Karen DeHond wrote:

> Your friend has an interesting hypothesis.

 Interesting, but incorrect.

> Where did he get his
> information.

He swears that he was taught this in an entomology course, but that was back in
the late 60's and his memory of what he was taught has become jumbled.  My
guess is that he is thinking of the cumulative nature of multiple bee stings
received at the same time - acute exposure.  This is the reason why africanized
bees can be dangerous.  It has nothing to do with quantity or potency of
venom.  It has to do with the victim receiving many stings at one time.  This
has no bearing on chronic exposure over a lifetime.

> I started bee keeping last year and for several reasons, most
> my own fault, received about 30 stings over the season, the last sting
> produced severe hives and I was started on allergy shots.  The allergist
> seems to have a lot of interesting ideas too.  His most recent statement
> was:  "once desensitization takes place, it's best to continue getting the
> occasional sting.  Articles he's read say that people who were beekeepers
> and received many stings then stop keeping bees and don't get stung for
> several years are at greater risk than if they'd never kept bees at all.  I
> can't cite his sources but it's an interesting thought.

Your allergist is, I believe, correct.  By receiving stings over a period of
time as in beekeeping or in your case desensitization therapy, most people
build up a tolerance or immunity to the venom.  However, it does not last in
the way that a vaccination against polio does.  This is exactly my point.  In
order to keep feeling the "benefits", you must continue to occasionally be
stung in order to revive your body's immunity to the venom.  If the effects of
the venom were cumulative, you would not develop a tolerance.  If you did
develop a tolerance, it should last without having to be stung again since the
venom or its effects would hang around.  Finally, what doctor in the world
would subject a person who had "reached their limit" of venom to venom therapy
and recommend that you should receive the "occasional sting" in order to
maintain it?

Concerning the idea that beekeepers who have quit and not been stung in many
years are at greater risk than if they hadn't been beekeepers in the first
place, I cannot say whether or not this is true.  I would tend to think that it
isn't, but I am far from an expert in this area, particularly since this is the
first time I have heard this theory.  I would think that one would return to a
level of localized reaction that they experienced before beginning beekeeping
and developing a tolerance to venom, but I can't imagine why you would have a
worse response because you were once tolerant.  Anyone on the list have any
input?

It has been suggested that I look to the chaper by Justin Schmidt in "The Hive
and the Honey Bee."  Any other recommendations?

Thanks,

Wendy Platt