In the analysis of bee and wasp sting venom, twenty substances preside. Wasp venom comprises different amounts of each of the ingredients found in honey bee venom listed below. The type of wasp and how the insect injects its venom differs. A bee can only inject .1 mg of venom. It takes thousands of stings to kill a healthy human.
Both insects sting the same way by planting its stinger into flesh by moving rapidly back and forth in a cutting action. With the lancets, the barbed hooks provide a pumping action whereby the venom pumps out into the blood stream of the victim. With humans, the bee cannot escape without ripping itself apart as the whole stinging apparatus it leaves inside the poor human. It flies away and later dies. Wasps do not leave their stinging apparatus. It just flies away.
After a victim gets stung, it is very important to remove the stinger. The poison continues to enter the body even after sixty seconds if the stinger remains in the body. The sooner a victim removes the stinger the less severe the wound. People who get bee stings often have a greater chance of more severe symptoms. The immune system knows to begin flushing the sting making the swelling greater than for a victim who never had a bee sting before.
Most stinging insects are from the order Hymenoptera. They are bees, wasps, and ants. All stings come from female insects because the stinger is a part of the reproductive system of the bee or wasp.
Different types of wasps include mud dauber wasps, hornets, yellow-jackets, and paper wasps. Most people call all these bees, but each has its differences and way of stinging its victims.
The most prevalent chemical melittin, found in honey bees, stimulates nerve cells that cause pain for a few hours or days. The area turns red and becomes swollen because the body tries to flush the venom from the blood around the sting. The venom consists of complex proteins. Adolapin and melittin are strong anti-inflammatory substances, and create analgesic activity as well. Apamin blocks calcium-dependent potassium channels. Compound X, Hyaluronidase, Phospholipase A2, Histamine, and Mast Cell Degranulating Protein (MSDP) soften tissue and facilitate the flow of the other substances. Other measurable amounts of the neurotransmitters Dopamine, Norepinephrine and Seratonin occur in venom.
Melittin has positive results in combating Lyme disease. It also kills the yeast that causes Candida albicans and other infections. Apitoxin is the component found in honey bees.
