Something a little different happened to me yesterday. I got "stung" by week-old stingers lodged in my bee-gloves!
I have 13 hives in Costa Rica, and they are very aggressive africanized bees. After a day at the apiary, it is common to have hundreds of stingers covering my gloves. I have learned that I need to wear two pairs of gloves so that the stinger doesn't reach my skin -- I wear rubber dish washing gloves under the typical leather / canvas beekeeping gloves.
Yesterday, I needed to do some weeding around the hives. I wasn't going to open the hives so I decided not to put on both pairs of gloves and instead just put on the leather gloves, figuring that the bees wouldn't be too defensive. Luckily, the bees were very calm and not a single bee buzzed me as I was weeding. However, I kept feeling little pricks in my hands as I was working with the machete and the shovel. Sure enough, it was from the stingers that were still in my gloves from last week's inspection.
A couple hours after weeding, my hands started to itch and there were about 50 little welts, like mosquito bites, covering my hands. I chewed up a leaf of plantain and plastered the affected areas with the paste, and that helped a little bit. But I woke several time during the night due to the intense itching.
So I guess that potent venom can remain in a bee stinger for some time after it has been torn away from the body of the bee!
Topic: ever been stung by a dead bee? (Read 4542 times)