This weekend I received a nasty wasp sting to the hand. This was my umpteenth one this summer and I prepared for the usual: removed my rings ready for my hand to swell up and searched out some painkillers to numb the hours of throbbing pain. But this time, I had a friendly Stanford scientist on hand who showed me how to neutralise the sting in minutes. He gallantly fetched his ‘sting kit’ from the car, consisting of meat tenderizer, water, and paper towels, and made a compress for my hand. In minutes the pain was reduced, and within an hour it was as if I’d never been stung. A great trick to know for those of us with small boys who like picking up insects.
To make your own sting kit you just need a quick trip to Safeways for Adolf’s meat tenderizer. Then, if anyone is stung, you add some of this powder to water and use a paper towel to massage it into the sting puncture (having first removed the stinger). Special fruit enzymes in the meat tenderizer then get to work and neutralise the proteins in the bee or wasp sting, preventing pain and swelling. The faster you apply the solution the better. My scientist friend recommends keeping a sting kit in your house and in your car.
The FDA knows about this little trick, and confirms that it works, but won’t explicitly recommend it as a small number of folk may be allergic to the fruit enzymes. I guess you pay your money and take your choice.
The Outdoors Parent 