  At first thought it may seem unjustified to include the common honeybee in a discussion of poisonous creatures of the desert. Although the honeybee is not a desert native, having been imported from Europe, it has established itself in the wild state throughout the Southwest in locations providing adequate moisture and sufficient nectar-producing flowers. Honeybees on the honeycomb Throughout much of the United States honeybees are encountered in numbers only in apiaries operated by beekeepers, or in bee trees where the insects have established themselves. In the desert climatic conditions are ideal for honeybees, and they have become widespread and well established. They obtain water at springs, seeps, waterholes, cattle tanks, dripping faucets, and leaking water containers, often congregating in such numbers around sources of water that they become a distinct nuisance to men and to animals. Individual honeybees are frequently found in flowers, or may fly in through an open automobile window, and sting one of the car’s occupants. Small children sometimes receive stings while playing on white clover lawns or going barefoot. Farm boys may Normally, poison introduced by the sting of a honeybee is local in effect and little more than a painful inconvenience to the person stung. There are many cases on record, however, of persons and domestic animals receiving stings from so many of the enraged insects that serious and even fatal results have followed. During the past half century, medical records show a number of deaths each resulting from a single sting. Jones Poison mechanism of worker bee, greatly enlarged.
How a bee stingsThe poison-injecting mechanism of the worker bee is located within the extremity of the abdomen and consists of a barbed sting at the base of which is attached a sack, or reservoir, containing the poison. Male bees (drones) have no sting, and the queen reserves hers for possible use in battle with a rival queen. In the act of stinging, the bee forces the tip of the sting through the skin of the victim, where it becomes imbedded, being held by the barbs. In escaping the bee tears away, leaving the sting, poison sack, and attached muscles and viscera. Incidentally, this rupture results in the death of the bee. Capillarity and the spasmodic movement of the attached muscles force the poison from the sack through the hollow shaft of the sting into the wound. Treatment of bee stingTo counteract this, the first thing that anyone should do when stung by a honeybee is to SCRAPE out the sting. This may be done with a knife blade or even with the fingernail, although the latter is far from sanitary. NEVER PULL OUT THE STING, because in grasping the protruding poison sack between the thumb and forefinger, the sack is certain to be pinched and the poison squeezed into the wound. Since, under normal conditions, it takes several seconds for the contents of the sack to work into the puncture, prompt removal of the sting with the attached sack prevents much of the poison from being injected. Application of strong household ammonia just as soon as the sting is scraped out is helpful in allaying the pain. If a person receives a great number of stings, a physician should be summoned at once. The victim should be undressed, put in bed, and all of the sting scraped out. All parts of the body that have received stings should be covered with cloths soaked in hot water and wrung out. These applications should be as hot as the victim can endure. Persons who are supersensitive to bee-sting venom show the following symptoms when stung: the skin over the entire body breaks out in lumpy welts, palms of the hands and soles of the feet itch. This is followed by headache, nausea, and vomiting. Breathing becomes labored and heart action is rapid and weak. As soon as such symptoms are noted, a physician should be summoned or the victim taken to a hospital. Treatment consists of frequent, small, hypodermic injections of epinephrine in the ratio of one part of epinephrine to 1,000 parts of water. Dr. W. Ray Jones Even persons who are apparently immune to bee-sting venom through having received bee stings during the course of many years of work in the apiary, may suddenly develop supersensitivity. The treatment is relatively simple, may be self-administered, and has already proved effective in treating serious cases of excessive susceptibility resulting from supersensitive persons receiving bee stings. Experimental use of calcium lactate to counteract “sting shock” indicates a high degree of success. Physicians should investigate “Death by Sting Shock,” p 234, Science News Letter, April 9, 1955. Use of antihistamines or a hormone of the cortizone family has had some success. |
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