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Stung By 83 Different Insects, Biologist Rates His Pain

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V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
NPR

schmidt_justin_au_custom-5aa3789b368f8915a05c8ff0ceba55563118fcae-s700-c85.jpg


If you think your job is painful, try spending a workday with Justin Schmidt.

Schmidt is an entomologist who focuses on a group of insects called Hymenoptera — we know them as stinging ants, wasps and bees.
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Schmidt has traveled all over the world looking for bugs ... and getting stung by them. The result of his work is an alarmingly comprehensive pain index, ranking 83 insect stings on a spectrum of 1 to 4.

For example, the red fire ant, native to South America is a 1: "Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming," Schmidt writes. "Like walking across a shag carpet and reaching for the light switch."

Far worse is the tarantula hawk, which clocks in at a 4: "Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair dryer has just been dropped into your bubble bath."
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Z

zero_suit

Member
Schmidt calls the bullet ant the "holy grail of stinging insects." He ranks its sting as a 4 out of 4: "Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail embedded in your heel."
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Man...
 
M

Mindlog

Member
For example, the red fire ant, native to South America is a 1: "Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming," Schmidt writes. "Like walking across a shag carpet and reaching for the light switch."
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But you are never stung by ONE fire ant.
Terrible day :\
 
O

OricWindstar

Member
That's so awesome. Wonder why he stuck to just a 1-4 scale. Though, at least he avoided an IGN level of decimal separation in rating.
 
H

hobblygobbly

Member
Here's a video where the L.A Beast gets stung by bullet ants. Dude is drenched in sweat, looks like he got out of the shower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NMNbr4z7eE&ab_channel=skippy62able
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the SATERE MAWE tribe for opening us up to their home and for letting us experience their Bullet Ant Glove wearing ritual where the tribe's boys transform into men. It was an absolute honor. Thank you!!! Ill be back for round two when I regain function in both of my hands.
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S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
My experience scale:

1. Hawaiian centipede- assumed local exaggeration. Was so wrong.

1a. Unidentified jellyfish in Indonesia.

2. Unidentified bite/sting in Mexico Yucatan region.

3. Fire ants

4. Bee

5. Hornet

6. Yellow jacket

7. Regular wasp



100. Anthill in Thailand where hundreds of tiny ants swarmed my foot and it was actually kind of pleasant. Like pins and needles.

ItIsOkBro said:
Did he control for his increased pain threshold after each sting
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If he's anything like me he becomes a bigger bitch with every encounter.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Borgnine said:
National Organization of Pain Evaluation.
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N.i.c.e.


Far worse is the tarantula hawk, which clocks in at a 4: "Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair dryer has just been dropped into your bubble bath."
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I saw one of these up close in costa rica a month ago. I knew what it was but I didn't know this fact and wouldn't have gotten so close...
 
Z

Zee-Row

Banned
I can proudly say that i've only been stung by fire ants in my life. A wasp or a bee has never got me either so i don't even know if i'm allergic.
 
A

Alcoremortis

Member
This guy's paper on the subject is hilarious. He collected enough data on tarantula hawk stings that he was able to definitively quantitate the human reaction to it. Which was apparently: scream out an expletive, drop everything currently being held, and fall to the floor screaming for five minutes.
 
C

CountAntonius

Member
My only experience with venom aside from yellow jackets was a stingray. The bite itself was'nt bad but I didn't know what Had happened so I laid on the shore for an hour dying before a lifegaurd told me what it was. I had just assumed I stepped in a bottle. That was intense.


Those videos with the bullet ant gloves always make me uncomfortable.
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
He said he managed to not get stung by these:

191t5r8wkyaf5jpg.jpg
 
V

Vincent Alexander

Member
The Infinite Monkey Cage show/podcast on BBC Radio 4 had a great episode talking about the world's deadliest creatures. During the show, the Schmidt pain scale is brought up. One woman describes having a bullet ant climb into her bra and bite her on the left breast. Can't even imagine how much that would hurt.

Link to Episode
 
H

Hoo-doo

Banned
Didn't Steve-O and Pontius stick their hands in gloves that were filled with bullet ants on Wildboyz?

Fuck man. Why.
 
D

Deleted member 13876

Unconfirmed Member
Is that the guy from that Nickelodeon cartoon?
 
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