Bee and wasp venoms are highly toxic chemical cocktails. A dose of only 15 microlitres (about 1/65,000 of a gram causes intense pain, swelling, redness and local tissue damage, says Richard Jones.
You’ll need a sit down with a cup of tea after 10 stings, and should seek urgent medical attention with 100. There’s no antivenom, but immediate dialysis can remove the toxins before serious damage to internal organs. Most adult humans would be lucky to survive 1,000 stings.
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Europe’s honeybees and social wasps (yellowjackets) possess stings of similar potency, but the barbed stinger of the former keeps it lodged in your skin, along with the pumping venom sac.
Even if the bee is brushed away, the pain continues. The bee also releases an airborne alarm scent, tagging you as the enemy, which recruits others from the hive into a potentially dangerous escalating attack. Honeybee stings are the ones to be wary of.
