Technique

I'm getting better at stinging myself.  Or rather, I'm getting better at getting the bees to sting me.  As scared as some people are about getting stung by a bee or a wasp, it can be kind of difficult to get them to sting you, even when you have then between a pair of tweezers or they are right up on your skin.   If they don't feel threatened, they aren't going to sting.

I get them in a pair of tweezers--you have to grasp them by the head or the middle (the thorax).  If you get them by the abdomen, their stinger can't engage.  It can be disconcerting--the unfortunate chosen bee is buzzing and vibrating which you can feel through the metal.

The bee tends to curl itself upwards in an attempt to sting the tweezers so you angle her in order to catch the stinger.

But sometimes she doesn't want to.  No matter how much you rub her soft little butt on your skin, it just doesn't happen.  You don't even see the stinger engage.  If you squeeze the tweezers a little bit it usually helps.  But sometimes that doesn't work either.  If a bee will not sting me no matter how much I try to make her, I let her go.  After all, she probably doesn't actually want to die whether she can think about it or not.  I can't say that I particularly enjoy squeezing their heads in the tweezers either.

Once the stinger catches, it remains in your skin and as you remove the bee it also pulls the venom sack out with it.  That's the gnarly slime ball that you see on the end in the photo.  You can get the stinger out immediately or let it stay until all the venom has been pumped into your body.  I usually let it sit for a few seconds and then remove the stinger although sometimes I leave the stinger in for a couple of minutes.

You have to crush the bee immediately afterward so that her death is at least quick not slow. 

I still don't know exactly how I'll react to the stings.  I have thankfully stopped swelling and itching for the most part, but the other day I gave myself a sting in each hand, and they puffed up *immediately*.  Which is strange because it usually takes several hours for the swelling to commence.  I've already heard the Stay-Puft marshmallow jokes, so you don't need to go there.

 

I've also been keeping a sting log, and I've put a link up on the right hand side of this blog if you're interested.  It's pretty dry stuff--just a spreadsheet for my reference, but you can have a look nonetheless.