# will guns protect me from jellyfish? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 20, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787 "2010-04-20T20:09:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/41 "2010-04-21T13:58:47Z")
Interesting factoid: You’re never more than 10 feet away from a lethal jellyfish. ---
**Author:** ![wisernow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@wisernow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wisernow)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/42 "2010-04-21T15:32:29Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I got stung once, on a CA beach. For twenty minutes? ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/43 "2010-04-21T15:44:14Z")
> [@Joe Frickin Friday](#): > > Our dive master had us smear our exposed skin with vaseline… Word to the wise: DO NOT try to use peanut butter instead. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/44 "2010-04-22T02:11:18Z")
> [@wisernow](#): > > For twenty minutes? huh?😕 ---
**Author:** ![runcible\_spoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@runcible\_spoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runcible_spoon)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/45 "2010-04-22T02:35:44Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > Word to the wise: DO NOT try to use peanut butter instead. 😛 [Peanut-butter-jellyfish! Peanut-butter-jellyfish!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8MDNFaGfT4) ---
**Author:** ![Carptracker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@Carptracker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carptracker)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/46 "2010-04-22T03:07:50Z")
I’ve been stung multiple times by many species (but not the Aussie mankillers). I have scars from some of them. Moon jellies, sea nettles (can be pretty bad), cannonballs (a lot worse than most people think, because they lose most of their pneumatocysts in the surf before they end up on the beach where most people see them - try falling into a windrow of them while wind surfing - there are free floating pneumatocysts in the slime that windrows with them, and it is like falling into a sea of stinging mucous) and Portuguese man-o-war (Ok, not strictly a jellyfish, but I hear it does kill people sometimes.) I seem to be less sensitive than most people, but they can really light you up sometimes. I especially hate it on the lips, or when a broken strand ends up in your swim trunks somehow. Ouch. Oh, and the remedy everyone uses (meat tenderizer) does not really work. Old wives tale, that. Neither does peeing on it. Best thing about jellyfish? Their stings (at least the ones I have had) are a lot less painful than stingray stings. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/47 "2010-04-22T03:08:17Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > [http://www.irukandjijellyfish.com/](http://www.irukandjijellyfish.com/) This will make you feel better. These ones are an inch long and can kill you. But of course you have to go to Australia to get stung. On the other hand, if the jellyfish says its name is Namura, better have a flashlight, because you will soon find yourself in a [large dark place](http://www.pinktentacle.com/images/echizen_kurage_07_1.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Otara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Otara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otara)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/48 "2010-04-22T03:21:36Z")
Jellyfish can hurt but keep them in perspective vs snakes, bees, lightning, etc, let alone crossing the road. Yes you can die if you get a lot of box jelly tentacles wrapped around a lot of naked skin like your chest or legs, but other than allergic reactions thats it really. A spandex stinger suit alone means you change it from life threatening to big owies at worst. Ive had a small man o war wrapped around me and a day in hospital as a kid and it wasn’t great but it was in your average accidents can hurt a heck of a lot range than anything too dramatic. Precautions are pretty simple, and treatment quite effective now. If you go to Oz, read up a bit more by all means but other than that it really isnt worth worrying too much about, let alone shooting them. Edit: And yes, tons of them do squat, or you barely feel them. Otara ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/49 "2010-04-23T21:02:52Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > I for one welcome our new Jellyfish overlords. > [@elbows](#): > > I just recently watched a disturbing documentary, (sorry can’t recall the name!), about jellyfish. It was about the fact that, with the oceans warming, they are multiplying, literally blooming in the millions, in a way that scientists have never witnessed before. > > Not only that, they are migrating further north than they have even been seen before, including a report of one off of England. Not a lot of research has been done on these creatures and scientists are now scrambling to learn all they can, y’know, before they are everywhere. > > Sorry to break the bad news, better stick to baths, I suppose. > > Found it, it’s called ‘Jellyfish Invasion’, from Wild Docs. Not for the faint of heart. [Yes!](http://discovermagazine.com/2007/sep/do-jellyfish-rule-the-world) This is the New World Order of the prophecies. I never imagined it would be so wiggly. ---
**Author:** ![Carptracker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@Carptracker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carptracker)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/50 "2010-04-23T22:10:06Z")
> [@Otara](#): > > Precautions are pretty simple, and treatment quite effective now. What treatment is effective? I don’t know of any. I used to believe in the meat tenderizer thing, but both through experience and from reading up, I don’t believe it any more. In fact, one time my whole crew were collecting urchins on the Port Aransas jetties and getting stung pretty much constantly by some little buggers and some small moon jellies. After we got out and tried to dry off, there were apparently enough little pieces of them, or loose pneumatocysts on our skin that we kept getting zapped and for some reason it was hurting a lot more than it was in the water (although we were getting pretty tired of it in the water, too). We ended up piling in the truck and driving to the grocery store, every body yelping intermittently as a pneumatocyst would fire off as we continued to dry. We ran inside with just our swim trunks on, and started shaking meat tenderizer on each other right in the aisle. We probably looked like we were performing some kind of strange ouch-ouch dance as the stings kept coming. Felt like someone had a bunch of voodoo dolls and kept sticking pins in us. Must of looked like that to the people in the store, too. Anyplace else it would have made quite a scene, but in Port A it was probably relatively normal behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/51 "2010-04-23T23:29:49Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > So, basically, what I’m getting from this thread is that jellyfish are like the liquid metal terminators of the ocean. They can’t be shot, they can’t be reasoned with, and even torn to pieces they will threaten you. They will just keep coming until you’re dead. Some of them are also technically [immortal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortal_jellyfish). Thought you’d like to know, in case you believe in reincarnation. They’ll be waiting. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/52 "2010-04-23T23:45:29Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Some of them are also technically [immortal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortal_jellyfish). Thought you’d like to know, in case you believe in reincarnation. They’ll be waiting. Holy shit. This world is so weird and wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/53 "2010-04-24T00:04:46Z")
I have added the title of this thread to my list of all-time favorites. If jellyfish come near me when I’m in the water, I just turn on my handy waterproof high-powered battery-operated fan, and they drift away, helpless. ---
**Author:** ![Otara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Otara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otara)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/54 "2010-04-24T01:19:04Z")
“What treatment is effective?” I was talking about the deadly ones, for Box its vinegar, magneisum for Irukandji apparently, but hospital will be involved as well obviously. If its not deadly, analgesics and scraping, google will tell you generally, but unless you’re allergic its just pain at the end of the day. Otara ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/55 "2010-04-26T18:50:51Z")
> [@wisernow](#): > > > [@DrDeth](#): > > > > I got stung once, on a CA beach. > > For twenty minutes? In 1960? ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/56 "2010-04-26T19:06:35Z")
Just wondering, what would happen to most jellyfish if you did manage to hit them with a bullet of comparable kinetic energy to one fired in air? Would they die, or can they survive if it just rips through them? (Irukandji presumably would be obviously out). ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/57 "2010-04-26T19:30:04Z")
I was in Cuba last Christmas break, and one day a ton of jellyfish (I think from googling they were Man’o’ wars) washed up on the beach one day. My father in law decided we ought to take a walk to the sister resort of the one we were saying at, so off we went. At first, the jellyfish were kind of cool; slimy and gooey and a very pretty blue/purple. But there were just so many of them. By the time we made it to the other resort, I was kind of freaked out. By the time we made it back to ours…I was in a near panic! They were _everywhere_, and I think I’ve now developed a bit of a phobia! I had a very, very stiff drink by the pool when we got back to our resort! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/58 "2010-04-26T19:38:03Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Some of them are also technically [immortal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortal_jellyfish). Thought you’d like to know, in case you believe in reincarnation. They’ll be waiting. I would have really liked to _not_ know that, actually. So, thanks for nothing, I guess. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/59 "2010-04-26T20:57:37Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > I would have really liked to _not_ know that, actually. So, thanks for nothing, I guess. I’d like to set your mind at ease, but I just got an e-mail from some Australian jellyfish. They say they’re looking forward to your visit. And they kind of hinted that one of them has a knife. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787/60 "2010-04-27T00:59:24Z")
> [@Joe Frickin Friday](#): > > In 1960? WTF?😕 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-guns-protect-me-from-jellyfish/536787.md?page=4)