this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2025
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[–] Denjin@feddit.uk 158 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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 57 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Tarrantula Hawk Wasp: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair dryer has just been dropped into your bubble bath.

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 29 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

CAVEAT: This does NOT apply to hornets, particularly the ones that boil out of the ground. Run for the fucking hills.

I've only encountered those fuckers once in my life. They made a giant nest in a rather large sand and gravel pile on my parent's property. After a year or so of them being there, an older cousin of mine had the idea to try to take them out with slingshots. I suggested napalm.

We compromised. We whipped up a batch of improvised napalm with a bunch of kerosene and a styrofoam cooler, poured that down the main entrance of the hive extremely carefully, and lit it on fire. We then spent the next few hours taking potshots at most of the hornets that tried to flee while on fire. We made certain to kill the queen when she finally emerged, though I don't think she was long for the world anyway. She couldn't fly, and had burning "napalm" covering half of her. We still made sure to throw a large stone on her.

We did this specifically because everyone in my family is allergic to bee stings, so it was kinda an act of war for them to move into that part of our property.

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

We whipped up a batch of improvised napalm with a bunch of kerosene and a styrofoam cooler

Kerosene doesn't dissolve styrofoam. You're thinking of gasoline.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Kerosene is still a non-polar solvent, why wouldn't it dissolve styrofoam?

[–] CatAssTrophy@safest.space 2 points 1 week ago

Somewhat, but not nearly as quickly or to the extent of something like gasoline, acetone or even d-limonene/orange oil (which is what I use to dissolve styrofoam packaging for repurposing, because it smells the best and is less flammable).

This video is someone dissolving polystyrene in kerosene, and as you can see it is a very slow process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1yDdIanTEA

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I was a kid at the time, but I'm pretty sure we used kerosene. It was red.

[–] Fermion@feddit.nl 5 points 1 week ago

Ground hornets pattern match too. I had a massive nest I had never noticed in an old stump. They hadn't bothered me despite having walked by numerous times. Then one time I hit the nest with the riding mower. Man that sucked. I'm not outright allergic, but a dozen stings does make me feel sick. After that, anytime I got within 20ft of the nest with the mower they would come out in force.

Then a few years later I had the same thing happen with a raised garden bed. They never bothered me and I didn't even know they were there, until my weedwacker attacked the entrance of the nest. I had to steer clear of that section of the garden for a few weeks after.

Ground hornets are horrible.

He was sizing you up!

She was sizing you up. It's the females who do the tarantula stinging and dragging and all the rest while the males sit up on top of Milkweed plants looking down over their "domain" for female wasps on the ground that they can swoop down and mate with.

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 week 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

[–] Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 35 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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 13 points 1 week 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 points 1 week ago

How did he know what getting electrocuted to death feel like?

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week 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

[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago (7 children)

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.

[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 1 week ago

The shaft was only a 7.3?!?

Well we know what they're into...

[–] nailbar@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I guess that means he killed 25 bees. Should have used a hornet instead.

[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

75 bees actually, 3 rounds of stinging.

A sting from a honey bee is familiar to many because of its world-wide distribution. The sting can be reliably provoked, and standardized, making it an ideal experimental stimulus. Furthermore, its rating as the center point of the Schmidt pain scale suggests it may be a useful standard. The present study therefore used honey bee stings to determine whether sting location impacts painfulness, and how painfulness varies by location.

Reads as: honey bees are cheap to acquire and I ain't letting no hornet sting my private parts.

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Was only the shaft part of the penis tested?

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Where did a taint sting land?

Between the balls and anus.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Tongue? Eye ball? Penis head?

[–] VivianRixia@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

As a trans woman, can confirm, getting electrolysis on the upper lip is the stuff of nightmares. i can't imagine something as big as a bee stinger hitting you there.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago

As someone who has had pimples on his nostril before, I believe this 100%. That shit was inordinately painful.

[–] hzl@piefed.blahaj.zone 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I didn't even know sweat bees could sting. When I drove a cab I used to sit in a field with my feet sticking out the window and they'd inevitably come land on me and suck on my toes. I suppose it wouldn't make much sense to sting your food source if you don't have to, though.

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

When I was a kid, they were forever stinging me in the armpits.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

yeah, they used to get us around the neck and forehead on sweaty days. not fun! yet another reason to avoid missouri

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I bet he'd be friends with Coyote Peterson.

[–] Sunforged@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Man I absolutely adored his channel when my kids were toddlers. His love and energy for animals was a straight homage to Steve Irwin.

And then he started doing unboxing videos... haven't thought of him since.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Honestly, I only ever saw a few of his videos and they were all about getting stung. I never saw particular love and care for animals, I guess excluding stinging insects, but I could see how that would match his energy.

Unboxing doesn't seem like it really matches his vibe, I agree.

[–] GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Befor the sting stuff they were a serious nature/ wildlife education channel It was good then, the other stuff was too over the top for me.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Interesting to know - thanks!

[–] Datz@szmer.info 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Johnny Joestar describing his bug bite (on girls) fetish.

Well, it's SOMEONE ELSE getting bitten, but close enough.

Of course it's JJBA

[–] VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 week ago

Sweat bee's never going to recover after getting called fruity like that

I recommend Stand-up Maths video on this where he tries to recreate the scale with a bigger sample size. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv-lWg5HNaM

[–] ano_ba_to@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 week ago

Who better to come up with a scale than a connoisseur.

[–] death_to_carrots@feddit.org 6 points 1 week ago

I mean, where is the difference to hot, spicy food?

Imagine Hot Ones, but with insect stings.

[–] 01011@monero.town 2 points 1 week ago

No link to the paper?