Here's an interesting article in the New York Times Magazine about a scientist in Tucson, AZ who studies stinging insects like bees, wasps and ants. He has developed his own scale for pain intensity, admitting that the scale itself is not necessarily scientific, just a method to describe his findings. Quote: The approach is hardly scientific. His sample size was tiny. The scale wasn’t based on solid controls of variables, like the age of both insect and predator or the placement of the sting on the body of the victim. Even under the best of circumstances, pain is notoriously difficult to gauge; reliable methods for measuring nerve responses of pain were, and remain, imprecise.
The interviewer meets him at his home and they talk about his research and experience. It's rather interesting if you've ever thought much about the toxicity and intensity of stings. Apparently certain ants are the highest rated. I remember once being bitten by an ant in Palm Springs, California and how long the pain lasted. I have mainly been stung by bees, wasps/hornets and yellow jackets over the years.
The researcher, Justin Schmidt has written a book on his experience: The Sting of the Wild: The Story of the Man Who Got Stung for Science (A link to John Hopkins University Press listing.)
Here's a link to the Schmidt Pain Scale.
Note: The NYTimes is a paid subscriber site, but they let you read a certain number of articles for free each month. ~z
Z.,
I think the American SW desert has PacNW beat for stinging/biting insects.
A single red ant bite on my finger sent a hot, glowing pain all the way to the lymph nodes in my armpits. Tarantula hawk wasps are so BA they sting tarantulas, then lay their eggs in the still-alive spider.
For pure ferocity, the yellow jacket/bee, which mostly lives in the ground/old stumps, will send anyone running for their lives.
Tom
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