What it's Like Getting Stung

You’re at the beach, about to step in the water when you see someone hopping out of the water on one foot, clearly in pain -- they are doing 'the stingray hop'. You help them to the lifeguard stand for assistance. Later, you see them join a line of people sitting to the side of the stand with a foot in a bucket of hot water.

Stingray Injury Treated with Foot in a Bucket of Hot Water – Photo Credit Brian Chernicky, How to Treat a Stingray Injury Reduce the Pain

The stingray hop is share by almost all sting victims, but other qualities of stingray stings can vary widely from one injury to another. In this article, we'll discuss the different levels of sting severity and what stingray stings feel like.

Warning sign about stingrays to avoid the stingray hop

If you are reading this with a foot in a bucket yourself, we encourage you to check out What to do Immediately After Getting Stung by a Stingray instead.

How a Stingray Stings

When you step on a stingray, it reflexively coils up its tail, flailing its barb around. The barb is surrounded by a skin sheath, with venom inside it. As the barb pierces your skin, it's sheath will also break, releasing the venom into the wound. In an interview on stingrays with NPR, Dr. Chris Lowe from CSU Long Beach shares that “[the] toxin causes blood vessels to constrict, ... [and an] intense pain sensation — a throbbing, kind of aching pain sensation. And it literally takes hours to go away." In addition to the venom, a stingray sting can also transfer foreign bacteria and contaminants into the wound. 

Most stingray stings are due to round rays, which are usually not very strong physically, but do have a very sharp barb. The barb has hooks facing backwards like a fish hook, so that the wound is made larger as the barb pulls out. Sometimes the barb stays in the wound, and needs to be manually removed after the sting. There isn't great data on how often a barb breaks off in the wound, but this paper seems to indicate it occurs in about 1% or less of cases. In our own stingray injury survey data, we see a barb left in the wound in ~3% of reports.

The physical damage from the barb, pain and reaction from the venom, and possible infection from contaminants are the primary sources of pain, damage, and danger associated with a stingray sting.

Severe Stingray Stings

The most severe stingray stings are indeed quit bad. Some people are exceptionally sensitive to the venom, and depending on how the barb pierces the skin you may get a very high dose of venom. Excruciating pain is common, often described as an agonizing, burning sensation. We've heard it described as 'worse than giving birth', 'the worst pain of my life', and 'worse than kidney stones'. In addition to the immediate pain, the venom injected by the stingray's barb can sometimes cause tissue damage, nerve injury, and even affect vital organs. If someone is allergic or sensitive to the venom, they may experience difficulty breathing, chest pain, dizziness, or fainting. Stings can also cause infections which can lead to sepsis (a severe reaction to the infection) or skin necrosis (death of skin cells). Both of these require extended medical attention. In very bad stings the barb can also cut through tendons in the foot, or break off in the wound. If the barb remains in the wound undetected, it will cause recurring issues for the sting victim like swelling, continued pain, and flare ups if/when new venom comes in contact with your tissue. Finally, the stress of a bad sting can sometimes be a trigger for other lurking health issues, setting off auto-immune diseases like crohns.

Nerves in the foot a stingray can damage

Sharing his experiences of a severe sting, physician Eric Stern shared with NPR: “I began to notice that I didn't have any sensation in the dorsum — the top — of my foot around the base of my fourth and fifth toes.” It turns out he had nerve damage from the sting and ended up needing surgery.

We should reiterate that we've been talking about the very worst stings thus far. This is certainly not the normal experience. However, we discuss the very worst stingray stings in order to illustrate how bad it can be. We suspect that deaths due to stingray sting are severely under-reported, because the sting itself is rarely the direct cause of death. Sepsis, skin necrosis, and other issues that arise due to stings almost certainly result in deaths every year, but the cause of death would rarely be listed as stingray sting. We take pride in knowing that we do some small part to avoid the loss of quality, and maybe even prevent loss of life -- even though these things don't make it into the news. 

Moderate Stingray Stings

Moderate stingray sting

When someone experiences a moderate, 'average' stingray sting they will encounter intense pain at and around the site of the sting. The pain will reduce after 1-2 hours of immersion in hot water. The wound will typically still be painful for the next 1-2 days, but will be more of a dull aching pain instead of the initial sharp pain. You will probably want to take off work or reduce your plans for a couple of days after a sting.

A moderate, 'average' sting likely will not have a barb left in the wound. But you should still pay attention to what your body is telling you. If you feel that something might be left in your wound, or just feel that something is wrong, you should seek medical assistance to make sure you don't have complications.

Minor Stingray Stings

If you get a minor stingray sting, you may be able to 'walk it off' and go on with your day. This is a fairly lucky experience, certainly not typical of stings. You'll likely feel a sharp prick on your foot, and wonder if you stepped on a sharp rock, crab, or piece of glass. You might get just a light brush from the stingray's sting, without transferring much venom to your wound. You'll likely still be bleeding, and you should still leave the water, in case the pain is building. For this reason, we'd also recommend you still go to the lifeguard station even if you think you have a minor sting -- it's possible that the pain is just building, and in this case you'll be happy to be close to lifeguards for assistance.

Summary

There’s a wide range of experiences with stingray stings. This is just the 'luck of the draw': some people get absolutely horrible stings, and others escape with 'just a scratch'. It's good to be aware of all sorts of stings, so you can treat yourself appropriately, and seek medical help when needed. Additionally, it is essential to practice safe stingray habits so you can avoid the stings altogether. You can read more in our blog on How to Avoid Getting Stung by Stingrays. If you don't want to read another article, then at least keep doing the stingray shuffle and please consider wearing protective footwear like our stingray resistant booties. And if you've been stung yourself, please contribute your stingray sting experiences via our Stingray History Survey.