Insect Stings (Bee Sting, Spider Bites)

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What is Insect Stings?

Bee sting and wasp sting happen commonly, bee sting and wasp sting are one of the clinical encounters that are exaggerated and mystified in movies and medias. bee sting and wasp sting are mostly benign and harmless, but with massive bee and wasp sting they can be life-threatening. Also if anaphylaxis occurs, this can be from minimal stings and be life-threatening.

Insect stings can be due to the following:

bee sting

wasp sting

ants

The commonest would be stings due to insects from the Hymenoptera group. This group includes bees, vespids (wasps, yellow jackets, hornets), and ants.

Who gets Insect Stings?

Insect stings are extremely common. In the US, 9.3 million people are stung by ants each year. Other Hymenoptera sting accounts for more than 1 million stings annually.

Predisposing Factors

There is no racial predilection in Hymenoptera sting, and the bee and wasp sting affects all ages and genders. However reports indicated that men are affected by bee and wasp stings more than women, probably because of more frequent exposure rather than any biological differences.

Progression

The different types of reactions from insect bites and bee stings can be described as below:

local reactions: after the insect bite or bee sting, the typical lesion is characterised by bee sting marking. Within minutes of the insect bite, local inflammation occurs, leading to local bright red tender nodule with subsequent hardening. Sometimes it can be accompanied by adjacent red plaques. The reaction of the insect bite often subsides in a few hours. As opposed to insect bites, bee & wasp stings are often painful, ranging from mild pain to severe, extreme pain. Not all local reactions subside quickly - for some individuals, large local reactions can occur with swelling that lasts from 48 hours to 1 week.

Toxic systemic reactions: this is due to venom injection through insect stings. This can be difficult to distinguish from systemic allergic reactions as the signs and symptoms are relatively similar.

Systemic allergic reactions: this happens through the typical type I hypersensitivity mechanism. Typical reactions include skin hives, angioedema and anaphylaxis reaction.

Delayed reactions: this happens through type III hypersensitivity mechanism (see Introduction and type 3 hypersensitivity reaction). This can lead to a condition called serum sickness, and typically occurs days or weeks after the sting. With serum sickness, generalised inflammation of the different organ systems can occur, causing inflammation of the blood vessels, nerves, brain, kidneys, and clotting abnormalities.

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