How to Deal With Bee Stings

Back when I was young, I was walking to the local store when a bee stung my foot. 

The venom sack was still attached and pumping. 

I screamed. 

A woman that lived in the house I was in front of came running out to help me. When I told her I was stung and she saw the stinger in my foot she calmly told me to not touch it and she would be right back. She ran into her house. I sat there watching the venom sack pumping and adding pain with each pulse.

She quickly returned with a plastic card (I think it was her driver's license) and a slice of raw onion.

She looked at the angle the stinger went in at, explaining that stingers have barbs on them that pull the stinger out of the bee when it stings so you have to be careful removing them. She put her thumbnail below the stinger to open the skin to easily release the barbed stinger and used the plastic card to scrape the stinger out over her nail.

The pain did not stop, but then she put the raw onion slice on the sting and held it down and rubbed it in a tiny circular motion, while talking to me the whole time. She told me that the onion draws out the venom, but I have since been told that the onion just nuetralizes the venom. I don't know what is does. It worked. I also think she was just trying to distract me from the pain and keep me calm so that my blood pressure didn't help spread the venom.

I think it was only 15 minutes and most of the pain was gone and there was no swelling.

It ended up feeling less uncomfortable than a mosquito bite.

A couple of decades later I got a call from the nurse at my youngest daughter's school. She had been stung. From what I gathered from the conversation it was not a honeybee, it was a yellow jacket.

The nurse called to ask permission to use a topical, over the counter "medicine" on the wound. I told her that I would rather have her go to the cafeteria and see if they have any raw onions and if they did to put a slice of raw onion on the sting and have my daughter hold it there for 15 to 20 minutes. Reluctantly she complied. I think she thought I was crazy and putting my daughter in jeopardy over a hokey wive's tale remedy.

She had my daughter keep that onion slice on the sting for over half an hour.

45 minutes later she called me back. She was absolutely amazed that the swelling was gone and all that was left was the small little hole where the stinger went in.

She enthusiastically said she was going to have to remember it for the next time a student got stung. I said that I hoped there wouldn't be a next time.

Coincidentally when an onion goes to seed their beautiful white flowers attract bees.

So if you get stung grab a slice of onion. If you are allergic to bee stings go ahead and use your epipen but also grab an onion slice to alleviate the topical pain.