Ocean Watch

A couple of weeks ago, as my sister and I walked along Kailua Beach, she stopped abruptly. "Ouch!" she said. "A jellyfish stung me!"

We bent to look at her foot, but that was no jellyfish sticking into her middle toe. It was a bee stinger. She plucked it out, rinsed it off and we resumed our walk.

"Look," she said pointing to the sand. "There's another bee. And another one. Oh, my foot hurts. It's getting all red."

Later that day, she called me. "My toes are swollen, and the sting is itching like crazy," she said. "Do you think I'm allergic?"

"No," I said, not very interested. "Ignore it."

Then, last weekend, I stepped on a bee on the same beach and got stung on the same toe. It hurt, it swelled and it itched like mad.

Now I was interested.

Why are so many dead and dying honeybees floundering at the shorelines of our windward beaches?

Beekeepers offer two explanations. One is that worker bees fly erratic routes in their search for pollen. Once full, however, they take the most direct route (a beeline) back to the hive.

Sometimes beelines cross bays. If salt spray falls on the bees' wings, it brings them down. Onshore winds then wash the crippled insects to the beach.

Another beekeeper told me that some of the bees we see struggling at the shoreline are too old to make it home. Worker bees live only a few weeks, hauling pollen until they drop in their tracks. Sometimes this happens over the water, and then the wind blows the spent bees ashore.

But even injured and old bees manage to get their blade-sharp stingers poked into our skin. Then, two pairs of muscles push the stinger deep into the tissue. At the same time, muscles pump venom from the insect's venom sac into the wound.

At the beginning of a sting, the entire end of the bee's abdomen detaches from its body. Because the separated section includes nerves and muscles, venom still pumps into the wound after the insect flies away (or rolls over) to die.

It takes about two minutes for a honeybee's venom sac to empty completely. That's why, if you're stung, it's important to get the stinger out as quickly as possible in the fastest way possible, including pinching with your fingers and pulling.

The former belief that a person should never pinch a bee stinger to pull it out is wrong. One study showed no difference in welt size whether the stingers are scraped off or pinched off. Quick removal, whatever the method, is the key to keeping a bee sting small.

If you're not allergic, removing the stinger fast is the only treatment that matters. Ice may help relieve pain, but meat tenderizer does not. Researchers have even injected meat tenderizer into bee stings on mice and found it had no effect on the size of the lesions or how long they lasted.

Everyone who has had an allergic reaction to a bee sting should carry injectable epinephrine (adrenaline) during outdoor activities. This is a prescription drug that comes in easy-to-use kits. Use epinephrine at the first sign of any breathing difficulty, then call 911.

Anyone with hives, overall redness, weakness or any respiratory distress after a sting should call 911. Death from a bee sting allergy can occur in as little as 30 minutes.

As I write, my swollen foot barely fits inside my sandal, and my itching toes are driving me crazy.

I don't think I'll call my sister for sympathy.