What's the worst sting or bite you've ever had?

[bottlenose301]

I've been stung by jellyfish, wasps, bumble bees, and bitten by spiders (not big huge ones), red ants, mosquitos and those bitey flies. Oh and the odd cats and dogs.

For me the worst by far was the bumblebee. I put my hand on it not seeing it there and it hurt sooooooo much. Like my hand was on fire or something. I don't really remember completely what the actual pain felt like that as it was years ago but I do remember that it hurt like nothing else and for ages too. Poor thing didn't even mean to sting me, I put my hand on it!

Jellyfish did hurt but not agony - it was only one of those small ones you get. (In France)

Red ants can hurt and itch like mad too.

What's the most painful bite or sting you've ever had?

I nearly stepped on a scorpion once too in Greece. It was tiny but still scared the crap out of me!

dh was stung by a scorpion that had crawled into a pair of jeans that he left on floor. His leg was tingling for days afterwards. Im amazed me and DD managed to avoid the same fate because the house we lived in was infested with them. The joys of living in the desert!

Jellyfish.
Didn’t notice it in the water but it’s bastard tentacle was stuck on my leg and the pain was excoriating.
It felt like I was being flayed at first then the pain moved deeper.
14 years ago and the spot still throbs when I think about it.

Horsefly for me too - had a horrible reaction to the bite on the back of my leg. Had to keep my leg raised and it took ages for the swelling to go down. Awful things.

A weever fish when I was surfing- I had to put my foot in a bucket to draw out the venom.

I was camping with family in the Smoky Mountains in the US. In my sleep I rolled over on a Bald-Faced Hornet. Little fucker stung its way along my arm as it was trying to get out. I had stings over about six inches from above to below my elbow. To give you an idea how painful it is, when I started stinging me I was in a dream and all of a sudden in the dream my arm got ripped off. When I woke up it still pretty much felt like that. Had to go to the emergency room because I started reacting to it.

Weever fish (twice, the little spiny bastards, though a few years in between.) It was sore for what I remember as weeks after, too.

A horse fly bite that I reacted to came a close second.

Mosquitos in Singapore. I reacted really badly to the and they came up in huge liquid filled blisters. I was running the 10K attached to the marathon and the friction between my arms and running top made them even worse. I had to go to a first aid tent to get them lanced. The liquid would dry up and block the hole and they’d fill again. Grim.

Cat bite. Still have the scar. The vet asked me to hold him while he stuck a thermometer up the poor cat's backside. A minor injury, but it hurt a lot and gave me deep empathy for anyone bitten by an animal. Puncture wounds=not good.

Raccoon bite. And what made it worse is it was a baby raccoon that I had hand raised after his mother rejected him. Shark teeth and sharp claws!

Tsetse fly in Luangwa Valley, Zambia. Bite right through clothing even shoes. Was incapacitated for a few days.

My husband was bitten by something in Australia just before he left to come home The bite area went green and pus-filled which I had to scrape out, it left a hole that I had to cut tea towel pieces up and pack it with before going to the pharmacy to get some things to clean and dress it, went to GP the next day for antibiotics and more cleaning - it was enormous!

Wasp stings after I accidentally grasped their nest, mistaking it for a bunch of twigs (I don't have great eyesight). Apparently this type of wasp rates 3 on the Schmidt pain scale, and I can attest to that. The stings were extraordinarily painful. I've also been stung by horseflies on my legs and reacted badly - I needed steroids for that after my feet swelled up and turned an alarming shade of watermelon.

Red ants
Really painful

I've been bitten and stung by jellyfish, bees, horseflies, mosquitoes etc.
One summer evening many years ago I was sitting in someone's garden (south London so hardly tropical climes) and felt a really sharp lancing on my lower leg. Looked down and there's a motherfucking stag beetle attached to me with its pincers firmly stabbed into my calf.... that was grim I can tell you. It was over 25 years ago and I still have scars.

Jeez these give me the fear! I’ve only been stung by wasps and bees. Wasps seem to come in varying degrees of pain-sometimes they don’t seem too bad, other times they throb for days!

I was stung by a hornet in Budapest. Hurt like hell.

Horse. A horse bit my upper arm. What a mess and agony.

The stag beetle one gives me the fear - there's a massive flying one I see regularly that really scares me when I see them but I try to always reassure myself that they are harmless. Well clearly not!

The fly one that bit through clothing freaks me out too

I've had a phobia of being stung by those massive wasps I see a lot in France called Frelon. They are huge. This is a photo I took of one (I was feeling brave that day) in France a few years ago sitting on an armrest.

I was bitten by a spider once (in uk) and although the bite didn't hurt that much I had quite a reaction. Words were slurring and one side of my body was going numb. So so strange. Walk in were baffled and sent me in an ambulance to a&e. Then it went as quick as it came and didn't get seen at a&e as had already waited hours

Thank Christ I was asleep at the time but a huntsman spider bit me through my trousers on the back of my knee in Thailand.

It swelled up like a tennis ball with two visible puncture marks in the centre 😱

I was on a 3 day jungle trek too so miles from any medical help, luckily I could still walk on it and it wasn't that painfully from what I remember.

In terms of pain, a red ant bite on my cheek (lying on the carpet as a child). Felt like my face was on fire!

When I worked in a cafeteria years ago a spider came out of a bunch of bananas I was unpacking and bit me in the ankle. My leg swelled up like a balloon and I couldn't bend my knee for days. The medication I was given made me feel even worse than the bite did!

I was bitten - I don't know what by - a few times on my lower legs in Italy and ended up with cellulitis, a course of antibiotics, and a sick note from work. Horrific.

I once witnessed a spectacular gerbil bite. I had a particularly vicious pet gerbil and a mate was convinced he was a gerbil whisperer would be the man to tame it. He put his hand in the run murmuring soothing whispers to the beast. The gerbil pounced, sank his teeth into the pad of my friends index finger and then wouldn’t let go. My friend lifted his hand out of the cage with the gerbil still dangling from his finger! He was still determined to prove himself as an ace animal wrangler so kept murmuring sweet nothings whilst Herbie (the gerbil) dangled and blood flowed freely down his arm. When I stopped laughing I scattered some food into the run and Herbie decided that was more to his taste and released the finger.

That was 35 years ago and the friend and I have never spoken of it - his pride was more wounded than his finger. Herbie eventually died of old age a year or two later and he was one of the few pets whose death wasn’t greatly mourned.

I've been got by jelly fish, horseflies, bees/wasps etc - unpleasant but not particularly bad swelling compared to my DM for example, who always ends up with a massive lump.

However once I got stung by a hornet long pointy wasp thing on my finger. Bit ouchy but by the next morning I couldnt move my arm easily. It wasn't very swollen but it wasn't right - I went to the GP who didn't have any appointments, so went to the walk in who, after waiting 2 hours then told me they wouldn't treat me because I was pregnant, so back to the GP, got an appointment. Went home and tried to WFH but my arm was getting more and more immobile- again, not much redness or swelling. Finally got to see the GP who diagnosed cellulitis and prescribed antibiotics. Went to 2 different pharmacies who didn't stock the AB, but ordered it in. Went home and was still a bit nonplussed thinking I would wait until the AB was in stock but ended up on a work call with an HCP and told them all about it and they said I really, really needed to find it in stock, now, and start taking it, now or my arm would drop off. So I don't know how many phone calls later and driving around one handed eventually I did. It took ages to feel right afterwards, the antibiotics tasted foul amd had side effects and it was such a pain in the arse trying to sort it all out that I would almost rather a jellyfish wrapped around my leg.