Stings: which is worse

20 years ago

What is worse; being stung by a few bull ants or a bluebottle jellyfish? Yesterday I was pulling out weeds and did not realise until it was too late that I was pulling them out from a bull ants nest. I forgot how much the stings itch, a day later. Then I got to thinking, not having been stung by a bluebottle, which is worse?

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Comments (11)

User
20 years ago
HI ...Never been stung by a jellyfish, have been by Bull ants and Wasps.
Bull Ants were the worse out of those two .
Though being biten by a Red back Spider was the worst thing I have ever experienced.
I wanted to chop my arm off....I hope your pain eases very soon and Sorry to hear that.
Cheers....MM.
paradisi
20 years ago
blue bottles without a doubt - - theres a bit of a plague around caloundra with the cyclone pushing warm water down from the north which makes beach walking a challenge
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goldhills
20 years ago
Can't remember being stung by bluebottles as haven't been stung since I was a kid, swim more in pools now rather than the beach. Only ever been bitten once by a bull ant and that was bad enough although to me bee stings or worse. For some reason I find bee stings are more painful than wasps and to make it worse my father used to have bee hives so lots of bees!

MM, I've heard red-backs are very painful and make you feel like amputating your arm. I've never been bitten by one though been close a few times as were we used to live they used to be everywhere. At least I learnt to recognise their webs. Only ever seen a couple here though, luckily.
jancol
20 years ago
Hi
Take it from me you never want to be stung by a blue bottle. It is excrutiating. I was stung as a teenager and my legs felt almost paralysed to the spot and then these huge welts came up. Jan
tsunami2
20 years ago
I believe the worst would be blue bottle since it's venom and bull ants are more acidic.

I have heard of cases where blue bottle stings are lethal and can cause death.

Luckily i hven't experienced either.. In my life i've only been stung by bees.
Sparaxis
20 years ago
Bee stings can be lethal too, but fortunately not very often. Some people are so allergic to bees that they go into anaphalaxis and may die if not treater very quickly.
sterculias
20 years ago
One of the best remedies for all of those except the red back is a good flush with vinegar but do NOT rub it in, just gently swab or pour the vinegar over the sting or you will spread the venom.

Doug.
popi_gw
20 years ago
I have every sort of biting ant at my place. The green ants sting for a while, bit I find if you rub the spot it helps.

Hoppy joe ants are just excrutiating, they hang onto the skin and its hard to flick them off. Been bitten by them, about 10 of them went up my leg, whilst I was walking along a grassy paddock. Aweful, I felt progressively worse over the afternoon, and came up will hives. My hubbie, bless him, had to rush to the shops to get me some antihistimines. That was not nice at all.

Red back spiders...what is the first aid for that....do you have to go to hospital ? I have plenty of them around and I thought I better get ready for that bite. Oh dear.

Tread carefully and be aware of webs etc. thats my advice.

Popi
goldhills
20 years ago
Doug, wasp stings are alkaline so vinegar is best but bee stings are acidic so a bicarb paste is better.

Popi, if bitten by a redback spider, do not apply a constrictive bandage as you would for other spider or snake bites. Instead apply ice-packs and seek medical help immediately. Redback bites are very painful (as MM would be able to tell you) and any form of constriction causes immense pain. The venom is slow working though so you do have time to get to hospital.

If you come up in hives after being stung you should see a doctor just in case as you could be allergic. He would probably just send you home with anti-histimines but better to be safe than sorry.
lorraine_b
20 years ago
hi all I have heaps of jumping jack ants here and have found out if you are on blood pressue medication your body can make to much histamine(which I do )and last time I got bitten I had a reaction that I wish was just like hives,but I come up in huge blisters and need antibiotics,SO HAVE BEEN TOLD IF I KNOW I WILL BE WORKING IN THE GARDEN TAKE SOMETHING LIKE ZYRTAC TO COUNTER THE EFFECT BUT KEEP AN EYE ON THEM,sorry re the lousy typing,wish I new of something that would get rid of those particular ants permanently.
lorraine
User
20 years ago
Popi ..GH is right.....I was bitten by a Redback late on a friday afternoon, but did not start to feel bad till after dinner and I had to wait till the monday before I could see a doctor, I did not know it was a RB till the doc told me and he said to go and see if I could find it after giving me a jar with a large dob of Local Anaesthetic to deaden the red area where I had been biten so I could not feel the pain, they dont worry about RB bites up North..

My middle aged daughter was biten here in brissie the hospital did not do a thing for her either..My bite caused my arm to be on fire so I spent the weekend with my arm wrapped up in a towel with a frozen blue brick on each side of my arm to deaden it..Well it worked a little so it did help..And we did find the RB Spider it was till there on the star picket that I was leaning on three days earlier guess it was its home but not for long hubby removed it. After the hotness had started to go away from my arm then came the Itch thats was not too good either. It was well over one week before I started to feel good again..

We only use Tea Tree oil on ant and wasp bites it works like magic......Cheers...MM.

Stings: which is worse

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