" native bee stings aren’t dangerous"
What? That is the same as saying “bee stings aren’t dangerous”. All bees are native somewhere.
Bees native to the area I was in (western USA) are highly unlikely to cause any health issues. Honey bee anaphylaxis is a different concern. Bumblebee stings are the most painful I’ve dealt with and caused very little inflammation on my finger, as compared to a wasp sting or ant bite.
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is anaphylaxis not just based on what the person is sensitized to? I thought most stings could cause it if the person was sensitized to the venom, and that it wasn’t just a honeybee thing
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https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/halictidae
Under “allergic disorders” it does seem that most stinging Hymenoptera can cause reactions. My understanding is that most solitary bees have low amounts of venom relative to Apis, but I’m not a doctor or entomologist.
Anaphylaxis is a general term - basically a life-threatening hypersensitivity to something, generally an allergen. A person doesn’t need to have been sensitized to a potential allergen to go into anaphylaxis, but often initial exposures are less strong than subsequent ones, so it is a good rule of thumb that subsequent exposures can be more dangerous/likely to cause anaphylaxis. Strength of allergic reaction does often depend on dosage (more allergen, stronger response). So, all things being equal, more venom is more likely to induce anaphylaxis. Hymenopterans do have a variety of different venoms though, so not everyone will respond the same (or at all) to different venoms.
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I’m no professional either, but my understanding is that the dose needed to trigger an allergic reaction is very small, such that any insect with enough venom to cause pain can cause anaphylaxis in a person with a severe allergy to it’s venom. I read about a case of anaphylaxis caused by a small number of Red Imported Fire Ant (Solenopsis invicta) stings
I have also read that Apis venom is especially allergenic, but it is still possible to be allergic to just about any sting. There is also a rumor that one cannot be allergic to Bullet Ant (Paraponera clavata) stings, but this does not appear to be true
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I split this discussion off into its own topic.
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I don’t know about other Hymenoptera, but I found out the hard way that Vespinae hate me and want me to suffer. It wasn’t just that the $@^&!# yellowjacket had to fly up the leg of my jeans and nail me right above the ankle, it was that the little @&#%@$#! did so while I was running a time-sensitive errand for my then-boss; one which involved a good chunk of walking once I got to where I was going. Not the best time to have to detour and grab a bottle of antihistamine syrup.
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In 1986, while in graduate school, I was stung by a “yellowjacket” one evening (inside the Museum on campus). I began to react and a Prof nearby recognized what was going on and took me to the hospital. It had been about 30 minutes since the sting: I had hives all over my body, my tongue was swelling up.
Two nurses threw me onto a gurney and along with the emergency doctor, began putting needles etc into me. Later, after the epinephrine etc did its job, they explained “anaphyllaxis” to me. Since then, I carry several EpiPens with me in the field.
When it stung me, I thought someone had snuck up and stabbed me. I turned around and saw this “yellowjacket” on the floor, injured - I had backed up and pressed into a cabinet behind me and apparently the wasp was perched there. I killed it, and, being the Museum-type I am, I saved it (I kept it for many years; I have a LOT of nature stuff in our living room and I may still have it but I’ve so many items I’m unsure at this point).
Over the years, I was able to finally identify it as a European Hornet, Vespa crabro. Also over the years, I’ve been stung by Polistes a few times, Bombus once or twice, and a few smaller wasps/bees. These have caused either very mild reactions, or none at all.
Vespids definitely have a more ‘toxic’, or potent, venom, and I am clearly at great risk from their sting.
I have one current bird banding (ringing) project, since 2016. We have found ‘crabro’ hanging around 3 different net locations, over the years. A few years ago I was able to get a decent photo of one (it’s uploaded here). During one session one year, an individual was caught in a net where one of my techs was removing birds. She texted me a photo and when I saw it, I told her to go ahead and dispatch it, if she didn’t mind. She used the small scissors in her pocket knife to do so.
As beautiful as they are, I have my limits and they’re not native to our area.
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Polistes is also a vespid, are you referring to vespines? (yellowjackets and hornets?) or just genus Vespa (hornets)?
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While there is variation in strength of hymenopteran venoms (eg, total amount/ concentrations of different venom components), susceptibility to different components varies from person to person. Different people are allergic to different venom components (though there are different patterns of allergic reactions that are more/less common), so it makes it hard to generalize about venom responses.
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