While treating your sting at home, you should:. Use hydrocortisone cream or calamine lotion if itching or skin irritation becomes bothersome. Baking soda and colloidal oatmeal are soothing to the skin and can be used during a bath or through medicated skin creams.
OTC pain relievers, such as ibuprofen , can manage pain associated with wasp stings. Antihistamine drugs, including diphenhydramine and chlorpheniramine , can reduce itching as well.
Take all medications as directed to avoid potential side effects, such as stomach irritation or drowsiness. Vinegar is another possible home remedy that may be used for wasp stings. The theory is that the acidity of vinegar can help neutralize the alkalinity of wasp stings. The opposite is true of bee stings, which are more acidic. To use vinegar on wasp stings, soak a cotton ball with apple cider or white vinegar and place it on top of the affected area of skin.
Use slight pressure to help with the pain and inflammation. You can leave the cotton ball on top of your skin for several minutes. Severe allergic reactions to wasp stings require immediate medical attention. Overall, up to 0. If you have an EpiPen, administer it as soon as symptoms begin. Treatment for severe allergic reactions to wasp stings can include:. Wasp and bee stings can cause similar symptoms, but the treatment measures are slightly different.
While a bee can only sting once because its stinger becomes stuck in the skin of its victim, a wasp can sting more than once during an attack.
Wasp stingers remain intact. You can remove the bee sting by swiping at the affected area of skin with your fingernail within 30 seconds of getting stung.
You can reduce pain and swelling with cold compresses and an OTC medication such as ibuprofen. If you have a known bee allergy, administer an EpiPen immediately and call Advertisement Skin cancer App to facilitate skin self-examination and early detection. Clinical aspects of hymenoptera venom allergy and venom immunotherapy. Eur Ann Allergy Clin Immunol. Venom immunotherapy for preventing allergic reactions to insect stings.
Cochrane Database Syst Rev. Stinging insect allergy: current perspectives on venom immunotherapy. J Asthma Allergy. Wasp sting mortality in Australia. Med J Aust. Honeybee stings in the era of killer bees: anaphylaxis and toxic envenomation. Am J Med. Insect allergy in children. J Paediatr Child Health. Sign up to the newsletter. In the vast majority of cases, though, bee or wasp stings are not a cause for concern—they usually just cause some pain, swelling, redness and itching at the site of the sting.
Dealing with a bee or wasp sting will obviously be different depending on your sensitivity. You can get it out with your fingers, tweezers or even the edge of a credit card. Remove it as quickly as you can in order to limit the amount of venom released. Next, wash the affected area with soap and water.
There are a number of different brands to choose from. These are also available over-the-counter OTC from a pharmacy, or they may be prescribed by a doctor. If the local reaction is large, for example, with severe local swelling, oral corticosteroids may be prescribed for 3 to 5 days. Someone who knows they are allergic to stings may carry an epinephrine injector. A bystander can help the person administer this injection, if needed. Call a doctor or ambulance at once if a person has signs of wheezing, swelling, or other symptoms of anaphylaxis, or if you know the person is likely to experience an allergic reaction.
See a doctor also if an insect sting leads to blistering, if you are concerned about swelling, if signs of infection develop, such as pus, or if symptoms do not go away within a few days. One researcher decided to investigate how different sting locations around the body compared on a rating scale for pain.
He selected 25 locations on the body and conducted an experiment on himself to rate the painfulness of a sting at each location caused by a honey bee. He underwent three stings in each location, leaving 5 minutes between each sting for the pain to subside. The results were published in a peer-reviewed journal, but it is not known whether they have been replicated by other researchers.
Cat bites can lead to infections. Learn more about how this happens, the diseases a person could contract, and how to treat a cat bite here. Snakebites can be dangerous. Symptoms of a rattlesnake bite may include pain, bleeding, drooping eyelids, and low blood pressure. Learn more here.
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