04-06-2007, 05:39 AM
A coupla scarey things I've heard over the years about insect bites (please correct me if you know better).
One is that you may have been bitten in the past, with little physical side effect. But that doesn't mean you'll always be safe because such stings have an accumulative effect in your body through your lifetime. And this includes bee stings. For myself, I'm noticing greater and more lingering effects from spider bites than I ever had in the past.
Second, once when I started having a very nasty, quick reaction to a centipede bite and didn't know if it was lethal but knew it would take me longer than the 20 minutes I understood you need to get medical care, I called the Hilo Hospital emergency room and they told me to take a Benadryl. In fact, the attendant I spoke with said that's how they would treat you at the hospital.
I've since heard from medics that hikers and others outdoors a long way from emergency care should always carry Benadryl with them for just such occasions. A friend was like 10,000 feet up on Mauna Loa when she got stung by a bee or some other insect and her head swelled up like a watermelon, her eyes completely shut. She was still somewhat swollen when I saw her 2 days later. And there was no way for her to get anywhere for help. Thank goodness she survived that one!
Centipedes seem to like stands of ironwood trees and don't go picking up from stacks of wood, logs or rocks without keeping an eye out for centipedes. Centipede bites seem much nastier than scorpions, and an ant or spider bite used to seem like nothing but not any more!
One is that you may have been bitten in the past, with little physical side effect. But that doesn't mean you'll always be safe because such stings have an accumulative effect in your body through your lifetime. And this includes bee stings. For myself, I'm noticing greater and more lingering effects from spider bites than I ever had in the past.
Second, once when I started having a very nasty, quick reaction to a centipede bite and didn't know if it was lethal but knew it would take me longer than the 20 minutes I understood you need to get medical care, I called the Hilo Hospital emergency room and they told me to take a Benadryl. In fact, the attendant I spoke with said that's how they would treat you at the hospital.
I've since heard from medics that hikers and others outdoors a long way from emergency care should always carry Benadryl with them for just such occasions. A friend was like 10,000 feet up on Mauna Loa when she got stung by a bee or some other insect and her head swelled up like a watermelon, her eyes completely shut. She was still somewhat swollen when I saw her 2 days later. And there was no way for her to get anywhere for help. Thank goodness she survived that one!
Centipedes seem to like stands of ironwood trees and don't go picking up from stacks of wood, logs or rocks without keeping an eye out for centipedes. Centipede bites seem much nastier than scorpions, and an ant or spider bite used to seem like nothing but not any more!