# Quality of the stings



## foxtrapper (Dec 23, 2003)

Have any of you ever noticed that the quality of the sting seems to vary with the time of year? I'm not talking about the bees personality or their propensity to sting, but the chemicals in the sting itself. 

Spring time stings hurt like the dickens. They swell over a large area and are poorly defined.

Late summer and fall stings don't seem to hurt as much. And they swell up very differently. I'll get a much smaller very well defined welt from these stings.

I wonder if it has to do with defending the hive from other bees and raiders like wasps, and having used up a lot of the venom. Perhaps their bodies produce the various chemicals in the venom at different rates and as a result the balance and content of the sting venom is different.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Stings change over the course of the summer ? :dance: I hardly think so, what I really believe is the more stings one gets the less reaction from them in most cases. In some cases though a person can become very sick from stings and have to stop beekeeping for fear of being stung.  Since a girl dies when she stings a person or animal I was sure they also died when fighting wasp and stinging them because of loosing her stinger.
 Al


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## pepper (May 10, 2002)

oops, actually mr. allyyooper, the girls only lose their stingner when they go after us mammal types. our skin does not play fair with them!

they can sting other insects & unwanted queens & drones over & over no hassle i've seen this. so maybe mr. foxtrapper is onto something, me i don't know, i loathe getting stung so i've always suited up to handle the girls.

->pepper ->the wimp


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## Philbee (Jul 5, 2004)

I agree with Pepper & Alleyyooper in that the stinger comes out of Honeybees when they sting mammal & not other insects & a person will build up some resistance to stings at the end of summer if they have been getting stung during the season. I have been stung at the end of summer and the stings have swollen up. I normally don't get stung during the spring or early to middle summer months.


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