Guides

Wasp Sting First Aid

What helps, what doesn't, and when to ring 999.

Ring 999 now if any of these appear:

  • Wheezing, gasping, or any struggle to breathe
  • A swelling face, tongue, lips or throat
  • A tightening throat or any difficulty swallowing
  • Light-headedness, collapse, or sudden confusion
  • Hives or a rash racing across the body, away from the sting
  • Any sting taken inside the mouth or throat

This is anaphylaxis. Minutes count, and it does not settle on its own. If the person carries an adrenaline pen, use it while you wait.

The first ten minutes

Almost every sting handed out in a Altrincham garden this summer will need nothing beyond the basics below. Work through them in order.

  1. Get clear, calmly. A stinging wasp tags you with an alarm scent that recruits its nest-mates, so put steady distance between yourself and the spot. Flapping and sprinting both invite more stings; a brisk, boring walk indoors does not.
  2. Wash the site with soap and water. Nothing needs extracting; wasps take their sting home with them.
  3. Apply cold. Ten to fifteen minutes with a wrapped ice pack, a cold can, or frozen peas in a tea towel takes the edge off the pain and keeps swelling down.
  4. Dose the symptoms. An oral antihistamine from any chemist on George Street calms the itch; paracetamol or ibuprofen at usual doses covers the ache.
  5. Watch for half an hour. Serious reactions announce themselves early, usually inside fifteen minutes. Stay nearby and keep an eye out for the red-box symptoms above.

Things that make a sting worse

  • Scratching. The itch peaks on day two or three; broken skin is how stings get infected.
  • Vinegar and bicarbonate. The folk chemistry does not hold up. Neither meaningfully neutralises wasp venom under the skin, and both waste the minutes better spent on cold.
  • Squeezing or sucking the site. Venom disperses within seconds of the sting; squeezing just bruises the tissue.
  • Heat. A hot compress increases blood flow and spreads swelling. Keep to cold for the first day.

Children and dogs

Children get stung more often than adults and react more visibly, but the same steps apply, with medicine doses matched to age and weight. Check the packet or ask a pharmacist, and never give aspirin to anyone under sixteen. A child stung several times, or stung anywhere near the mouth, warrants a call to NHS 111 even if they seem cheerful. For genuine emergencies, the nearest A&E to Altrincham is at Wythenshawe Hospital.

Dogs tend to take stings on the muzzle or a front paw, usually after snapping at the wasp. A single sting on fur-covered skin normally settles with rest; a cold compress helps if the dog tolerates it. Ring the vet the same day for stings in or around the mouth, sudden facial swelling, vomiting, wobbliness, or a dog that took on a whole nest during a walk through Stamford Park.

Stopped treating the sting? Find the nest

One sting is bad luck. Two or three in the same part of the garden inside a week is a pattern, and a pattern means a colony within foraging range. Stand back on a warm afternoon and study the rooflines, shed, and borders for a repeating flight line to one point; our two-minute entrance test confirms whether it is live. Once found, treatment is £60 fixed for wasps and hornets, with same-day cover across Altrincham and Trafford on most days. Call 07770 015197.

Stings keep coming from one corner of the garden?

There will be a nest behind it. £60 fixed, no call-out fee, free re-treat if the colony survives.

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Where this guidance comes from

General first aid information for UK residents, not a substitute for medical advice. When unsure, ring NHS 111, or 999 in an emergency. Last reviewed: August 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

Cold, and not much else. After washing the area with soap and water, hold something cold against it for ten to fifteen minutes: a wrapped ice pack, a chilled can, frozen peas in a tea towel. An oral antihistamine helps with itch and swelling, and ordinary painkillers cover the rest. Creams, vinegar and bicarbonate paste add nothing that cold and time do not already do.

No. A wasp keeps its sting and can use it again, which is one way to know it was not a honeybee. Finding a small barbed stinger left in the skin means a bee was responsible; slide it out sideways with the edge of a card or a clean fingernail rather than squeezing it with tweezers.

Watch the person, not the sting. A hot, swollen, itchy patch around the site, even a dramatic one, is a local reaction and settles with cold and antihistamines. Trouble breathing, facial or throat swelling, faintness, a racing heart, or a rash spreading well away from the sting are body-wide symptoms, and they mean anaphylaxis until proven otherwise. Call 999 straight away.

Probably not, though it deserves attention. Delayed swelling that stays around the sting site is called a large local reaction; it peaks around 48 hours and fades over most of a week. Contact a pharmacist or NHS 111 if it keeps spreading, feels hot and increasingly painful, or shows pus or red streaking, since those point to infection rather than venom.

Any number causing body-wide symptoms is an emergency. Absent those, venom load is the concern: roughly ten or more stings in an adult, or five in a child, justifies a call to NHS 111 even when the person seems fine, because reactions to multiple stings can develop over hours. Stings inside the mouth or throat need urgent care at any count.

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