Bites and stings can happen anywhere and to anyone. There's a lot you can do to help and relieve the awful pain that often occurs after a bite or a sting.

Help For Bites And Stings

When stung it's essential to act quickly. You must identify what had bitten or stung you, i'e wasp, bee, spider, ant etc.

If it's a wasp or some such other insect that leaves the stinger behind in the flesh this must firstly be removed. The longer the stinger is left in the more venom isl injected into the skin. The best way to remove the stinger is to either use your finger nail or a sharp object  i.e. credit card or knife and scrap it away, don't try to pluck it out with either fingers or tweezers.

Immediately clean the sting area with water or soap and water if available. It's quite OK to give some pain killing medication such as asprin or paracetamol if the pain becomes unbeareable. Next provide an antihistamine, in tablet or liquid form, this will help greatly with the pain and swelling and will often calm (and occasionally cause drowsiness) the patient down.

To help deaden the pain try the following:-

Ice-pack - frozen peas or ice cubes in a rag placed over the infected area.

Hair-dryer -  heat will help neutralize the chemical that cause the inflamnation.

Baking-soda - use the crystals added to water to make a paste and place on the infected area.

Ammonia - most household cleaning products contain ammonia, dab this gently over the area. If out in the wilds, urine will also provide instant relief.

Meat-tenderiser - an enzyme in meat tenderisers, breaks down the proteins that make up the venom.

It's extremely important to keep a close check on the patient in case they should have an allergic reaction to the venom, then

fast emergency hospital treatment

will be required as the patient may go into anaphylactic shock.

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