Marine Life My first jellyfish sting

[Brant Emery]

Pee to your heart's content, it does work. When you get back to your room submerge the sting area in hot water. As hot as you can tolerate, then slowly add more hot water as you can tolerate. Soak for 20 minutes. The heat breaks down the stinging cells.

Been there done that many times.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Got stung on the palms of my hands a few weeks ago in Sydney when pulling up the deco weight line, probably a bluebottle but never saw anything. Took about a week to scab and another week to sort of disappear. We are used to getting stung here, common occurrence.

 

[bradmond]

I have fairly strong reactions to Mosquitos and Allergy relief anti-histamine pills work the best for me. May want to give it a try.

 

[The Chairman]

I have fairly strong reactions to Mosquitos and Allergy relief anti-histamine pills work the best for me. May want to give it a try.

Noseeums make me burn like hell! While the pills give me relief, they put me to sleep. The topicals give adequate relief and I stay alert.

Everyone is different. Many don't seem adversely affected by the pills. A few of us are.

 

[David Haas]

Getting stung whether mild or more severe is no fun.......Old guy advice here.......

I know people hate being hot and in the tropics want to "go native"....Or they just dislike full coverage dive skins, wetsuits of various thicknesses and finally hoods. I get it......Ages ago I learned when I was a cold water diver to LOVE my wetsuit hood(s).

For several decades I never dive without full body coverage including a bibbed thin 1.5mm beat to snot Henderson 1.5mm hood.

After getting stung on the neck the bibbed hood became my norm. I lay it flat inside a Long Sleeve Rash Guard I wear underneath a 1.0mm, 2.5mm or whatever one piece back zip suit.

I've watched dive guides all over the world adapt clothing to minimize or eliminate stings. When the water's warm in Asia or wherever many wear long leggings under their board shorts now along with Long Sleeve Rashguards.

I noticed dive guides cutting a small thumb hole in the sleeve end pulling it down mostly covering the BACK of their hands from mild hydroids or whatever. In no gloves allowed environments this works pretty well

Finally, look up at night as your safety stop ends.....

If you see any gelatinous creatures bobbing above blast gas from your Octopus / AIR 2 or primary regulator 2nd stage. It'll blow away the stingers right under the ladder, then surface slowly and climb aboard FULLY dressed unless you pop your tank off to hand it up.

If climbing a nice ladder suitable with gear on (if you can, I get it not everyone's cup of tea) I keep my damn mask on, regulator in my mouth until I'm ON THE BOAT.

I've seen people surface all excited pulling their mask off regaling everyone about the night dive only to get stung on their face, suck salt water from a wave, etc.

Please don't!

Have fun diving, cover up (hey, you can play Ninja depending on your dive suit color) and be safe

David Haas

 

[Bubblesong]

I got stung in Thailand, and wish I’d seen the most obvious warning sign, that all the dive guides were wearing full coverage including their necks, which I just thought was odd, maybe sun protection. Then i got stung all over face and neck from little fnckers i could hardly see. First it hurt a lot, vinegar did not help. very hot water masks pain, but does not make it stop. Overnight turned to itch. The next day i got cortezone for the itch which is one example that money can buy happiness.
Full coverage for me from now on.

 

[CT-Rich]

i never understood why no glove.

A friend keeps a glove in her BCD pocket in case she needs to grip a mooring line in a current.

The logic of the the no glove rules is that stupid should hurt. On one dive I ended up a little too close to the reef and when I fanned my hand to back up, I shredded it on the coral (It might have been a hard algae). I just misjudged the position of my hand, a painful mistake that I am unlikely to repeat. Too many divers with gloves on would destroy the reef. It is bad enough seeing how many kick or stand on it.

My only experience with a jelly fish was a lion's mane. I got it across the face in 40F water. my skin was so cold I hardly felt it.

 

[GreggS]

Several years ago, my wife and I were diving on a barge wreck out of Little River, SC. When we started our decent, we discovered the water was full of thousands of tiny jellies about the size of walnuts. I was covered from head to toe with the exception of the area right around my mouth. Yep, you guessed it.

Right on the upper lip.

I didn't really feel it until we got back on the boat, but it had swollen a little and felt just like a bee sting. By the time we got back to the dock it had pretty much subsided.

I would have vigorously declined anyone's offers to pee on it.

 

[Kay Dee]

Some of you should just be thankful that you can surface when you want and dont have a couple of hours deco still to go when stung (often multiple times!). To have the sea from 30m/100ft to the surface fill up with these guys coming by in a relatively strong current in a literal endless stream for an hour or more (as we sometimes experienced in the Java Sea) was no picnic. Certainly not 'blue bottle' / PM'oW sting pain level, but enough to drive you crazy itching for all of your deco. Dodging them was not really an option (although some tried), so as someone mention up-thread, your best friend was a hood (ours lightish 'rash-gaurd' / 'swim-suit' type material, given warmth of water) which you soon learnt to carry in you pocket / pouch to whip out when the buggers appeared.

 

[morecowbells]

I have had two different types of jellyfish stings. When I was a child(ages ago), Walking on the beach in Padre Island, a massive tentacle wrapped up my entire leg(ankle to groin). Hurt like the devil. After getting unwrapped by someone with a stick, I had massive welts for a solid 10 days and felt like a case of the flu for the first 3 days. Fast forward to a couple of years ago in Curacao during a night dive, I felt stinging around my wrist-right where my wetsuit sleeve ends. I never had to unwrap a tentacle, but the burn was instant, but not enough to end a dive. That night, my wrist showed the classic marks of a jellyfish sting. Pain got better, but red, itchy rash with welts moved up my arm to my entire torso. I had some benedryl and oral prednisone that I started. It looked worse than it felt. Convinced that I have an allergy to there stings, but confused about what types of jellyfish were involved. Any ideas as to what kinds of jellys got me?