after Allen wrote " I know of no serious beekeepers who have become allergic
to bees", Mats Andersson wrote: " This is both good and bad news. Good that
i won't become allergic, bad that i need to get my wife and kids a few
stings. They won't like it..."

Difficult one to sell - but it does seem beekeeper's families are a high
risk group if they get only venom dust and not stings.  Croft (in 'Allergy
to Bee Stings')  offers one small maketing point:  'apamin, the neurotoxic
component of bee venom, is the only peptide small enough to pass the
blood/brain barrier'  and somewhere he says that beekeepers actually feel
better when recovering from a stinging.  Croft does not link the statements
but well-being is presumably experienced in the brain.  So u could tell your
wife u are getting her stung to help her feel better.

More seriously:  MCD-peptide was isolated from bee venom in 1973 and found
to have 100 times the activity of hydrocortisone in the rat paw oedema test
(I do not know what that means either).  It was shown to be effective in
preventing adjuvant-induced arthritis in rats when administered at a
subcutaneous dosage of about 4mg/kg.  Arthritis blights life for many
people - but the bad thought is that the tested dosage is vast compared with
only a single sting or two.

Whether we should in fact immunise our families by inducing stinging is not
wholly one-sided in Croft.  The immunisation process has brought on
anaphalactic shock in many patients , rather than guard against it.  It will
depend on how far members of our families have already gone down the road to
sensitivity due to inhaling dust - in beekeepers, sensitivity has been found
not to develop until the beekeeper had received the first 23 stings.
Medical advice should perhaps always be sought - but not all local doctors
are experienced in apitherapy, and many cases of death from stings are
supposed to go unrecorded.

The more recent but less comprehensive book - Dr Harry Riches (medical
doctor) , Medical Aspects of Beekeeping, 2000, ISBN  0905 652 55 X  does NOT
recommend stinging oneself or family.  The check list  - Advoiding Trouble -
concentrates on QUIET BEES, and careful practice to avoid stings.

Croft is interesting in that apparently fear plays a part in losing control
of reaction to stings . Several stung people witnessed that they were about
to die - and then did. Croft ends by saying "one should first examine
whether or not the particular fear of bees could be removed or at least
lessened.  In this way the immunotheraputic treatment will have the greatest
chance of success".  This is one reason I feel my 'Meet the bees' sessions
at a local school are perhaps helping the children - once they have (young,
stingless) bees (from an Apidea mating hive) running over their bare hands,
they seem to go thru a barrier - the risk is that fear is quickly replaced
by bravardo.

 Let us know Mats how your wife liked it - and if you are still together!

Robin Dartington

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