Those who often visit nature or the countryside have been stung by bees or wasps at least once. It is often difficult to understand from the bite and the painful tumor that develops from it which insect caused it, the consequences are so similar. Scientists have long been closely studying the effects of wasp and bee venom on the human body.
It is known that wasp venom is more allergenic than bee venom. A bite can cause Quincke's edema and anaphylactic shock. But this is not all that insects with a bright, catchy yellow-black color are capable of. She warns everyone: dangerous!
Note! Only females have poison, and males simply do not have a sting.
Wasp venom: is it useful for the human body and how does it work?
Wasp venom is quite close in composition to bee venom. In addition, many people who are bitten cannot even say for sure whether they were stung by a wasp or a bee - the effects of the poison on the affected tissue are so similar.
Today, scientists have managed to study the composition of both bee and wasp poisons quite well. At the same time, an important distinctive feature was established: wasp venom is somewhat more allergenic and more often leads to complications in the form of various manifestations of dangerous allergic reactions (for example, Quincke's edema, anaphylactic shock). However, you should not think that from this point of view bee venom is harmless - it is also “good” for this, just with a little less probability.
Partly for this reason, “constriction” is not generally known as a traditional medicine method. Despite the fact that bee stinging is a fairly common and well-known procedure.
There is an opinion among experts that the notorious apitherapy and the benefits of bee venom are nothing more than a marketing ploy by beekeepers who need to sell excess of their products. Not a single serious study has confirmed, for example, the benefits of bee stinging, just as the healing properties of other apitherapy methods have not been proven.
It is highly likely that the benefits of propolis, wax moths, royal jelly and bee venom are nothing more than a placebo effect, and these beekeeping products have become widespread precisely because of their availability: they can be obtained from apiaries in almost any quantity.
But it is extremely difficult to obtain wasp venom, because no one breeds them on purpose, and you need to go into the nest of wild wasps to get the drug. And this is another explanation why, despite the similarity of composition, the poisons of these closely related insects vary so much in popularity in folk medicine.
As a result, even doctors and toxicologists today cannot always say unambiguously whether wasp venom is beneficial for humans. It actually contains stimulating and tonic components, substances that stimulate metabolism, but isolating them from the poison is not rational - there are many much safer analogues on the market today, both natural and synthetic.
But due to the large number of harmful and allergenic components, using unprepared wasp venom for treatment can be very dangerous.
Reproduction and cannibalism
Spiders usually breed between August and September. The mating process of spiders is common for all species; after mating, the male is almost always eaten by his partner, but sometimes he manages to escape.
Many males have found a way to stay alive; they often stop near the female’s web and wait for her to finish her last molt. At this moment, the female is very slow and tired, but she has reached sexual maturity and her chelicerae are quite soft and do not cause damage. During such periods, the male manages to mate and quickly escape.
Very often, when trying to escape and in order to increase the likelihood of the birth of their offspring, males break their copulatory organ and leave it inside the female, due to which other males cannot fertilize her.
3 weeks after fertilization, the female builds from 1 to 3 cocoons around her network, each cocoon contains about 400 eggs with a diameter of up to 3 cm. During the winter, they pass from the egg stage to the nymph stage, but do not leave the cocoon until it becomes warmer . Then they stay on the mother’s web until the first moult, after which they scatter.
On this topic, you may be interested in: Sydney funnel web spider, or Atrax robustus
Spider reproduction process, video author: Kuros-Regenwald !/Youtube
The composition of wasp venom and the effect of its components on the human body
In the vast majority of cases, wasps use their sting primarily for the purpose of self-defense, and only in rare cases to kill larger and overly aggressive prey. Therefore, as a rule, the main purpose of a wasp sting is to cause severe pain in the victim and scare him away.
The composition of wasp venom includes a set of substances that have a strong effect on nerve endings and cause a rapid immune response in the body. Among the main components the following components can be distinguished:
- Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter involved in the conduction of nerve impulses. At high concentrations, it disrupts the functioning of nervous tissue, blocking the transmission of excitation along nerve fibers.
- Histamine is the main activator of inflammation and allergic reactions. Its action can lead to a variety of manifestations: itching and swelling occurs at the site of the bite, and in especially sensitive people, urticaria, fever, and in rare cases, anaphylactic shock and Quincke's edema develop.
- Phospholipases are special enzymes whose task is to destroy cell walls, which leads to the release of contents from cells into surrounding tissues and provokes an inflammatory process. For the victim, this means pain at the site of the bite, which he will feel while the inflammation lasts. In addition, phospholipases contribute to the destruction of mast cell walls, which causes additional amounts of histamine to be released into the blood and intensifies the allergic reaction.
- Hyaluronidase is a toxin whose action is similar to that of phospholipases.
- A hyperglycemic factor that increases blood sugar levels.
In hornets, the venom also includes specific mastoparan toxins, which have a powerful destructive effect on cells.
“I was once stung by a hornet. In the apiary, I got used to bee stings, they don’t bother me at all, I boldly catch and crush philants. But the hornet hit me so hard that my vision went dark. It’s good that all the evidence was closed. I just walked to the trailer and lay down to lie down. The pain was hellish, my heart sank, all I could think of was to put something cold on my hand. It was badly blown, all the way to the shoulder, and it was very itchy. My apiary neighbor offered to take me to the hospital, but everything turned out okay. The next day, only the itching remained, and then gradually the swelling began to subside.”
Consequences of wasp venom on the human body
Now let's see how wasp venom works, so to speak, at the macro level, that is, what symptoms arise.
At the moment of sting, the effect of the poison injected under the skin causes sharp pain, and almost immediately leads to the appearance of a small pale swelling at the site of the bite. After a few minutes, the bite swells more, may turn red, becomes hard, and a feeling of severe itching appears on the skin in its area. At this time, the first symptoms of an allergy may appear - hives, fever, shortness of breath, headache, confusion.
When should you go to the hospital?
There are cases when a wasp or a swarm of wasps bites two or more times. In such cases, you need to urgently contact a medical facility. There is a generally accepted opinion that after three bites (for children, two bites or more), a toxic reaction of the entire body can begin. If a wasp bites you on the face or ear, swelling of the entire face occurs. A bite in the larynx, lip and tongue is very dangerous. The consequences are severe. The larynx swells, the swelling goes beyond the local limits. This often leads to suffocation. And therefore, the reaction to this type of symptom should be immediate. If the skin itches, itches, or a rash has formed, these are also the first symptoms that you should pay attention to and contact the appropriate specialists.
Use of wasp venom in medicine
It is for allergy sufferers, for whom wasp stings lead to serious consequences, that special vaccines are prepared based on wasp venom. They reduce the titer of histamine and some toxins, but retain the original amount of specific components by which the human immune system can identify poison.
Before the warm season of the year, when there is a chance of being stung, the patient is vaccinated to develop a normal immune response to the bite. As a result, after an accidental encounter with a wasp, a person’s reaction to a sting will be much less pronounced and not so life-threatening.
Wasp venom can also be useful due to the actual toxins included in its composition. For example, in Barcelona, the development of a method of combating cancer tumors, based on the destruction of cancer cells precisely by the biological components of wasp venom, began quite a long time ago.
Scientists are trying to combine toxin molecules with transport protein molecules that will deliver the poison directly to cancer cells without affecting healthy ones. This drug has already proven its effectiveness in mice, and work is currently underway to study its effect on human tissue.
Protection measures
A wasp sting is harmful primarily to those who are particularly susceptible to poison. In this case, it is recommended to carry out preventive vaccination, due to which histamine and toxins are introduced into the body in small quantities. Vaccination should be done in the second half of summer, when insects become active.
With timely measures taken, you can avoid a strong reaction from the body, which appears very quickly. It should be noted that such vaccination is not particularly popular among the population , but allergy sufferers should pay attention to it. You should also protect people from wasps as much as possible. Thanks to various means and devices, you can quickly get rid of insects both outdoors and indoors.
Thus, one cannot speak affirmatively about the benefits of wasp stings. Most often, they cause pain to a person, and in many people this threatens to turn into an allergic reaction, which can result not only in anaphylactic shock, but also in death.
The most poisonous wasps in the world
Although all wasps are poisonous, the strength of the poison and the consequences of the bites vary from one type of wasp to another. In different representatives of the suborder, the ratio of venom components can vary greatly, and many of them have unique components in their venom that have a specific effect on the victim.
For example, the most painful bite is from road wasps of the genus Pepsis. Most representatives of this genus specialize in preying on tarantulas for their larvae. Their bite is considered one of the most painful insects in the world, and is second in strength only to the bite of the South American ant Paraponera clavata.
The bite of a huge hornet (Vespa Mandarinia), which lives in Southeast Asia and Japan, is statistically the most dangerous among wasps. Every year, about 40 people die from attacks by these insects in Japan alone, and the number of victims throughout the entire habitat of these hornets exceeds a hundred.
The composition of the venom of a huge hornet differs little from the composition of the venom of the European hornet, but in one bite the insect introduces a significantly larger dose of toxins into the human body. In addition, when attacking, a hornet can make several stings at once with a short interval, which often leads to further hemorrhages and extensive swelling. We can say that the huge hornet is the most poisonous wasp in the world.
But Scolia wasps, despite their truly gigantic size, sting rather weakly. Their venom is designed to paralyze prey rather than scare away the enemy, which is why entomologists boldly catch these large black wasps with their bare hands.
Spangled wasps and German wasps sting very painfully. The females of the latter are easily confused with ants due to the fact that they lack wings. These insects are parasites in the nests of other wasps, and it is thanks to their strong poison that they can even defend themselves against hornets by penetrating their nest.
And in conclusion, we note once again: you should not expect that wasp venom will be beneficial for the body. In the event of an accidental sting, this, of course, could be a small consolation, but you should not specifically catch wasps and apply them to the body, because even possible positive effects from the bite will be offset by severe pain, unpleasant swelling and the risk of developing a dangerous allergic reaction.
Brazilian wasp - cancer winner
At the end of the last decade, one of the UK universities substantiated the assumption that the venom of the Brazilian wasp Polibia Paulista has such a peculiarity of its effect on the cells of the human body when introduced, which is characterized by a special “interest” of some of its components in cancer cells.
According to Paul Beals, who with his team of scientists made this discovery, experiments with the introduction of poison from this species living in Brazil gave the following result.
It turned out that the venom of the Brazilian wasp kills cancer cells, literally tearing them apart, while not having any harmful effect on healthy cells.
The principle of this unique behavior of the toxin is explained by its desire to come into contact with fats such as phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine, which usually appear as a second ball around the tumor cell.
Appearance
Both species of stinging insects belong to the order Hymenoptera. It is not possible to determine who is bigger at first glance. Bees appear thicker due to their thick hairs. You can tell a wasp from a bee by their appearance.
The main difference is the color:
- Bee color: the body is painted in a more modest yellow tone, intersected by blurry dark stripes. Paws are dark in color. The body is rounded, covered with thick hairs, and the girdle between parts of the body is almost invisible. The abdomen differs in shape, depending on its role in the hive. In workers who collect nectar, it is ovoid. In queens it is oblong. The drones have a body that seems to be truncated and larger than that of an ordinary inhabitant of the hive. The bee's legs are equipped with baskets for storing flower nectar and pollen.
- The wasp looks more elegant. Its abdomen, head and paws are smooth, painted in a deep yellow color, which is clearly separated by a dark pattern. And the abdomen and chest are sharply separated by a narrow belt. The body is elongated. During examination, you can distinguish strong jaws and thin legs.
Lifestyle
Insects also differ in their lifestyle:
- The flight of a bee is soft and leisurely. The nectar collector needs to visit many flowers without missing a single one. The wasp flies rapidly, at high speed, but can freeze in the air for a moment;
- All insects prefer to live in families, which mainly consist of ordinary workers, one queen and drones.
Domestication and Taming:
- Man made comfortable hives for domestic bees. Working individuals produce wax from which they build honeycombs;
- Wild individuals make their nests in tree cavities and mountain crevices.
Wasps also live in groups, where responsibilities are clearly distributed between them. Sometimes they prefer to live as hermits. Their nest is round, as if made of thin crumpled paper. In fact, they prepare it from rotten wood and dry plants.
Dirt and small debris are used to build the nest. They attach their nests to the walls of a house, large tree branches, thick grass, even in a thick plant stem, a discarded mitten, or a piece of cardboard.
Behavior
A wasp and a bee can live in a group, accumulating up to several thousand individuals and alone. The queen begins to build a wasp's nest; first she builds one layer, then the rest. She then mates once with the drone and begins laying larvae, providing food.
At the beginning of summer, the female lays larvae, from which sterile individuals hatch. Closer to autumn, the larvae from which individuals will emerge are capable of reproduction. They develop in a cell, feeding on pre-prepared immobilized insects. Sometimes wasps lay larvae in the body of large beetles. During its development, its status gradually increases. She starts with cleaning the nest and ends with getting food. In autumn, all ordinary individuals and drones freeze, leaving only the queen alive.
In a bee swarm there is also a clear division of responsibilities. Some individuals deliver nectar to the hive. Others put nectar in honeycombs, while others clean the hive of dead individuals. There are cell cleaners, caring for babies and guards who stand at the entrance, the job is to not let strangers through. Defenders protect the home from attackers, these include humans and bears.
Each ordinary worker gradually goes through all the stages of the listed works throughout her life. This is how nature prescribed it. The young individual begins by cleaning the honeycomb. Then she produces milk and begins feeding the queen and young larvae. Then the bee feeds the older larvae with beebread. Then it takes nectar from collecting bees, or stores it in cells. Then the time comes for her to remove the garbage, when her wax glands begin to work, she begins to build and plug the honeycomb. After the 18th day, the glands that produce poison begin to act, then they are trusted to protect the hive.
The bee colony accumulates a supply of beebread for the winter months and for inclement summer days. Closer to autumn, when there is little food, they destroy the drones.
The queen flies out into the wild to mate. In free flight, she chooses a more viable male, sometimes from another hive.
general information
The benefit of wasps is that in the spring they, together with bees, take an active part in pollinating plants, carrying pollen from flower to flower on their legs in search of nectar. Thus, they make a significant contribution to the overall yield of various crops. In addition, wasps destroy insects that feed on fruits or plants with great appetite. These could be pests such as aphids, caterpillars, bedbugs, flies or other insects. One individual can eat several dozen pests a day.
Relation to the uterus
The queen of a bee colony is the main individual. Beekeepers call her the queen or queen bee. All the inhabitants of the hive always take care of her, surround her with a retinue, give her food and drink, and protect her in case of danger. The queen stays in the hive all the time, flying out only to mate with the drones, when it’s time for the bee swarm to divide.
How is a wasp different from other insects? Because they do not take care of their uterus. She finds her own food.
Nutrition
There are also differences in nutrition.
- Vegetarians include bees. They feed only on nectar and plant pollen.
- Wasps need to consume the proteins found in the larvae. They often eat flies and even beetles, which are sometimes larger. First they sting the victim to immobilize them. Then, wrapping their paws around them, they drag them into their nest. They crush weak opponents with their powerful jaws. Can be seen on pieces of rotten meat, fish, carrion. With their strong jaws they tear off small pieces, chew them and give them to their larvae. They love the juice of fresh, rotten fruits, vegetables, and berries. They love to enjoy sweet drinks, beer, and jam.
How else are these insects different? Being aggressive, wasps can enter the hive to snack on protein food. Although the owners of the hive actively defend themselves, they can expel uninvited guests out.
Structure
The body of any bee consists of:
- From a triangular shaped head. A seam runs down the center of the head, separating the bee's compound eyes. The head contains the brain parts of the nervous system;
- Abdomen that ends in a sting;
- Breasts;
- A flexible chitinous layer that protects internal organs.
Upon closer examination, a bee can see two pairs of wings, six pairs of legs with baskets for collecting pollen with brushes. The bee's mouth is equipped with a proboscis, with which it extracts nectar from the depths of the flower. The eye of an ordinary hive inhabitant can contain up to 5 thousand facets, the queen has more, and the drone has about 8 thousand.
The wasp has eyes located on both sides of its head, so it can look to the right and left at the same time. Below the eyes is a forehead with two movable antennae that act as an antenna. They help determine humidity, amount of carbon dioxide and temperature in the nest. The head of the wasp is also equipped with antennae, with their help it determines the size of the cell and the taste of food. The wasp has 6 legs, which consist of 9 segments, attached to the bottom of the abdomen.
People are often stung by wasps and bees; the stings are always unpleasant and painful. But there are differences between bee and wasp stings. Both species are equipped with a sting, but they use it differently.
A bee stinger with retractable barbs that resembles a tiny harpoon. During an attack, the tip of the sting pierces the upper layer of skin, and poison is injected through a thin channel. The difference is that when trying to pull the sting back, the intestines of the hive inhabitant are torn off, which leads to death.
Wasp sting: harm, danger and protection
A wasp sting hurts and can cause severe symptoms. If medical assistance is not provided in a timely manner, anaphylactic shock or Quincke's edema will occur. Scientists equate wasp stings to bee stings and suggest that they have a positive effect on health. Therefore, it is important to understand whether an insect bite provides benefits to the human body or causes harm. It is important that if you are stung by a wasp, you should immediately consult a doctor.
The benefit of wasps is that in the spring they pollinate flowers of different crops: with their paws they transfer pollen from one plant to another. Thus, insects can increase the yield of various crops. Wasps also destroy insects that eat plant fruits. For example, they successfully feast on aphids, caterpillars, flies, and bedbugs. During the day, one adult wasp can eat up to 20 - 30 pests.
Lethal dose from a bite
Since the wasp is capable of stinging up to several times in one attack and calling on relatives for help, the amount of injected poison can lead to irreparable consequences, including anaphylactic shock. Even if a wasp nest is accidentally damaged, a whole swarm of viable individuals will attack the victim.
The body's response depends on the amount of poison entering the bloodstream . The more it is, the higher the risk of death of the victim. If a person is prone to allergic reactions, one bite from an adult is enough to cause death. The reaction depends on the individual characteristics of the body and the level of functioning of the immune system.
Wasp venom consists of the following components:
- histamine, which provokes the development of allergies. The affected skin becomes red, itchy, and swollen;
— phospholipases that destroy tissue and blood cells. This component enhances the development of allergies;
- hyaluronidase, which destroys cell membranes, resulting in inflammation in the area of the wasp sting;
- acetylcholine, which conducts nerve impulses;
- a hyperglycemic factor that increases blood sugar levels.
Each type of wasp has its own individual poison. Hornets (large wasps) secrete a poison consisting of matoparana with crabweed. Such polypeptides destroy large human cells and release large amounts of histamine from them.
The benefit of a wasp sting is that hemoglobin in the blood increases, cholesterol levels decrease, and blood vessels dilate. Positive aspects are observed only if a person is not allergic to a wasp sting.
A small amount of wasp venom increases the pulse and increases blood flow to the affected area. If there are too many stings, the skin swells greatly, blood accumulates under the skin, pain in the heart area, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. In this case, it is important to urgently provide medical assistance to the victim to save his life.
If the question arises about how a wasp sting is useful for a person, we can say that it is more harmful, since it can cause severe allergies, accompanied by anaphylactic shock and even angioedema.
Unlike wasp venom, bee stings are more beneficial. They improve the functioning of the human nervous system, thin blood clots, act as vasodilators, and reduce high blood pressure.
Bee stings, like wasp stings, can trigger allergies, which are dangerous to human health and life.
Does a wasp die after being stung? No, because she can pull out the sting and fly further. Its sting has a smooth surface. Therefore, it penetrates freely into the skin and is also easily removed from it. Bee stings have serrations, which means that if they get into human skin they cannot be removed. The bee flies away, but the sting with poison and some part of the insect itself remain in the bitten area. The wound on the abdomen does not allow the bee to live, so it dies.
First aid for a wasp sting
First of all, after a bite, you need to carefully examine the wound for the presence of a sting. Many people confuse wasps and bees due to their external similarity. At the same time, bees are able to sting a person only once, after which they die, leaving their sting inside the wound.
Wasps can sting a person more than once and, accordingly, they do not leave their sting at the site of the bite.
If a sting is found, it should be carefully pulled out using tweezers or other available tools, but under no circumstances should the sting be squeezed out. After removing the sting, the procedure for wasp and bee stings is similar:
Wasp bite mark.
- disinfecting the wound with alcohol, peroxide or other alcohol-containing liquid;
- applying a tight bandage of sterile bandage;
- applying ice to the bite site to relieve pain;
- drinking large amounts of water.
How dangerous are wasp stings?
Harm from a wasp sting is manifested by the following symptoms:
1. Swelling and inflammation appear in the bitten area, tissue and vessel walls are destroyed.
2. Pain occurs, causing severe itching in the affected area.
3. A person suffers from slight malaise and increased body temperature.
4. Hives and headaches may occur. In severe situations, severe intoxication occurs, Quincke's edema. If you have a severe allergy to a wasp sting, it is important to urgently show the injured person to a doctor in order to provide him with timely help and even save him from death.
An insect bite is also dangerous because it causes sensitization.
There may be no reaction to the first sting, but subsequent wasp attacks can cause unpleasant and even life-threatening symptoms.
