Inspired by the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, Michael L. Smith did us all a favour and answered the obvious follow up question on which body parts hurt the most when stung. He had honey bee guards sting him in 25 locations, multiple times to account for variability, over 38 days.
Results:
The three least painful locations were the skull, middle toe tip, and upper arm (all scoring a 2.3). The three most painful locations were the nostril, upper lip, and penis shaft (9.0, 8.7, and 7.3, respectively).
He and Schmidt were awarded with a shared Ig Noble Price for their efforts.
Denjin@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Schmidt’s index is full of brilliant stuff.
Red Fire Ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet and reaching for the light switch.
Tropical Fire Ant: You should have learned, but the carpet is the same, and when you again reach for the light switch, the shock mocks you.
Southern Fire Ant: It happens on the third day, as you reach for the light switch, and you’re wondering when you will ever learn.
Giant Ant: A pulsing sting with some flavour. You stepped into a salt bath with an open wound.
Glorious Velvet Ant: Instantaneous, like the surprise of being stabbed. Is this what shrapnel feels like?
Warrior Wasp: Torture. You are chained in the flow of an active volcano. Why did I start this list?
Tarrantula Hawk Wasp: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair dryer has just been dropped into your bubble bath.
Absolute lunatic.
jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
The first time I ever saw one of these it was dragging a paralyzed tarantula back to its nest. That big fucker stopped what it was doing, turned around, and stared at me like it was sizing me up. It then turned back around and continued dragging the tarantula across the ground like, “Oh. It’s just a human. Not an actual threat. No biggie.”
No biggie is right. No way in hell I was getting anywhere close to a 3 inch long wasp.
shalafi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
He was sizing you up! We’ve recently figured out that their pin-head brains can pattern match well enough to recognize human faces. He was getting a lock on you and filing your face away in his threat matrices. :)
Tested this myself! Wasps were building a nest directly above my front dog. Pig went out the dog door, I out the regular door, many times a day. Made a point of not staring or reacting if they flew close. Zero issue for either of us. Only time they got riled up when when I got my face close and stared for a few seconds.
CAVEAT: This does NOT apply to hornets, particularly the ones that boil out of the ground. Run for the fucking hills.
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
I was at a bbq when an asian giant hornet landed near us. Damn near reconsidered moving the entire setup to get away from it, but eventually it flew off
Image
Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
I’ve been stung by a velvet ant (although not a glorious one) and that’s honestly pretty spot on. I still remember that hot poker feeling, and they move so fast I didn’t even see the sting happen! That was my first lesson that fuzzy is not always friend 🥲
deranger@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Back when I was in the military I saw one on the sidewalk in Texas as I was stepping forward, too late to abort. It was fine, completely unfazed by my combat boots. It had to fit in between one of the treads, but still. Serious little critters.
halvar@lemy.lol 3 weeks ago
How did he know what getting electrocuted to death feel like?
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
This reminds me of Shulgin’s drug rating scale, and some of the experience reports of him and his friends in PIHKaL and TIHKaL