Two teachers in Germany landed themselves in hot water with their method for treating a student's wasp sting. Instead of grabbing an ice pack, the teachers heated a fork with a lighter and pressed it to the sting site.
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Two teachers at a school in the western German state of Hesse were fined for causing bodily harm with their questionable home remedy for a student's wasp sting.
The incident occurred during a school trip to a youth hostel in the neighboring state of Rhineland-Palatinate in May 2017, when a 14-year-old student was stung by a wasp.
In response, a 39-year-old male teacher heated the handle of a fork with a lighter and pressed it on the boy's hand where he'd been stung. After a blister formed, another 40-year-old female teacher cut it open and treated the wound with cream.
The student's lawyer said that as a result of the sting, the boy had to wear a protective glove for a considerable period of time. The German daily Bild reported that the boy's hand became infected and that he wasn't able to attend an internship as a result.
A district court in Cochem fined the male teacher €2,700 ($3,160) for causing bodily harm. The female teacher was fined €2,500 ($2,900) for both assisting and causing bodily harm to the student.
The decision was made last Thursday, a court spokesperson said, adding that the judgement is not yet final, as a timeline for appealing the decision has not yet passed.
All about the birds and the bees...
All they want to do is feed on sweet nectar or other delicacies. But at the same time, they pollinate flowers and thus enable plants to reproduce. There's more to these little creatures than meets the eye.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Pleul
As sweet as honey
They are the pollination super stars! Honeybees account for about 80 percent of all pollination by insects. They visit a large variety of plants, collecting pollen and nectar taking it back to their hive. Each hive can collect about 66 pounds of pollen every year. As well as the honeybees, there are several thousand wild bee species. Most of those live a solitary life, not in hives.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Pleul
The humble bumblebee
They are bigger and hairier than honeybees, but just as useful: bumblebees also feed on floral nectar, using their long hairy tongues to collect the delicious liquid. Bumblebees are social animals like honeybees, but form much smaller colonies of only about 50 to 600 individuals.
Wasps have a bad reputation and the vast majority of wasp species play no role in pollination. That is because wasps have a smooth body without hairs, and pollen doesn't stick to them. Pollen wasps are different, though. They collect pollen and nectar inside their throats and feed their young with it.
Image: Colourbox
Just a busy bee?
These little creatures try to look dangerous by imitating the coloring of bees and wasps - but they are harmless and cannot sting. They are often seen hovering above flowers. The adults love nectar and pollen and are important pollinators. Hoverfly larvae are also useful: they feed on aphids and thus help with pest control.
Image: picture alliance/H. Bäsemann
To bee, or not to bee
They look a bit like a cross between a fly and a bee, hence their name. Bee flies can grow to up to four centimeters. They live in many parts of the world, but are most diverse in the tropics and subtropics. Adult bee flies love pollen and nectar; their larvae, though, feed on the eggs or larvae of other insects.
There are more than 18,000 species of butterflies, and most of them are brightly coloured. With their long, thin legs and relatively small bodies, they cannot carry as much pollen as bees. Still, they do a good job pollinating plants. Unlike bees, butterflies can see red which attracts them to different blooms than bees.
Image: MEHR
A help or a hindrance?
Moths are less colourful than butterflies, but they still belong to the same family. Moths fly at night. That's why they do not need bright colours. But they also feed on flowering plants. Some moths, and especially their caterpillars, are major agricultural pests, though.
Image: picture-alliance/Arco Images/J. Fieber
Don't beetle about the bush
Did you know that beetles also play a role in pollination? Some of them do, such as the flower scarab, also called flower beetle. As the name suggest, they visit flowers for pollen and nectar. There are around 4,000 species. One is the green rose chafer (photo).
Image: picture-alliance/blickwinkel/J. Fieber
In the blink of an eye
It is not only insects that do the pollinator's job - there are birds on duty as well. Especially birds with long slim bills like hummingbirds carry pollen from one flower to the next when feeding on nectar. Some species of plants have even evolved to produce flowers that appear especially attractive to hummingbirds.
Image: CC BY 2.0: KevinCole/flickr.com
Sun worshipper
Some other birds belonging to the passerine group also appreciate floral nectar. Take this Seychelles sunbird. Its long, slender bill shows that it is specialized on drinking from flower blossoms. This species is especially fond of hibiscus flowers.
Image: picture-alliance/blickwinkel/M. Woike
Creature of the night?
Bats - including their larger relatives, the fruit bats - play an important role in plant distribution and reproduction. While some bat species prefer insects, others feed on fruit or on nectar. When they drink nectar with their long tongues, they transfer pollen from one blossom to the next.
A creature that nose pollen
In Madagascar, primates like this mouse lemur pollinate flowers and are even essential to the reproduction of some tree species. They stick their noses into the flowers to drink nectar, and pollen collects on their snouts.
Image: Imago
Scaling up
Yes, there are even some species of lizard and snake that help with pollination. Researchers found that, especially on islands, lizards are important pollinators. They suspect that lizards have fewer predators on islands and are therefore more numerous. On these islands they can roam around more freely and expand their diet to nectar, pollen and fruit.
Image: picture-alliance/Hippocampus-Bildarchiv
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Why use heat to treat stings?
In the medical community in Europe and the United States, there's a clear consensus that cooling is the best way to treat bee and wasp stings.
However, in recent years, several products have appeared on the market called Stichheiler or "sting healers" that claim to reduce itching and swelling from stings and bug bites by using heat.
The pen-sized devices have small ceramic plates that heat up to 51 degrees Celsius (123 degrees Fahrenheit). The heated plates are then pressed to the sting site for several seconds.
The products, which are certified as medical devices in Germany, market themselves as a "chemical-free" way to treat stings.
A frequently cited study on the effectiveness of the devices was sponsored by the pharmaceutical company that first owned the product, and two out of its three co-authors were employees of the company at the time.
How to treat stings
It's important to remove the stinger as quickly as possible after being stung and to wash the area with soap and water.
Doctors recommend applying ice or a cold compress to the area, as it helps to prevent venom from spreading. Hydrocortisone creams or similar treatments can be applied to reduce swelling and itching.
If the sting causes an allergic reaction, an emergency medical team should be called right away. Some people who know they are allergic to such stings will often carry around an emergency treatment in the form of an epinephrine injection (also known as an EpiPen).
Wasps are protected in Germany under the Federal Nature Conservation Act. Deliberately disturbing wasps, and other wild animals, capturing them, injuring them or causing their death without reasonable cause can lead to fines between €5,000 and €50,000.
People who are allergic to wasp stings are entitled to kill the insects if they feel they are in danger.