Gardens
How to Treat Bee Stings and Other Bug Bites
One of the few downsides to summer is having to deal with pesky insects.Try these old-time remedies to treat bee stings and other bug bites.
By The Editors of Yankee Magazine|Jun 30 2020|
Treat Bee Stings and Other Bug Bites
Photo Credit: Pixabay
Photo Credit : Pixabay
How to Treat Bee Stings and Other Bug Bites
How to Remove a Bee Stinger
The first thing you should do after you’ve been stung by a bee is to try and extract the stinger and venom sac, says Edward Kent, M.D., a pediatric allergist with Timberlane Allergy and Asthma Associates in South Burlington, Vermont. “The venom sac looks like a tiny bag,” Dr. Kent says. “If the bag is in place, you probably have a honeybee sting. Don’t squeeze or smash it—you could end up injecting more poison into yourself. Instead, take a credit card and flick the sac away with a light scraping motion.”Put Ice On a Bee Sting
“Once you’ve made sure the stinger is out and the area is clean, put an ice cube directly on the sting for a few minutes,” says Ronald Lentz, M.D., medical director of the Block Island Medical Center in Rhode Island.Benadryl for Bee Stings
“To treat bee stings, take an antihistamine such as diphenhydramine—the active ingredient in Benadryl—to reduce the itching and swelling of a bee sting,” Dr. Kent says. Diphenhydramine is available over the counter at drugstores.Ammonia for Bee Stings
Here’s an old-time bee sting remedy: ammonia. Ammonia is alkaline, making it counteract the acidic toxins in insect venom. “It works,” Dr. Beaucher says.Don’t Be Attractive to Bees
How do you avoid a bee sting? “If you are going to be outside where bees are, wear non-floral-print clothing,” Dr. Beaucher says. “Bees are attracted to flowers. They’re also attracted to pictures of flowers.” Avoid wearing such flower-like colors as yellow, red, orange, and green. “Pink, blue, and white are good to wear,” he says. “Bees don’t like those colors.” Be careful not to smell too nice, either. “Don’t wear perfume or scented products like hair spray,” Dr. Beaucher says.Mud for Bee Stings
If no other bee sting treatment is available, one of the simplest old-time treatments is a handful of mud. Just scoop up the mud and hold it on the sting until the mud dries. Excerpt from Home Remedies from a Country Doctor – brought to you by Skyhorse Publishing. This post was first published in 2014 and has been updated.SEE MORE: Flowers That Attract Bees What’s the Difference Between Bees and Wasps? How to Care for Houseplants | Get Rid of Insects & Bugs
This article gives some good advice but I would have preferred that the photo did not show a picture of a lovely bumble bee foraging for pollen. These bees tend not to be aggressive unless protecting a nest and will not sting unless provoked which is hard to do. Our native bees and honey bees are in serious trouble and they don’t need the bad press. In my experience it is the wasps and yellow jackets that are more likely to sting you unprovoked. I try to attract bees to my yard and show my kids how awesome they are when collecting pollen.
My Grandmother used a natural remedy for bee/hornet/wasp stings and it took the discomfort and/or redness away instantly. Make a paste of a small amount of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda with very little tap water and spread on the bite/sting. Works instantly. I’ve been using it for 70 years. I’m a Grandma myself now.
Has anyone ever used apple cider vinegar for treatment of insect bites, etc? I was told to use the “real” apple cider vinegar with the “mother” in it. Any comments? I have been bothered with nosee-ems.
Yes!!!! Or regular vinegar. I always carry it with me in summer, especially when my kids were growing up. Once a wasp flew in the car while I was driving and stung the youngest. Boy did he scream!!! I was close to home and applied a clean washcloth soaked in vinegar to the bite. We held it on there for about 30 minutes & the swelling disappeared & so did the pain & itching. So keep some with you — say in one of those travel containers you can carry in your purse. Treatment has to be almost immediate. Also, eating a couple teaspoons of brewers yeast a day may keep a lot of bugs from bugging you—you smell bad to them! Another tip: peppermint castile liquid soap from Dr. Bronners kills fleas & ticks like crazy when you use it to shampoo pets; it burns their bodies! ?
May I suggest chewing up a plantain leaf and placing it over the bite…works wonders. It also helps ease the effects of poison ivy.
I grew up in Berlin, NH. The first house, Victorian, in which I lived had a huge glassed-in front porch, where my father collected newspapers, to re-cycle, through Kiawanis Club membership. One morning while Dad was at his store there was a huge bumble bee on that porch with me. Mom and Dad told me not to touch them, so I got a piece of newspaper to pick it up to try to move it and it stung me right through that newspaper, I think I was 3 at the time. Mom was cooking and came out, immediately, to find out what happened. I still remember how painful that was. When I lived in the north end of Boston, MA, before I met my husband, I sunbathed on the roof of our building. It is an Italian neighborhood and some people actually had small gardens there, growing tomatoes, of course!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was stung by a bumble bee, I think that was my second sting of my life. I remembered my first sting very rapidly with that immediate pain! I had a job in Dedham, MA shortly after getting married and I had to dress nicely for that job. I had an outfit with a beige skirt and red floral blouse that matched. I had a Chevy Vega car at that time, a standard transmission, and went to our company bank during my lunch hour to cash my paycheck, that car didn’t have air conditioning, and when I stopped at a stop sign near my office something flew in the car, a huge bee, it turned out, that was in May I recall, and stung me behind my left knee. I still don’t know how I managed to stop at that stop sign!!!!!!!!!!!! I had swelling on 3 layers and had to go home from work, which really annoyed one of the co-owners of the firm where I worked!!!!!!!!!!!! It took several hours for the swelling to go down. The same exact thing happened, another Friday payday, wearing the same outfit, in September of that year. Again, I still don’t know how I stopped at that stop sign!!!!!!!!!! We moved to Hingham, MA in Sept. 1986, with a very large front and back yard, both with grass. The former owner had a large vegetable garden and canned a lot of it for winter use. They had a large family and plenty of help weeding the garden when it was required. We had gardens for a while and decided we were tired of “fighting with the critters that ruined most of our hard work”!!!!!!!!!! Now I buy what I want when I want it, except for the asparagus, Martha Washington variety, my husband researched them to taste the best!!!!!!!, which I have not been able to finish weeding (feeding when that is finally completed) due to the continuous “lousy weather” we have had here, however, with the severe weather everywhere else I will not complain about my minor problem. I have already been able to pick and eat some, which taste best when the ground is cool. The ground certainly is cool this spring!!!!!!!!!!!! We have plenty of “friendly bees” on our property of all kinds, which I greet affectionately while they are “doing their jobs” and hornets. We had a big back yard in the second house I lived in in NH and I walked barefoot frequently. I was stung by a hornet in this yard, I didn’t realize their hives are in the ground, while I was tending my garden and it hurt so badly my husband had to pick me up and carry me into the house. There is an article in the May/June 2018 issue of YANKEE MAGAZINE about Cheryl Dunlap, a “bee artist”. I actually know where she lives, in my town, because she used to have a sign “studio open”. She managed to make bees her life!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s really rare to get a sting from a honey bee unless you physically disturb it. We have five hives next to the house and I can mow around them and walk up to them when my son is going through the hives checking for eggs and brood. I haven’t had a honey bee sting in many years.
In contrast, I regularly get hornets and wasps building nests under the ledge of the above ground pool. This spring I got five stings just coming too close to the nest of one. I’m not allergic to stings, so there’s no need to treat them .
My father taught us to put witch hazel on bug bites.