genetic material (16 chromosomes) comes from his mother. If all the beekeepers in an area can agree on what they want and flood the area with sister queens of a given line, they should be able to have a significant effect on the drones that virgin queens mate with, and hence the quality of the next generation daughters. This is called "drone flooding" and is one of the techniques employed by commercial queen rearers. Small scale beekeepers can do the same thing, but, you do have to get everyone to agree to follow the same strategy. Not only that, you have to keep doing it year after year. Gradually, you will see an improvement - BUT - a plan is only as strong as it's weakest link and if one member decides to do their own thing, you are all wasting your time.

 

[MartinL]

any idea how long you should take them for .. ?

I take them for as long as the itching is uncomfortable.

But I'm not allergic.


Not really sure why anyone would take painkillers for a bee sting?

 

[eltalia]

"The daughter queens female progeny will, therefore, only have 25% on average."

The anchor of an excellent article.
/thumbs up/

Bill

 

[citrus]

I take them for as long as the itching is uncomfortable.

But I'm not allergic.


Not really sure why anyone would take painkillers for a bee sting?

my face swelled (link to the images in the thread below) up so took ibruprofen but it was never really that itchy .. just couldnt see out of an eye for a while !

 

[MartinL]

took ibruprofen but it was never really that itchy .. !

That really isn't a good idea!
can have negative affects.

 

[4sausagedogs]

Update to the sting episode

I now have an epipen, have to take antihistamines BEFORE going into the hives
Waiting to see an allergy specialist to see if an allergy to the venom or not.

I have to be accompanied by another beekeeper when I’m inspecting.
So Sunday, after over two weeks I can go and see how the hives are doing!
I’m a bit wary but it’s definitely not something I want to give up.....

Moral of the story.... check there are no gaps in your suit!!!