# Are these really bees in my sandbox?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-really-bees-in-my-sandbox/500474>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 21, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-really-bees-in-my-sandbox/500474 "2009-06-21T14:57:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-really-bees-in-my-sandbox/500474/21 "2009-07-13T15:48:48Z")

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> [@Maastricht](#):
>
> One never knows if they may be allergic to a certain sting or venom\* (ooh, venom! that sounds snakey!).

What is the correct term for the material injected by a wasp or bee sting?

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**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-really-bees-in-my-sandbox/500474/22 "2009-07-13T15:58:36Z")

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Bee-venom, bee-sting.

Venom, used without a pre-fix, sounds to me like cyanide or strychnine. Venom is lethal, poisonous. Bee-venom is just painful.

But it’s the context of that entire article that is fear mongering. This word -usage is the least problem.

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