The Lancet is a medical journal on the net(see address below) I'm no expert but it seems to me the hive tool is still your best bet for removing stingers. Comments... http://www.thelancet.com/User/vol348no9023/press/index.html#REMOVINGBEE > >> REMOVING BEE STINGS: SPEED MATTERS, METHOD DOESN'T (pp 301-02) >> >> If you are stung by a bee, get the sting out of your skin as quickly >> as possible, no matter how. That is the practical message reached by >> two Californian scientists who describe stinging themselves with bees >> in the interest of science in The Lancet this week. >> >> Kirk Visscher and Richard Vetter, who study insects at the University >> of California, Riverside, questioned whether the conventional advice >> to scrape the sting apparatus out the skin, perhaps with a knife blade >> or credit card, is sound. Or, they postulated, should you pinch the >> sting out with fingers or forceps? "Volunteers me and me" was the >> order of the day. >> >> With a lucky (or wise) medical colleague, Scott Camazine from >> Pennsylvania State University, as observer only, Visscher and Vetter >> drew up their shirtsleeves and "collected a worker honey bee as she >> flew from her hive, grasped her by the wings, and pressed her against >> the skin" until they were stung, twenty times in all in each >> volunteer. Two seconds later, the stingees scraped the sting off with >> a credit card or pinched it out with their thumb and forefinger. >> Camazine measured the size of the weals that appeared ten minutes >> later. There was no difference in the size of the weal after scraping >> or pinching: means of 80 and 74 mm2, respectively. >> >> Visscher did other self-experiments, involving a total of fifty >> forearm stings. The sting was left in for between half and eight >> seconds, and Camazine measured the weals ten minutes later. The mean >> weal size increased the longer the sting was left in, from just over >> 60 to about 82 mm2, which is why fast removal is a good idea. >> >> Bee stings are painful and sometimes fatal. About 17 people die each >> year in the USA after being stung by bees. When the honey bee stings, >> the sting imbeds in the skin along with a venom sac, a nerve cell, >> some muscles, and the end of the bee's abdomen. Barbs on the sting >> itself work deeper into the flesh as the muscles contract. The >> contractions also pump venom from the sac via a valve and piston. The >> longer the sting is in, the more venom is released. Hence the advice >> from the researchers to get the sting out as quickly as possible. >> >> Bees also release an alarm chemical when they sting that attracts >> other bees to come and sting you. If you are stung by an Africanised >> bee (a cross-breed noted for its aggression, and sweeping northward in >> the Americas), the researchers modify their advice. Run away fast, >> they say, before worrying about removing any stings. >> >> Contact: Dr P Kirk Visscher, Department of Entomology, University of >> California, Riverside, California, USA, tel +1 909 787 3973 >> >> Please mention The Lancet as the source of this material God Bless, Kelley Rosenlund [log in to unmask] Gainesville, Florida, U.S.A., Phone:352-378-7510 200 hives, 1 year in beekeeping.