What Does a Bee Sting Feel Like?
Key takeaways:
Bee stings happen when the venom on a bee’s stinger gets under the skin.
Most stings are mildly painful with swelling at the sting site.
If you have a painful sting that lasts more than a few days, you should go see a medical professional.
Spending time outside opens you up to any number of hazards, not the least of which is being stung by a bee. In most cases, bee stings are just mildly annoying, and home treatment can alleviate the pain. But getting stung too much, or being allergic to bee stings, can cause a more serious reaction that might need medical help.
Bee stings happen when a bee’s stinger is jabbed into a person’s skin. Once under the surface, the stinger releases venom containing proteins that can affect a person’s skin cells and immune system. This venom causes pain and swelling at the site of the sting in most people and can cause an allergic reaction in others.
Those who spend more time outdoors are more likely to experience bee stings.
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Stung three times
Michael Mance, a marketing professional in Anderson, South Carolina, was stung while cutting shrubs with his dad’s landscaping business.
“It felt like a little child with long nails grabbed my lip and held it while its Shaq-sized dad hit me in the head with a baseball bat,” he says. “When I realized what was happening, I’d been stung three times — on my lip, on the side of my head, and on the back of my head.”
Michael called his then-boss and took the day off, treating himself with Benadryl and sleep.
Stung while gardening
Carole Catron, a poet from Mahomet, Illinois, was working in her yard when she was stung.
“One sticky July morning, I was weeding the crab grass from my flower beds when a bee had the nerve to sting my right palm,” she says. “At first, the tiny shock of the sting felt as though I’d been stabbed by a thorn of the nearby bush. Then, a throbbing burning sensation heated my hand as I yelped in recognition of what had happened.”
Carole scraped what was left behind of the stinger to get it out from under her skin, but the pain and swelling began to spread, she says, like an achy heat traveling through her hand.
“I began to feel a sensation like tiny ants crawling under my skin, so I hopped up and hurried to grab the Benadryl from my medicine cabinet,” she says.
A reason to cry
For Kelly King, a real estate professional from Holden Beach, North Carolina, the bee sting brought tears to her eyes. She was only 12, she says, when a bee stung her on her leg.
“For hours that day, I had this overwhelming need to cry (thanks to surging hormones),” she says. “A wasp started circling and soon found a spot on my leg to sting. I wailed. Tears came down hard and heavy for a good long while.”
It wasn’t the last time she was stung, she says.
“I’ve been stung several times over the years,” she says. “To me, it feels like the stinger is like a hot poker that gets hotter and hotter until you have to vocalize the pain.”
An unexpected pain
The unexpected pain scared Jacqueline Duccilli, a retail professional from Cincinnati. As a child, she was stung while she was playing in her front yard.
“I was 6, and a bee flew up into my sandal and stung me on the foot,” she says. “I think there may have been more than one. I got hysterical … My mom calmed me down and then my dad got me some ice cream.”
The pain felt like needles, she says.
“I remember it felt like a sharp needle in my foot,” she says. “I think that’s why I was hysterical. I have always had a needle phobia. It was so quick.”
What does the doctor say?
Patricia Pinto-Garcia, MD, MPH
Medical Editor
Stinging insects — like bees, hornets, wasps, and yellow jackets — are armed with barbed stingers and venom. When you get stung, the stinger and the venom sac both get ripped off and stuck inside your skin. That barbed stinger is why you feel an immediate pain when you get stung. But the venom is what’s responsible for other symptoms.
Most people develop a local reaction which includes pain, itching, redness, and swelling at the sting site. This happens as the immune system tries to fight off the effects of the venom. Symptoms usually start within a few minutes, peak after 1 to 2 hours, and go away after 1 to 2 days. About 10% of people develop a larger area of redness and swelling. For these people, symptoms peak after about 2 days and can take 5 to 10 days to go away.
Over-the-counter pain and itch medications like acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and Benadryl can help relieve your symptoms. Cool compresses can also help, especially while you’re waiting for the medications to kick in. If you tend to have larger reactions, your healthcare provider might prescribe steroid pills or cream.
You should also remove the stinger once you’re more comfortable. It only takes a few minutes for the venom to get into your system, so there’s no rush to remove it right away. Taking the stinger out can lessen your risk of developing a skin infection.
For about 1% of people, insect stings can be life threatening. Some people can have anaphylaxis in response to stings. If you or a family member develop hives (especially on your face or chest), trouble breathing, tongue swelling, throat itching, vomiting, or stomach pain after a sting — get medical help immediately or call 911.
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