Subject: Bee sting immunity in people and skunks

From: [email-masked] (Andy Nachbaur)
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 1995 14:50:00 GMT

*Some good information off the b-list
From: Jerry J Bromenshenk <[email-masked]>
Date:         Mon, 6 Nov 1995 18:42:20 -0700
Subject:      Bee sting immunity in people and skunks

Like several recent postings, the split/splitless debate seems to have
dominated the discussion, when the original request was for people to
contact Allen.

In an attempt to start a different thread, I'd like to go back to the
postings about people and bee allergies and skunks and bee predation.

A good discussion of allergies occurs in Justen Schmidt's chapter (no.
27) in the most recent version of the Hive and the Honey Bee.

I agree with most of what Justin says, but differ on a couple of points.

To the best of our knowledge, no one starts out allergic to bee stings,
that develops after one or more stings.  Most people seem to go one way
or the other, either you get less sensitive or more sensitive.  Lots of
references will explain this to you.

The more interesting aspects to me are the differences seen in individual
responses and the work done by one of our Missoula allergists, Dr. Bell,
who has some evidence that allergies to bees tend to be more common in
the family members of beekeepers than in the general population (even if
the family members do not work with the bees).

In my own case, I am allergic to just about everything except bee
stings.  As a child growing up on a farm, I couldn't drive past a green
alfalfa field without wheezing.  Took five years of desensitizing shots
(yep, I was one of the earliest test cases for this procedure back in the
50's) before I became halfway functional.

However, after 20 years of bee stings, I rarely swell, even if stung on
the wrists or eyelid - worst case is a slightly tired looking eye.

Most stings do not even hurt, pain ranges from a slight prick to nothing
(especially in my forearms), although a direct hit on a nerve ending
still hurts like heck.

On the other extreme is one of my students who I will call R.A.  R.A. is
a young woman who has worked for me for three years.  She is very gentle
with the bees and likes to work with them.  After 3 or 4 stings spread
across an entire summer, R.A. developed one of the worst cases of
sensitivity to bee stings that Dr. Bell had seen (at least as evidenced
by the skin test).  She wanted to keep working bees, so last winter, she
took the whole venom de-sensitizing shots.  This spring, she went back to
work.  She keeps an adrenaline kit handy, but hasn't had to use it.

The reason I mention this is that many doctors and even Justin recommend
not getting the shots.  Among my colleagues, one who does field work in
remote areas also became hypersensitive, took the shots, and is now okay,
although he needs occassional booster shots.

On the other hand, one of our beekeepers has two teenagers, both became
allergic, both got the shots, one can work bees, the other can't.

The reason for this lengthy discourse is to comment on the people who are
allergic but work bees with an adrenaline kit close at hand.  Personally,
having seen what a severe reaction can do and how fast (and I have
experienced them personally, not from bee stings, but from other
allergies), I would not take the risk.  I don't enjoy bees so much that I
would risk my life.  On the other hand, I think anyone who wants to work
around bees or to enjoy the out-of-doors without fears of stinging
insects and who is allergic should seriously consider the de-sensitizing
shots.  For me, the peace of mind (and the lack of allergy symptoms) is
well worth the bother and the expense.  And yes, they are expensive, in
part because so few people get them (the old supply and demand equation).

So what does this have to do with skunks?  Yep, here in Montana, skunks
eat bees.  I have seen them do it, have even been known to re-locate, and
once dispatched one (for research purposes, you understand).

Liz, they aren't blinded nor is there any evidence that they can't smell
with a nose full of stingers.  Do they get stung?  Yes!!  Lots of stings,
and not just externally, you can find stingers in the mouth and throat
and I suspect even farther down the G.I. tract.

Doesn't seem to bother them much.  They come each night to the same
hives, scratch at the entrances, wait till the bees flood out, and start
licking them up.  Looks like when things get really hot and heavy they
move over to the next hive.  But maybe they just decide to try some other
bees.  Worst part is that every evening just about dusk you can count on
your skunk to repeat the process.  If left unchecked, I have seen a skunk
decimate strong hives.  You can always tell which are the favorites,
scratches on the front of the hive, generally digging in the dirt just in
front of the hive, fecal pellets full of bees.

Now for the academic question.  Are these skunks naturally resistant to
bee stings, or do they like bees so much that they keep eating them.  If
a skunk becomes hypersensitive, it probably dies in the bushes.  If the
skunk goes the other way, well things should just get better.  However,
even with my high degree of immunity, bees just don't seem that tasty,
but then again, I'm not a skunk.

The question is:  Why don't bee stings bother skunks? (or at least these
stings don't cause enough of a problem to deter them from eating bees)

If skunks are naturally resistant to bee stings, I don't remember seeing
any data to support this nor any explaination of a mechanism.

If skunks are borne resistant to bee stings, could that knowledge bee
used to protect humans?

Anyway, if anyone has any factual information concerning this issue, I'd
like to know about it.  You can post your comments to me, or to the list
if you have an answer.

Thanks

Jerry J. Bromenshenk
The University of Montana
[email-masked]

P.S.  After 24 years of bee research, I guess I have to confess to being
one of those academics lurking on this server.