Schmidt sting pain index facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Schmidt sting pain index |
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Some insects on the Schmidt sting pain index: Synoeca surinama, Paraponera clavata, Pepsis sp., Hemipepsis sp., and Vespa mandarinia.
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| Purpose | Rates the pain of different stings |
The Schmidt sting pain index is a way to measure how much different insect stings hurt. It was created by Justin O. Schmidt, an entomologist (someone who studies insects) from Arizona. Schmidt studied many stinging insects and said he had been stung by most of them!
He first wrote about this index in 1983. It helped compare how insect venoms (the chemicals they inject when they sting) affected the body. The index used a scale from 0 to 4. A 0 meant no pain to humans. A 2 was like a common bee or wasp sting. A 4 was for the most painful stings. At first, only the bullet ant, Paraponera clavata, was rated a 4. Later, other insects like Synoeca septentrionalis and tarantula hawks were also given a 4.
Schmidt kept making his scale better over the years. He published a paper in 1990 that classified the stings of 78 different insect species. He even wrote a whole book about it in 2016!
In 2015, Schmidt won an Ig Nobel Prize for his amazing research on insect stings.
Contents
What is the Schmidt Pain Scale?
Schmidt's pain scale for insect stings goes from level 1 to level 4. Level 4 is the most painful. Even if stings feel different, they can be in the same level. That's why later versions of the scale also include a short description of how Schmidt felt when he was stung.
Pain Level 1: Mild Stings
Some stings Schmidt rated as a pain level 1 include the Southern fire ant, the graceful twig ant, and most small bees. The pain from these stings usually lasts five minutes or less.
Many small bees are in this level. Their venom has chemicals like melittin. Melittin is the main toxin in bee venom. It can harm blood cells.
Schmidt described the sting of an urban digger bee (level 1) as "almost pleasant, a lover just bit your earlobe a little too hard." He said a sweat bee sting (also level 1) felt "light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm."
Pain Level 2: Familiar Stings
Schmidt used the Western honey bee sting as the example for pain level 2. He based all other sting ratings on it. Many wasps, bees, and ants are in this level. This includes yellowjackets, the Asiatic honey bee, and the bald-faced hornet. The pain from these stings usually lasts between five and ten minutes. Most insect stings Schmidt studied were rated at pain level 2.
A termite-raiding ant sting (level 2) felt like "the debilitating pain of a migraine contained in the tip of your finger," Schmidt said. A yellowjacket's sting was "hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W. C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue." The honeybee sting felt like "The oven mitt had a hole in it when you pulled the cookies out of the oven.”
Pain Level 3: Strong Stings
Most insects with a pain level 3 sting are wasps. This includes the neotropical red paper wasp and Klug's velvet ant. A velvet ant is actually a wingless wasp, not a true ant! The pain can last from one minute (red paper wasp) to half an hour (velvet ant). Wasp venom has special chemicals called kinins. These kinins can affect muscles and blood flow.
Some ants also have a pain level 3 sting. These include the giant bull ant and the Maricopa harvester ant. Schmidt described the Maricopa harvester ant sting as: "After eight unrelenting hours of drilling into that ingrown toenail, you find the drill wedged into the toe."
Pain Level 4: Extreme Stings
Pain level 4 is the highest level on the Schmidt sting pain index. At first, only the bullet ant was rated a 4. Schmidt said its sting was "pure, intense, brilliant pain...like walking over flaming charcoal with a three-inch nail embedded in your heel." The bullet ant's venom has a chemical called poneratoxin. This chemical can paralyze.
Later, Schmidt also gave the sting of a tarantula hawk species, Pepsis grossa, a rating of 4. He called it "blinding, fierce [and] shockingly electric." Luckily, the pain from this sting is short, lasting only about five minutes.
Schmidt also rated the sting of Synoeca septentrionalis as a 4. He described it as "Torture. You are chained in the flow of an active volcano. Why did I start this list?" He said the pain from this sting can last up to two hours!
Why Stings Evolved to Be Painful and Toxic
The Schmidt sting pain index helped Schmidt study a big idea. He thought that social insects, like bees and ants that live in colonies, needed their venom to be both painful and toxic (harmful).
Pain is a warning sign that something is wrong. But chemicals that cause pain are not always the same as chemicals that cause real damage. If a predator learned that a sting only hurt but didn't actually harm them, they might ignore the pain.
Early insects lived alone. A painful sting might have given them enough time to escape a predator. Also, one insect isn't a big meal for a predator. But when insects started living together in large colonies, their nests became a tasty target! If they couldn't defend themselves, predators would eat the whole colony.
So, for social living to work, insects needed a stronger defense than just pain. Their sting became a warning of damage, and the venom became truly harmful. With a toxic sting, they could protect their whole colony. This allowed them to live together, share tasks, and store food, which helped them survive and thrive.
Schmidt's pain index was important because it gave scientists a way to measure pain. Before this, it was hard to study how pain levels related to how social insects were.
See also
- Dol scale to measure pain
- Starr sting pain scale by Christopher Starr, based on the Schmidt index
- Kings of Pain, a TV series with another pain index
