I posted this remedy that has worked wonders for me over the years, but it was a while back in a topic unrelated to bee stings. This one works especially well with paper wasps stings, but also works with any hymenoptera stings including stinging ants, bees, bumblebees, yellowjackets, paper hornets, mason bees, carpenter bees, mud dauber wasps, and the above mentioned paper wasps.
Get the hotest raw fresh white or yellow onion you can find, the hotter (as in causes tears when you cut into it) the better. Cut across the top center or upper side (so you can save the rest of the onion for later--cooking, other stings, the like...), making sure you get into some juicy layers. Mash the layers up with your fingers a bit to let some of the juice out, but leaving the piece intact enough to hold it firmly. Note: The faster the better--preferably within less than five minutes after the sting--and before major swelling has started. Remove the stinger from a worker bee sting; other hymenoptera generally don't leave their stingers behind--this includes queen bumblebees (very common) and queen honeybees (much rarer to encounter one of these), then mash the partially crushed onion right onto the sting with as much pressure as you can stand and firmly rub the onion and its juice around the stinger hole and nearby skin.
If you do this right, in time, hotness of the onion, and in the correct way, the pain should vanish within 2-10 minutes. I know it works wonderfully with me and my kids. We have been stung dozens of times by paper wasps (two years ago I had to destroy at least 1000 nests; this year fewer than 40), except for one time when I was stuck at an auction 25 minutes from home when I was stung by a paper wasp, all other times the pain has vanished and I never developed a swelling. The one time at the auction, my knee sting swelled and even though I applied the onion about 25 minutes after I was stung, the swelling remained and I actually ran a low fever for a few days, and my knee itched for nearly a week. I have had reactions to paper wasps before, as well as other nasty bees. The most painful recent one was a queen yellowjacket stinging me on the palm of my right hand. Even though I was sweating bullets and feeling dizzy almost immediately--the most painful sting since a queen bumblebee got me 20 years ago, I again used the hot onion. Despite the thickness of the palm of my hand--which made the onion juice take longer to reach the sting, the pain disappeared after 10 very uncomfortable (not so bad near the end) minutes. Boy was I relieved.
I hope this helps. The other remedies should be used for after the sting is well established and reaction swelling is full sized. I think the allocin reacts with the formic acid and destructive enzymes in the stings to neutralize the first and denature the second so the reaction doesn't take place or at least is stopped before it gets severe. Of course anaphalactic reactions should be taken care of with epi-pen (epinepherine) and a quick trip to the hospital like always--I don't know if the onion helps these people. The onion just works with the annoyance pain and allergic response. Sorry about some of the spellings--I'm in a hurry to get the children to an event with their Tae Kwan Do group.
Chris
