Here’s What to Put on a Bee Sting for Quick Relief, According to a Doctor

We’re sure you’ve been there at some point: minding your own business, smelling the roses, when a big, fuzzy insect starts buzzing around you a bit too close for comfort. While bees are typically harmless when left alone, pissing one off can lead to a shockingly painful sting.

“Bee stings usually feel like a sharp prick or burning sensation,” Kara Wada, MD, clinical assistant professor in the division of allergy immunology at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and founder of the Crunchy Allergist, tells SELF.

That’s because the bee’s stinger that is used to pierce the skin contains venom—an acidic mixture full of proteins, enzymes, and other compounds that helps the bee defend itself against predators.¹ When bee venom enters the skin, it immediately begins to cause a local reaction, leading to symptoms like pain, inflamed skin, and swelling, most of which usually resolve in several hours, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“A smaller number of people will get what’s called a large local reaction, and it might be four to five inches of redness, swelling, tenderness, and pain—it can take about a week and a half for that to go down,” Wendy Johnson, MD, MPH, a pediatrician at Tribeca Pediatrics in New York, tells SELF. While this reaction generally isn’t dangerous, it’s certainly more intense than the mild reaction that most people experience. Then there are people who can have a more severe allergic reaction that leads to intense pain, swelling, or even anaphylaxis. This is rare, but it can be life-threatening without emergency treatment (we’ll dive into all these details below).

Thankfully if you’re not having a severe reaction that requires immediate help but you still want to make the pain go away fast, you have a few options. Ahead, experts explain how to treat a bee sting to make it feel better as soon as possible.

Before you do anything you’ll want to check to see if the bee’s stinger is still in your skin. If you don’t see a stinger, it’s possible that you were stung by a wasp, hornet, or another insect. That’s because one of the major differences between bees and other stinging insects is that bees have a barbed stinger that remains in the skin long after the bee has left. Because of this barbed stinger, a bee can only sting you once, whereas insects like wasps have a straight stinger that allows them to sting you multiple times.

If you do notice a small black stinger sticking out of your skin, it’s extremely important to remove that stinger right away, “because most of the venom gets released in about the first three seconds or so,” says Dr. Johnson. If you can get it out right away, you may avoid some of the symptoms, or at least reduce their severity.

You’ll want to use something with a blunt tip to scrape it off. “The best way to do this is to use a credit card at a 45° angle to the surface of the skin and scrape away from the sting,” says Dr. Wada. If you don’t have a credit card on hand, the next best thing is the back of your fingernail, she says.

Whatever you do, avoid squeezing the stinger to get it out. According to the American Academy of Dermatology Association (AAD), even using a tool like tweezers to pluck the stinger out can push that venom deeper into the skin. When possible, stick to using something blunt that can “catch” the stinger directly and pull it out.

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Treating your bee sting at home is the quickest and easiest way to reduce your symptoms. “The goal is to decrease the swelling, inflammation, and pain once you get the stinger out,” says Dr. Johnson. Here are the best steps to take:

After you’ve safely removed the stinger from the skin, one of the first things to do is wash the area around the sting gently with soap and water. If you do this before applying anything else, you can help reduce the risk of an infection.

After you’ve washed and dried the area around the sting, there are a couple of things that experts recommend. First up: a cold pack. You’ll want to wrap something around the cold compress, like a towel, to keep it from irritating the skin. This can reduce pain, tenderness, and swelling, says Dr. Wada. You can do a routine of 10 minutes on then 10 minutes off for a total of 30 to 60 minutes, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. You can also apply over-the-counter (OTC) 1% hydrocortisone cream up to three times per day to reduce inflammation and itching.

Another OTC option is calamine lotion (you know, that signature creamy, pink solution your mom probably slathered on you as a kid). This stuff is a mixture of various compounds that can help reduce the itchiness and irritation caused by many bug bites and stings. Calamine lotion is considered safe for children and infants, so it’s a good option to consider in younger children who have been stung.²

As for pain relief, there are plenty of safe and effective OTC options available—but Dr. Johnson recommends using something that targets both inflammation and pain, like ibuprofen. In people who can’t take ibuprofen, acetaminophen works just as well to at least help reduce pain, according to the AAD.

Sometimes a large local reaction won’t respond to things like over-the-counter pain relievers or medicated creams. In such cases, “these reactions may benefit from a prescription-strength cortisone, especially if the swelling and symptoms are bothersome,” says Dr. Wada.

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Over-the-counter options are typically most effective for treating mild bee stings at home, but there are some common household ingredients that may have some benefits if you’re in a pinch. There isn’t much research to support these home remedies, but the experts we talked to say they’re not likely to be harmful either.

• Apply a paste made of baking soda and water: According to a 2018 study published in The Journal of Immunology, baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, may be able to help reduce the inflammatory response in the skin.³ You can try mixing about a fourth of a cup of aluminum-free baking soda with one or two teaspoons of water to make a paste and then dab a bit on the sting. Let it sit for about 15 minutes before rinsing it off, according to experts at the UC Irvine School of Medicine.
• Wipe the area with apple cider vinegar: Vinegar has been used for centuries as an antimicrobial ingredient, helping to kill organisms that may contribute to infections.⁴ For a bee sting, you can add a few drops of apple cider vinegar on a cotton ball and dab this onto the affected area. Just note it may, well, sting.

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Most people who are stung by a bee are not in any danger of experiencing anaphylaxis, a severe and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction that can impair breathing. “Sometimes people think that big swelling means they’re allergic,” says Dr. Johnson, but she notes that’s not always the case. Only about 0.4% to 3% of people are actually severely allergic to insect stings, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology.

The following symptoms should prompt you to head to the emergency room if you don’t have epinephrine (an EpiPen) handy:

• Hives that spread on the skin not affected by the sting
• Trouble breathing or the feeling that your throat is getting tight
• Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
• Dizziness
• Pale skin and a rapid pulse
• Fainting or losing consciousness

The number of times you’re stung also matters. When a young child, older adult, or person with heart or breathing problems is stung more than a dozen times, the venom can become toxic, according to the Mayo Clinic, which can also cause a medical emergency.

Scratching the area can also allow bacteria into the wound and increase your risk for infection. This isn’t super common but if you notice any of these symptoms, you’ll want to see a medical professional:

• Fever
• Fatigue
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Swelling, warmth, and tenderness around the sting that doesn’t go away
• Red streaks that shoot out from the sting
• Yellow, pus-like discharge from the sting

Remember that for most people, a bee sting is just a nuisance that doesn’t require any special treatment—but it’s always worth talking to your doctor if you’re experiencing any especially severe or persistent symptoms.

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Sources:

1. Molecules, Bee Venom: Overview of Main Compounds and Bioactivities for Therapeutic Interests
2. Journal of Skin and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Calamine Lotion
3. The Journal of Immunology, Oral NaHCO3 Activates a Splenic Anti-Inflammatory Pathway: Evidence That Cholinergic Signals Are Transmitted via Mesothelial Cells
4. Medscape General Medicine, Vinegar: Medicinal Uses and Antiglycemic Effect

Related:

• These Are the Signs of a Mosquito Bite Allergy, According to a Doctor
• 7 Tips to Prevent Bee and Wasp Stings When Exploring the Great Outdoors
• Here’s How to Tell If a Tick Head Is Still in Your Skin, According to Doctors