The Sting

the bullet ant                                                                               © Alex Wild

Crazy as it sounds, there is a scientist out there who has taken it upon himself to categorize the pain caused by insects' stings ~ by experiencing them firsthand. The sting of the bullet ant, for example, he rates at Level 4, the most severe. "The pain is so immediate and intense," he says, "that it shuts down all illusions of life as normal." Yikes! And yet, continues Dr. Justin Schmidt, "I enjoy what I do." One would hope so. He's been doing this for more than 30 years and has been stung, mostly by accident, by more than 150 different species: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150312-the-worlds-most-painful-insect-sting