From watching Spongebob, it looks kinda painful. Those little suckers are everywhere in the Chesapeake bay and I’m pretty sure I’m gonna get nailed sooner or later (my greatest fear is capsizing face-first into one).
What do you do to treat the sting?
Vinegar, or
Urine if it’s all you’ve got. Toxin is alkali - so acidity neutralizes.
Regular type jellies not so bad, but sensitivity varies a lot just like with any sting (with allergy potential and all). I’ve been lucky. Only got into some off Guam - a swarm of tiny nearly invisible babies that get inside your clothes. Individually no big deal. A bunch is another story.
Man 'o war also much worse - and long hairlike tentacles can trail 50 ft, or string out across beaches…
Be glad you’re not down under dealing with box jellies!
or alcohol
fresh water will make the numatacysts fire and sting more,don’t wash with fresh water.
vinegar and vodka
Jellyfish stink. I have run into “schools” many times in the Gulf of mexico. I’ve never capsized into them, but I have gotten them to slide down onto my hands.
The worst is when I throw a castnet and bite into a leadline with Jellyfish. Eeeh, ya.
Anyway, a combination of 50% cheap vodka (why waste good stuff) and 50% vinegar seems to do fairly well at removing the sting. The stench is another issue.
Stung on my feet
– Last Updated: Oct-05-05 10:07 PM EST –
I exited my kayak one time and immediately noticed (too late) that a Lion Jellyfish had washed up in a wave and crossed over the top of my bare foot. It stung a bit, but it was nothing like the sting that I felt the next day. It continued to hurt a lot (a burning sensation) for a few days and eventually subsided over the next couple of weeks. It left what looked like burn marks across my foot -- these marks took about six months to go away.
Where I paddle in British Columbia, Lion Jellyfish are quite common -- we often see these nasty red jellies but more often we see the less dangerous Moon Jellyfish. Moon Jellies are white or clear and grow to about 10 inches across. One time while paddling in Indian Arm (near Vancouver) I witnessed thousands of Moon jellies that were about 8 - 10 inches across -- they were so thick that I couldn't see through them. It was like something out of a science fiction movie.
After witnessing this large group of jellies, I became fascinated with them and began researching to learn about them -- it's quite interesting really. Moon Jellyfish inhabit every ocean on the planet and have short tentacles with stingers that are not powerful enough to break through human skin -- making them relatively harmless. A group of jellyfish is called a "smack".
Here's a picture of the Moon Jellies that I took:
http://www.westcoastpaddler.com/wallpaper/displayimage.php?album=5&pos=2
and here's a picture of a Lion Jellyfish:
http://www.westcoastpaddler.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=15&pos=43
Dan
http://www.westcoastpaddler.com
*****
Stingray and Jellyfish Monday!!
This past Monday I was snorkeling off the point at St. Andrews State park in Panama City Beach and within a 2 minute time frame I was hit by a stingray and when I came up from that I brushed a jellyfish. The sting from the ray was minimal and I lucked out and got nothing from the jelly. I did however freak out from this and called it quits for the day. I figured these things come in threes and I knew a shark was in my future. I am from Illinois and this does not happen where I come from.
No help on the jellfish thing, just sharing my experience.
Jay
I’ve been stung
ammmonia is the standard first aid. Even ths small amount in pee will help. 1/10 to 1/4 strength seems to be consensus.
Vinegar can cause some to nematocysts to release the poison, while others will be neutralized.
fishing
I was night fishing in the Outer Banks out of a charter boat and someone needed their hook baited so one of the crew reached for the hook and got stung. He didn’t realize (night fishing, couldn’t see) there was bits of jelly fish on the hook. He was hopping up and down all over the boat.
I’ve Been Stung
Just cursed a lot. It seems to help. It’s about the same as a bee sting as far as pain. Little or no redness and swelling afterward, though.
Been nailed
several times by man o war while diving here in south Florida. Ammonia as initial treatment works and Benadryl topical and oral later if the reaction is severe.
Bob
Only diff w/Jellyfish is…
While a bee can only get you once with their stinger, somethng like a Man o’ War in particular can wrap a tenticle around your limb and actually get you multiple times. The per sting reaction is the same as a somewhat strong bee sting reaction, but you can have a bunch of them. So the cumulative effect can send people to the ER. Man o’ Wars are particularly nasty - they periodically wash up in numbers on more southern beaches, leaving their tenticles out. People then walk along not realizing that the darned things are still alive, don’t see the extensions in the sand, and get multiple hits. Happened to my father.
There’s a reason that one of the more common ways to see a Man o’ War when I was a kid was dead, on the beach with a knife thru it. Apparently they are more protected now because they create some unique and medically very valuable compound. But they are quite nasty. It’s been a while, but in my memory the red jellyfish tend to be the worst of the squishy ones if they sting you.
There was a story here about a guy
who scooped a jelly up in his pee bucket to show his friends. Later he used it as intended and was stung several times. Yow! Thank goodness my encounters have been on less sensitive body parts.
rolling practice
live in virginia off of ches. bay. Have rolled face first into jellys acouple of times and had some minor irritation but nothing dramatic. I don’t know what type of jellys they were. I try to avoid them but am trying to perfect roll on waveski and sometimes I get stubborn.
Since the water was flat the jellies added a sense of adventure rather than danger.
They are gone now so don’t have to worry till next summer.
eugene
Meat tenderizer…
…is the best,(better than vinegar) and a lot of the life guards keep it on hand.
Many times in the southern waters you can get stung by Portugese Man-of-War tentacles that are broken off and you don’t see them until it is too late.
Many families keep a small bottle of the stuff with them when they hit the beaches.
Most of the jellyfishes that you see don’t sting, but if you see that small blue sucker, watch out. that is a man-of-war.
Cheers,
JackL
Jelly fish
Adolphs meat tenderizer will stop the pain. If you don’t have that–don’t laugh----urine will work too.
actually
There are winter jellies (Cyanea capillata) that are very abundant in the Bay and lower river tribs in February and March. I doubt you’ll be upside down too much then. If so your skin will be so numb that you won’t feel them anyway but they do burn a bit. Running gillnets was fun at that time of year in the James and York. Some days you’d haul back a red jelly curtain with the wind blowing the tentacles back in your face.
As for getting stung. The most common stinging jellies in the Bay are Aurelia aurita (moon jelly) and Chrysaora quinquecirrha (stinging nettles).
Stinging nettles have pretty long tentacles and can give you a good little burning rash. The initial shot feels like an electric shock. These come in two colors, clear and red. Usually huge aggregations of the clear phase form in areas of moderate salinity. In wet years they are absent from places like Jones Creek but thick down in areas like Hampton Roads and Ocean View. In dry years they are thick further upstream like in Jones Creek or in the James between the JRB and the idle fleet.
Moon jellies are the guys with the giant disk with small “four leafed clovers” (gonads) in the middle. Their sting is mild at worst.
Man-O-War
I was stung on the chest in Puerto Vallarta about 15 years ago. I was really drunk and it was still very painful. A mexican resort waiter poured Sauza Blanco Tequila and lime juice on the sting and it seemed to help. Jelly fish seem to pack less of a punch, but the still hurt like hell. To me, they feel like a bunch of wasp stings over a large area.
Thanks all
Especially to String for that very valuable “don’t use the pee container” tip.
They look like “Moon Jellies” to me, 1-10" in diameter, translucent white, big gonads.
Sounds like a proprietary topical mixture of amonia, vinegar, meat tenderizer and alcohol (and maybe a splash of WD-40) should do the trick. Perhaps a little extra alcohol as an oral treatment. Actually, alcohol increases blood flow to the skin, probably not a good idea.
Thanks.
Man o’War II
– Last Updated: Oct-07-05 9:04 AM EST –
One time walking the beach in Florida, I looked down by my foot and saw a Portuguese Man o'war. Just as I noticed that one of its tendrils was draped across the top of my foot, I got this feeling of being hit on the foot with a sledge hammer. It hurt!!!!!
The guy I was with knew to put amonia on it. By standards of people who get stung on the stomach or chest, it wasn't bad. It was still quite memorable.
Man o War
are a favorite treat for many seaturtles but particularly the largest and most pelagic. Leatherbacks take advantage of these floating delicacies.
Bob