This morning I stepped - barefoot - into a pile of bees in my yard. I was stung six times before I got away from the little bastards - once on the arch of my foot, which is currently causing me much pain. I’ve put cortisone ointment with “pain relief” on it to no avail. Mundane and not so pointless as the bees were definitely pointy…
Any good bee sting relief suggestions out there?
Ice works best for me. Also my mom used to make a paste of baking soda and water (with possibly something else, can’t remember) which supposedly helped to draw the venom out of the sting. No sure if it actually works, but it made me feel better as a kid.
Chewing tobacco has always been my go-to sting ointment. Put it in warm water til moist, then use as a poltice.
Of course, six bee stings would have me in the hospital… my sympathy to you!!!
I’ll bet you really earned your username this morning!
I second the baking soda paste.
::limps off to make baking soda paste::
Baking soda paste does help bee stings. Quite a few comments here.
http://www.tipking.co.uk/tip/5013.html
Are you sure they were bees? Did they leave stingers ? They were more likely ground wasps.
Treatment is the similar for both, but you may need a tetnus shot, if you haven’t had one in the last 10 years. Diphenhydamine (Benadryl) and an antiinflamatory (ibuprophen or naproxen) will help any pain or itching, ice for local swelling and antibiotic ointment to prevent infection.
Those are the little bastards! There were no stingers in the wounds that I could see. My tetnus shot is up to date so no worries there. The ones on my leg hurt but the one on my foot is excrutiating. Alas, there is no baking soda in the house except for the three-month old stuff in the fridge. And I didn’t think that would be sanitary.
::Hobbles off to take Benadryl and Advil::
AAAAAHAHHHHHAAHAHAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!
Have you set fire to the yard yet?
Normally I would but it’s been really dry out and my house is wooden…
Those are yellow jackets, and their venom is more potent than honeybees. If you are flushed, feverish, or have a racing heart get to the emergency room ASAP for some epinephrine.
ground nesting bees that have colonies are a smaller bee with not a severe sting (to the nonallergic) but still not fun. put a marker of some sort near the hole so as to avoid it for the summer and fall seasons.
I don’t have any good advice here…but I wanted to mention that I’m disappointed that Covered In Bees hasn’t shown up yet…
That’s all I got…
-D/a
How dare you minimize my suffering!
I’ve been stung before and this is by far the most pain I’ve ever been in. Three hours later and my foot is still throbbing. Being as there were no stingers, I’m going with the wasp option. Frankly, either way it sucks. But at least I have an excuse to lounge all day…
Take a Benadryl now. It will really help.
Then go to the local home and garden store and admire the aisle that has all the chemicals that kill insects.
When I was stung repeatedly by a similar set of insects, my sister-in-law recommended a Popsicle stick as remedy.
It was a joke, based on the fact that my niece called popsicles “popsicle sticks” (she was 3, maybe 4 at the time). But lounging around eating a popsicle was a pleasant distraction from my hurty spots.
A few months ago, when I was really suffering the worse of seasonal allergies, I was bad off enough that I would take a Benadryl during the day in addition to my regular Claritin. One day I had to go to the vet to pick up more heartworm stuff for the dog, and inadvertently walked through an angry group of bees that had been recently displaced by an exterminator. (The vet’s office had a swarm in the wall or something?) I was stung three times on my hand, but with all the antihistamine in my system, there was no swelling or itching whatsoever. Behold the power of diphenhydramine. 
There’s a Benadryl anti-itch cream that works amazingly well. Last year I got a horrid case of swimmers itch - it was truly miserable for about a week - and that was the only OTC thing that worked.
Put half a handful of oatmeal in a washcloth, close it with a rubber band, and then drop it in a bucket. Run fairly warm water, soak your foot. Or put the oatmeal in a coffee filter and staple it shut, and you can throw the whole filter away when you’re done.
Also, Benadryl is your FRIEND, as others say.
Once when I was mowing the lawn, I ran over a hole in the ground which (I was soon to find out) held a nest of yellow jackets. They nailed me four or five times on the leg, and much cursing ensued. I kept mowing the lawn, though. I put some gel on it that was supposedly made just for stings, but it didn’t do much. Rubbing alcohol and benadryl did a better job.