Systemic Sting Reactions

[JamezF]

I’m very similar, I find the worst reaction is from multiple stings on my wrists. It’s about the only place I get swelling.

You can get pills to help with that these days...

James

 

[Newbeeneil]

You can get pills to help with that these days...

James

Yes but I find the odd sting helps and the pain is only 7.3 on the Michael Smith pain map!

 

[JamezF]

A couple of weeks back when I was scooping a second swarm off the front of a bait hive (dumping the bees into the top of another hive) I was stung through my marigolds on the side of the middle finger of my left hand. That was astonishingly painful initially, but fortunately because of the gloves little venom was actually delivered and within a couple of hours there was no indication of it ever having happened. Given that the last three times I've been stung were on the left temple, on the end of my chin and in the crease of my left elbow (I still even have a slight scar from that one) I was shocked at how painful it was when the sting took place.

James

 

[sarahcorlett2566]

I’ve had a pretty crap last few weeks as a bee keeper. Firstly, got stung right in the middle of my head (not by my bees I hasten to add - I was at the community apiary). I was fine all the rest of that day then the following morning my forehead had swollen and by the evening, my face was bad enough for my boyfriend to insist I went to the local hospital where they gave me an antihistamine injection saying the swelling would go down in 20 mins. Following morning, even worse but after three more days it was back to normal. I’ve been stung lots of times before and only localised itching at worst.

After that, checking my two hives, merrily adding a super on each that were filling up nicely, dealt with a horribly bulbous frame (my fault, not putting back the dummy at the end of last year and leaving too much space between frames) and both hives having lots of space, two thirds filled supers and a couple of undrawn frames each in the brood, armed with two new supers with lovely new foundation to pop on top, sure that the supers would be filled by now, only to find at my inspection last week, absolutely no brood of any kind in either hive. No sign of swarm behaviour - one hive had one central QC, the other a couple of central QCs, loads of space. Aggggh! I’m hoping I will see eggs and larvae next inspection.
Oh, and the piece de resistance, I was given a small colony found in a tree and in transferring them to my hive, I swapped frames with my friend who’d found them and used his frames, and he advised that I had used the wrong top bar for the brood frames (I’ve got 14 x 12s and had the wider top bar but hadn’t realised). I salvaged the situation and converted the ones I hadn’t fitted with foundation to supers, rather well I thought.

Oh, and repaired the broken foundation I bought (not packed well and all sheets had a crack down one side).

Not a great few weeks!

UPDATE: checked the hives today and one of the previously broodless hives now has larvae and capped brood. Hoorah! The other is still broodless but spotted an empty QC that looked like it had accommodated something so hopefully there is a queen in there somewhere, finding her feet and her ovaries!

 

[Norton]

Note that NSAIDs can create a severe allergy to bee stings that lasts from 3 to 6 months after taking medication. Be careful with those pills.
(I'm unable to provide a study to support this).

 

[IndiBee]

Note that NSAIDs can create a severe allergy to bee stings that lasts from 3 to 6 months after taking medication. Be careful with those pills.
(I'm unable to provide a study to support this).

Well that is very interesting as my friend takes Ibuprofen (an NSAID apparently)
And I found a mention of a letter published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, about this - "The authors describe three lifelong beekeepers with tolerance to stings who suffered systemic allergic reactions when they were stung shortly after consuming NSAIDs."
https://www.consultant360.com/story/nsaids-may-provoke-systemic-allergic-reactions-bee-stings
Also

https://www.annallergy.org/article/S1081-1206(10)01056-2/fulltext

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Note that NSAIDs can create a severe allergy to bee stings that lasts from 3 to 6 months after taking medication. Be careful with those pills.
(I'm unable to provide a study to support this).

I was on NSAIDS for over five years and it never affected me to be honest.

 

[IndiBee]

Update
Of course you sometimes can't be sure what stung you...........
She got stung again, so I went to see her;
she had a hornet living in her front door frame and when the door slammed it came out to attack!
I have seen way more than the usual numbers of hornet nests this year.

 

[Sutty]

Update
Of course you sometimes can't be sure what stung you...........
She got stung again, so I went to see her;
she had a hornet living in her front door frame and when the door slammed it came out to attack!
I have seen way more than the usual numbers of hornet nests this year.

At least you're not getting the blame now!
Is she destroying the hornet nest (protected species) or using the back door?

 

[IndiBee]

At least you're not getting the blame now!
Is she destroying the hornet nest (protected species) or using the back door?

Yes, I was feeling so guilty!
Don't know what she can do as the postman etc. must be at risk as well

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Is she destroying the hornet nest (protected species)

is it? News to me (and the many pest controllers who advertise their removal)

 

[Sutty]

is it? News to me (and the many pest controllers who advertise their removal)

That had always been my understanding, but on a quick Google it looks like I was wrong - not the 1st time & won't be the last!

 

[Sutty]

A couple of very interesting articles written by an allergist beekeeper here.
https://www.303beekeeper.com/2017/09/how-does-desensitization-work.html?m=1

 

[BeeMania]

Over a year ago my wife got stung by a bee tangled in her hair, following day another unfortunate sting in the neck on third day sting in the forehead.
After third she collapsed, ambulance arrived within 8 minutes and she has epipen since then.
We had very long chat with very experienced Ambulance crew as they had to wait and make sure she is ok. What they told us was very interesting...
Most of the calls for severe reaction to bee sting that they had were for women. Most of the people that have such reaction usually suffer from hay fever. and the reason that face gets the most swollen is because the type of tissue/skin on our faces with more fluid/fat underneath.
Luckily no incidents since then

 

[Sutty]

I read somewhere that partners of beekeepers are actually at higher risk - maybe they don't get stung enough but get enough 2nd hand venom exposure to become sensitised.
Sounds like your wife would be a candidate for immunotherapy, those articles describe some of it & why.