Bee sting itch

Got a honeybee stuck in my foot yesterday morning. I put baking soda on it and then honey. It didn’t swell much. But tonight it’s so itchy I want to cut it off. Home remedies for the itching?

Mild allergy or infection.   Antihistamine should help either way.   If you have witch hazel, I find this helps a lot.

Mega dose of vit C, maybe 2 or 3 times the suggested dose is another good one.

Imagine a ghost foot and scratch that can sometimes trigger mirror neurons and stop the itch.

I got one last week and ice reduced the swelling and itching.

Dock usually grows near stinging nettles.   Chew this up and make a paste.  But I find it only works the first day.

If still bad in two days,  it's probably infection and you might want a doctor.

r ranson wrote:Mild allergy or infection.   Antihistamine should help either way.   If you have witch hazel, I find this helps a lot.

Mega dose of vit C, maybe 2 or 3 times the suggested dose is another good one.

Imagine a ghost foot and scratch that can sometimes trigger mirror neurons and stop the itch.

I got one last week and ice reduced the swelling and itching.

Dock usually grows near stinging nettles.   Chew this up and make a paste.  But I find it only works the first day.

If still bad in two days,  it's probably infection and you might want a doctor.

I do usually get bad itching after a sting. Benadryl makes me depressed as a side affect so I stay away from it. Definitely will try the mega vitamin c as I can’t seem to get enough of that anyway. And I do have lots of dock so I’ll try that tomorrow. My husband told me to put just a wet washcloth on it and that did help some.

I use a drawing salve or paste, covered with a bandaid. The paste is quicker, unless you already have salve made up - I just blend activated charcoal and bentonite clay in a non-metal bowl, add a bit of frankinsense oil or Lavender essential oil - just enough to make a thick, wet-but-not-dripping paste, and apply it to the sting (or bite). If you don't have bentonite, just leave it out. The frankinsense or Lavender will sooth and heal it, while the activated charcoal pulls out the venom. Works for me, like a charm. If you'd like the recipe, I'll happily share it - and probably have, already, somewhere around here.

John uses benadryl for some things, and it has quite literally saved both my daughters lives - I can't. It makes me really sick & screws with my sleep.

Bethany Brown wrote:Benadryl makes me depressed as a side affect so I stay away from it.

My suggestion would be to open a capsule of Benadryl, wet the sting area and apply the powder, making a paste. Leave this on for 10 minutes. This has done wonders for me when I've been stung. I usually end up with a 5 inch area of swelling and crazy itching for days after being stung, but applying the Benadryl capsule right away the pain is gone and I don't get any of the hyper-reaction. And I don't get the sleepy, dopey reaction from taking Benadryl orally. You only need it in one small area so no reason to take it internally.

I recently read that the leaves of ragweed are good to relieve the itch of poison ivy so a poultice of ragweed leaves might be worth a try.

I also value the use of Broadleaf plantain (Plantago major) leaves. Other varieties would probably work well too.

I use reactine brand antihistamine as the allergy dr suggested the active ingredient has less depressive side effects and faster acting good effects.   But I do know if the brands are the same everywhere.

Depending on the local plants, there should be some treatment for allergies that would have less side effects than strong medicine.   Failing that,  spit has a lot of enzymes that can help.  

Hope it is feeling better.

Well thank you everyone who gave ideas. Seems like I should have more things prepared for such and incident. It’s definitely feeling much less itchy today. All I had time to do was extra vitamin c.

Bethany Brown wrote:Got a honeybee stuck in my foot yesterday morning. I put baking soda on it and then honey. It didn’t swell much. But tonight it’s so itchy I want to cut it off. Home remedies for the itching?

If you have plantain, that is the best option. You can pick a leaf, chew it up and paste it on the sting. Cayenne is great also if you have some in the kitchen. Cayenne has great properties and if applied, can burn a bit which is much more satisfying than an itch.

my hubby got stung by a fire ant.  he tried benadryl cream, cortisone cream, florasome cream, and in desperation, arnica.  arnica was the only thing that brought him relief.  so, if other things aren't working, it might be worth giving arnica a try.

Lavender and/or clove essential oils. Clove is stronger. Cayenne is also antibacterial.

I'm glad the itch is improving!

I have bad local reactions to most bites or stings. Recently I tried arnica cream, and find it's the best of any bite or sting remedy I've used.

It's also excellent for bruises, reducing the pain and making them heal way faster. I keep a tube in my first aid box all the time now!

I use homeopathic Ledum palustre 30c for any bee or wasp sting or insect bites. Takes away the pain & itching. Not something you can make for yourself on the homestead but so very worth having it on hand. Usually by the time the pellets melt under my tongue the pain & itch is gone. I use homeopathic medicine quite often. It doesn't interact with any other medication & is safe for animals too. Recently cured my old kitty of ring worm with homeopathic remedy,  after trying everything my vet had to offer. I'm learning to try the homeopathic remedy first!!!

Vitamin C does wonders in taking away bug and other similar issues. We take 2-3 grams normally after a sting, then a bit more in a couple hours.

Plantain and dock, both seem to be best for immediate use.  For later, I make a cream using menthol and camphor mixed in with calendula.  The menthol and camphor are for the itch,  and the calendula helps the skin heal from both the sting and the scratches! It works on brown-tail moth reactions too.

Bethany Brown wrote:Got a honeybee stuck in my foot yesterday morning. I put baking soda on it and then honey. It didn’t swell much. But tonight it’s so itchy I want to cut it off. Home remedies for the itching?

Because you say "stuck in my foot", I'm pretty sure that the stinger [which comes off the bee disemboweling it] stayed in your foot. Perhaps you have managed to remove it by now, but the stinger of a honeybee continues to pulse poison until removed. A credit card or a butter knife is usually useful to do this. Any attempt at pinching it with tweezers will only add poison to the wound.
With this out of the way, a couple of things may help now. You have seen the often portrayed treatment of a rattler bite in westerns, well, you could try that [although a day late may not do much good]
My mom used to rub alcohol in a small glass jar, set the alcohol on fire and quickly place the opening on the bite. This sucks the blood flow near the bite. [It doesn't work if you are hairy or if the bite is between your toes: the surface has to be flat].
Vinegar also seems to help. Better yet is a hydrocortisone cream. It won't totally stop it but it will feel better. To deaden the feeling altogether, apply an ice pack. It may have to be done several times.
Hang in there!

When I was a kid and a bee stung me, my grandma pressed freshly cut onion slice against it. The other home medicine widely used was vinegar. They might not be the most effective treatments, but are the things that are easily available in any kitchen.
Nowadays I use tea tree oil to calm any itches and bites.

I don’t have any personal experience but my brother has kept bees for many years and he uses plantain (the weed, not the banana 😂). He’d chew it then press it on the sting.

Might be for immediate use as one other post says which works out since it is generally common… I heard it once called “white-man’s foot”… as it seems to prefer the tougher compacted soil (or the open light) at the edge of a path 🤷🏼‍♂️

Michael Skowronski wrote:

Rub long hair on a bee sting. It works great. It removes the stinger too.

As for wasps, not sure, but the same may work.

For mosquitos use ammonia on the bite. Mix cleaning ammonia with water first to dilute it, does not take much. I keep a bottle of it on hand with an eyedropper in it, our use a q-tip to apply. It only stings if you've broken the skin by scratching the bite too much, but only for a short time.

Wasps and other stinging insects usually do not leave their stinger in the wound. That is specific of honeybees. When a honeybee sting, that is her first and last sting as she loses most of her guts at the same time. That is why honeybees will not attack unless swatted or during hive disruption. The honeybee is a one shot gun. Wasps, hornets etc. are the machine guns of the stinging insects.
I didn't know about ammonia. I will have to try it. thanks!

Honey bee stings are easy to fix - There's a product called AC Cream sold by Solle Naturals out of Utah.  Put a gob of that on the sting immediately, you won't get swelling or itch.  I've used it at least 5 times for that when I was living in California.

I now live in Alabama and we have red wasps.  They are the devil!  The first time you put a gob on, it takes 45 seconds for the pain to stop.  These 45 seconds feels like an hour!  But it won't keep the pain away, about every 20 minutes, you need to add another gob, it only takes a few seconds for the pain to go away this time and until it really stops hurting - about every 20 minutes you'll need another gob.  

I am a distributor, but I'm the world's worst salesman.  I buy a lot of their line for personal use.  
https://www.sollenaturals.com/solle-full/shop/  I don't care if you buy from me or someone else, but get some of this cream.

Not only does it help stings, it also helps with bruising, aches and pains - I know someone who used it on a dog bite.  AC is for Arnica and Calendula.

It's good stuff, I promise.

I'm late to the game but will add to the thread for future reference... my son stepped on a honeybee yesterday evening. He pulled out the stinger and immediately put plantain on it which helped with the immediate stinging.

This afternoon he said it was feeling really itchy and the area around the sting was probably a 4-5" diameter and purple. So we stuck his foot in a bowl of warm water and a cup of Epsom salt. Ten minutes later he said his foot felt wonderful and a tiny, almost microscopic, bit of the stinger that had got left behind had popped right out. The itch was completely gone and the color started to fade.

I love Epsom salt for drawing out anything that is stuck in the skin. It works great for slivers and splinters too, especially for little kids that won't let you get them out with tweezers.

Broadleaf or lance (narrow) leaf plantain are both great for stings.  Chew a leaf or two-- the chemical reaction of your saliva and the plant's components seem to kickstart the magic.  After you've masticated it a bit, slap it onto the sting.  I put a band aid over that to hold the plantain on, or tie a cloth around it to do the same job.  It works.  Yay plantain!

I just did a similar painful move after sitting with my chooks & tea, barefoot in the sun & letting them preen my hair, then putting back on my sandals without seeing the bee inside that I trapped with stinger that tragically for her, injected for several seconds! Pretty painful & neither calendula nor arnica touched it.
I was happily surprised the ointment I had purchased "SSSStingStop" made by BT (Boericke & Tafel of Green Bay, WI, USA) that is easily reproduceable worked fantastically with no pain or itch at all after only a few seconds. I had used it on mosquito bites successfully, but had no idea it would work so well on bee stings (I hadn't been stung in decades and long ago mellowed my previous fear with gentle harvesting of lavender.)

Herbal ingredients:
Echinacea angustifolia 1X
Ledum palustre 2X
Urtica doica 1X

It appears that the powerful anti-inflammatory (respiratory, arthritis, diabetes & stings!) Ledum palustre requires pretty low usda zones and I live in mild Winter/Summer searing & wildfire drought 9b, so won't likely be able to grow it here.