Insect stings allergies
With warm weather comes the increased risk of insect stings. When you are stung by an insect, poisons and toxins from the insect enter your skin. It is normal for a person to experience some swelling, redness, pain, and itching at the site of a sting.
However some insects are more likely than others to cause severe allergic reactions including:
- bees
- wasps
- hornets
- yellow jackets
- fire ants
The honeybee stings only once and after stinging dies, leaving its stinger behind. Wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets do not usually lose their stingers and can often sting repeatedly. Yellow jackets are known to cause the greatest number of insect related allergic reactions.
Infants and children may be more prone to have more severe reactions to insect stings than adults.
Severe reactions to stings may include :
- Swelling of the lips, tongue, ears, eyelids, palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and/or feeling of fullness in the mouth or throat.
- Hives and reddening of the skin.
- Shock can occur if the circulatory system cannot get enough blood to vital organs.
- Coughing, wheezing, difficulty breathing.
- Light-headedness and confusion.
As you may know, an allergy is usually unknown until after experiencing the first allergic reaction. Therefore, it is important to be very careful when going outdoors as a person may be severely allergic to an insect sting and not know it because they have yet to be stung.
Did you know...
- Stings from bees and wasps are the most common cause of insect related anaphylactic reactions.
