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[7], who developed and perfected this treatment, reports that it is immediately effective and recommends that all commercial beekeepers provide themselves with hypodermic kits and a small supply of epinephrine.
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.
Puss Caterpillar
(Megalopyge opercularis)
Superficially resembling a tiny, light, golden-yellow kitten, the puss caterpillar is a short, bushy larva of a small gray-brown moth with whitish underwings. When disturbed, the caterpillar rears back on its hind legs and “makes a face.” The species has long been widespread throughout the southern states feeding on the foliage of oak, elm, plum, and sycamore trees. They have been found also in truck gardens and orchards. Recently they have invaded the desert mountains of the Southwest, having been reported by Stahnke as especially numerous in the Globe-Miami area of Arizona, feeding on the foliage of oaks.
Puss caterpillar (Courtesy Dr. Herbert L. Stahnke)