Friday Fact 17 April 2009

 

Skip the gym - it's Friday!

Did you know that the most painful insect sting in the world (as measured with the Schmidt Sting Pain Index) is caused by the bullet ant?

From Wikipedia: Bullet ant

The pain caused by this insect's sting is purported to be greater than that of any other Hymenopteran, and is ranked as the most painful according to the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. It is described as causing "waves of burning, throbbing, all-consuming pain that continues unabated for up to 24 hours". In some indigenous communities, to enter manhood a boy has to endure being stung by the ant 20 times without screaming. A paralyzing neurotoxic peptide isolated from the venom is poneratoxin. The bullet ant's bite is so powerful that if it bites an object that is too hard to break, the ant will be flung into the air from the force of its jaws.

The Schmidt Sting Pain Index itself - a pain scale created by entomologist Justin O. Schmidt to rate Hymenopteran stings - is a curious and amusing creature.


The pain scale starts at 0 for stings that are completely ineffective against humans, progressed through 2 for familiar pain such as a common bee or wasp sting, stops at 4 for crazy painful stings. In his 1990 paper where he classified the stings of 78 species and 41 genera of Hymenoptera, he wrote about his experiences in great detail, including the following:

  • 1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.
  • 1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.
  • 1.8 Bullhorn acacia ant: A rare, piercing, elevated sort of pain. Someone has fired a staple into your cheek.
  • 2.0 Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.
  • 2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W. C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.
  • 2.x Honey bee and European hornet: Like a matchhead that flips off and burns on your skin.
  • 3.0 Red harvester ant: Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail.
  • 3.0 Paper wasp: Caustic & burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of hydrochloric acid on a paper cut.
  • 4.0 Tarantula hawk: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath.
  • 4.0+ Bullet ant: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch rusty nail in your heel.

 


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