What stung me?

[LuckyCharms]

Was outside mulching today.

Something got me on my ankle bone, through my sock.

Severe sharp pain immediately.

Soul crushing pain about 5 minutes later.

It looked like two small holes near the bite area, but now I can't find them.

Moderate swelling and redness, which I iced down for an hour.

Now it's 6 hours later. Only slight swelling and dull pain, but stabs me hard about every 30 minutes.

Pain shot up my toes for about an hour.

I could not find the culprit.

I'm in the northeast. Any idea what that could have been?

I'd place it in the top 5 most painful events that I've experienced.

I considered running down the street screaming like a little girl while rotating my arms in a windmill fashion, but I restrained myself.

[elleng]

1. Weird!

Glad I don't mulch!

Be well. Interested to see what others think it was.

[LuckyCharms]

5. Thanks, Ellen.

[soothsayer]

2. Snake?

[LuckyCharms]

4. I probably would have seen it. I was in my driveway on asphalt,

shoveling mulch into a wheelbarrow. There was no brush or high grass for him to slither off too.

[lapfog_1]

3. small snake

not poisonous I think.

If the two holes were a little bit apart.

[LuckyCharms]

6. Less than 1/4 inch apart, but I can't find the holes now!

I'm thinking a spider maybe?

[Laffy Kat]

9. Could have been a spider or you could have been stung a couple of times.

Wasps really, really hurt, but I don't think the pain would radiate like that. Plus, stings usually make welts. Keep your eye on it. If it was a black widow, there's usually pretty bad stomach pain, too, or so I hear. You may never know. But....yikes, LC. Do you have any antihistamines, oral or topical? I'd use either or both.

[LuckyCharms]

10. No I don't, but I have some...

Marijuana...smokable.

I'm leaning toward wasp. I hate those things.

[Laffy Kat]

14. I know! I'm allergic have terrible local reactions.

It will hurt for days and sometimes I have to have a steroid shot. Those ground wasps are the worst.

[2naSalit]

20. Last year I was stung on the neck by a mud wasp

and it hurt so bad... I put my usual baking soda on it and it diminished the pain some but I was miserable all that night. Next day, back at the farm... we were harvesting CBD hemp, serious high grade, and I decided to put some juice from the stem on it to see what would happen and the pain was gone after about an hour at most.

So, if you have mj, you could pulverize a little bit and mix it with water, make a paste, and put it on the bite area, okay if it covers a lot of area, and put a damp paper towel or bandana over it for a while. Put that on it whenever you need to replace what may fall off. You could add some baking soda to it as well.

Resin on my hand once negated, really, a yellowjacket sting too. So I think you may have your remedy on hand. Good luck.

PS... if you think it was a spider, go heavy on the baking soda but mix in some powered green stuff too.

[LuckyCharms]

34. Good advice, thank you.

I'm sorry to hear about your experience with the mud wasp. Those things scare the hell out of me!

[2naSalit]

37. I didn't even see it until after the attack as it flew away.

I was pulling tumbleweeds out of the irrigation ditch and it came out and nailed me before I knew what happened.

But having learned a great deal through experience with CBD and other herbs, the best remedy I know of is hemp or cannabis resin/juice in some form and baking soda for wasp and hornet wounds but baking soda is good for spider bites of any kind.

I deal with all kinds of wily wild things out here, wasps are an occasional challenge.

[yellowdogintexas]

43. Tobacco is an excellent remedy. my dad used to peel a cigarette, chew the tobacco

and plaster the paste on the sting. It would draw all the redness and venom up and stop the spread.
I supposed one could keep snuff in the first aid kit, but then you would have to find someone who would chew it up.

[2naSalit]

45. I have heard that but I never remember it.

Maybe because I don't have tobacco around. Maybe I should get a pouch of that organic stuff people use to roll their own. I have heard that a slice of garlic helps for bites but I haven't had much success with it as a topical.

[csziggy]

33. Got any baking soda Make a paste of it and plaster over the area where the bite was

I used to also add meat tenderizer to help break down the proteins in the poison and use benedryl as the base of the paste, but baking soda by itself will help a bit.

I had a bumblebee sting me twice on the ankle - my husband and I were putting in a fence line where they had a ground nest. Hurt like hell for a few days, my leg was the same size from the hip to the foot, to the point I thought the skin was going to split. Shooting pains like you describe at irregular intervals - and that was with taking the maximum dose of benedryl my doctor recommended.

After that, I got an epi-pen since my doctor was worried if I got stung on the arm or neck swelling could affect my breathing. Of course, then I got no more stings until the epi-pen was far past expiration.

[LuckyCharms]

35. Yikes! Sorry to hear about those stings!

You describe the shooting pains perfectly.

The strange thing for me is...the ankle looks almost back to normal, but the pain is still bothering me. I think I'm out of the woods for having a bad allergic reaction (I hope). I was really worried about that possibility last night.

When I first felt it, I thought "Crap, a bee stung me", and I kept working. A few moments later I thought "OHHHH SHIT!!!!"

[csziggy]

36. Yes, you're past any chance a severe allergic reaction

But watch out for the future. I'd gotten stings for years without much reaction. Then a yellow jacket sting on the elbow that was much worse, then the bee stings. Once I began getting the worse reactions, the initial sting hit me much worse - like an electric shock with extra pain involved. I think that is the system that makes the allergic reaction kicking in.

Glad you're better! Watch out for more of the nasty little critters. Someone else here on DU described finding a yellow jacket ground nest in their mulch pile so it may be the thing for the season.

[Kali]

7. wasp or ant or ground bees

I got nailed three times on Thursday by wasps. fuckers make you kind of angry but it goes away in an hour or two. wash with soap and water, sometimes they can get infected and that will be worse than the sting.

any venomous snakes in your area?

[LuckyCharms]

8. I've been working around 2 or 3 little snakes

but they just look like those little gardner(?) snakes, so they don't bother me and I don't bother them.

I'm thinking spider or wasp, and maybe it hurt so much because it was right on the bone?

EDIT: I think there are rattlers up in the hills, but they are rare around here.

[Kali]

11. maybe - or got a nerve somehow

we have harvester ants out here, big dark reddish ants that hurt just about the worst of all the (many, many) stinging creatures but I think they are limited to arid, desert environments.

what spiders do you have? watch the bite area for any sign of infection and get medical care if it looks like things are going south.

[LuckyCharms]

19. I'm sure we have some dangerous spiders around here...

but I never see many. I actually did see a brown recluse under my deck once, a few years ago.

I also had a welt when it first happened, but it's gone away.

[Kali]

16. from what I understand you will taste copper in your mouth and have a LOT of swelling

from a rattler. I know for sure the swelling happens. in fact other than infection, the swelling is what causes the most harm - it causes nerve damage that can take forever to get over.

[rogerballard]

12. Emergency Clinic?

Brown Recluse Spider ? Check your boots. You will never find the culprit.

[Olafjoy]

13. Sounds like a spider

Watch for infection. They are not nearly as clean as bees and can inject bacteria along with their fangs when they bite.

[Phoenix61]

15. Sounds like a wasp made its way into your sock.

Suckers hurt like hell. Soaking in hot water with epsom salt is the best treatment I know. In Florida so lots of ops to get bit. Benadryl also helps.

[lastlib]

17. Yellowjackets?

I've had 'em sting me on the neck and ear-lobe, and it immediately feels like touching a lit match to the skin.

My first question is, how far apart were the stings/bite marks? Marks of a snakebite might be a couple centimeters apart; where a spider bite would be at most half a cm apart; a brown recluse bite would be just millimeters apart. Bee stings could be any distance apart. Yellowjackets/wasps would be more likely to sting you higher up than down at the ankle. A honeybee would only sting once, and most likely leave its stinger in you, and they normally don't hurt so much, unless you're highly allergic to it.

If not hours later, I would've had you make a thick paste of rubbing alcohol and soda and apply it to the site; leave it for an hour or two.

[LuckyCharms]

23. About 3/16" apart, very small holes...

had to manipulate the skin to find the holes. Small welt, with swelling and redness, but the swelling was not proportionate to the pain (like a huge mosquito bite). No stinger that I could find. Now the pain is shooting up my calf. Jeez.

[2naSalit]

38. Sounds like a nasty kind of spider...

bites can cause lots of pain along with tissue breakdown. Baking soda paste, being opposite ph it will help neutralize the poison which is acid based and help draw the crap out too.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

18. If you're in the northeast (except for ME or NH) the most likely venomous snake

is the timber rattlesnake, but they live in rocky areas, and they are timid and unlikely to bite without a lot of warning rattling first. You probably got nailed by a wasp or a hornet, not a snake, or maybe this spider: https://www.livescience.com/48548-new-england-spider-bite.html#:~:text=Wandering%20around%20the%20windowsills%20and,of%20a%20woman%20in%20Connecticut.

[LuckyCharms]

24. that spider...

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

25. Do you think that could be what bit you?

[LuckyCharms]

26. Well, I don't know...

I looked all around, but I couldn't find anything. I was just commenting on the looks of that thing! The main body looks like a little black teddy bear sitting there looking at you...waiting to kill....

[rogerballard]

21. Remember that for anywhere you/ we are, we are only five feet away from a spider. n/t

[Buckeye_Democrat]

22. My guess is a black widow spider.

If so, you were smart to ice it down.

They love woodpiles.

https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/black-widow-spider-bite

[MFM008]

27. One wasp got in the side of my shoe

And stung me 2 times once.
Just keep an eye on it.

[Donkees]

28. Centipede (commonly found in mulch)

What are the symptoms of a centipede bite?

Centipede bites can be identified by two puncture marks where they inject their venom into the skin. The area around the bite may become red and swollen.

The amount of pain you feel will be determined by the amount of venom injected into the bite. Smaller centipedes deliver very little venom. Their bites may be comparable to bee stings in terms of pain. Larger centipedes may deliver more venom, causing intense pain.

Pain, redness, and swelling begin immediately upon being bitten. These symptoms may last anywhere from several hours to several days.

Other symptoms may also occur and could indicate a severe allergic reaction, ...

https://www.healthline.com/health/centipede-bites#symptoms

[LuckyCharms]

30. Ah! Very well could be!

I see those things occasionally.

Thank you.

[malaise]

29. Get well soon

[LuckyCharms]

31. Thank you, malaise

A bit better this morning.

[crickets]

32. Ouch! I hope you feel better soon.

[CloudWatcher]

39. Pain relief

Funny but true, swearing helps!

Forbes: Swearing: The Fastest Acting Pain Reliever Of Them All.

Scientific American: Why the #$%! Do We Swear? For Pain Relief

[Harker]

40. Karma.

The answer lies within.

[diva77]

41. Here's hoping you are much better! Please let us know how you're doing and what the

culprit was!!

[jpak]

42. Snapping Turtle?

They're sneaky like that.

[yellowdogintexas]

44. spider bites will develop a ring which resembles a target around the

affected area. The area within the target will often itch like hell.
I think it is the venom moving out into the muscle from the original bite that causes the ring.
Hope you are better soon