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Baking soda for stings

Make a paste of baking soda and water and apply to wasp or hornet stings. This will soothe as well as keep any swelling down. Using a thick paste, just leave it over the stung area for about five minutes and you will find great relief.

Visitors comments

SCIENCE?! Comments By: Jeff I grew up in Florida (first 15 yrs of my life) and because of the sub-tropical climate, we had plethoric stinging/biting insects and caterpillars. Bees, wasps, hornets, yellow jackets....everything. My friends in I would frequently go on "expeditions" into surrounding woods and, thus, were frequently stung. My mother would always make a baking soda paste to put on it, but I was wondering if there was any scientific basis to this for stings. I know fire ants' main pain-causing toxin is formic acid, but formic acid is present in only minute amounts in bees; it's mostly a BASIC (in regards to pH, i.e. not ACIDIC) chemical called mellitin. I know baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, which is quite basic itself. So to neutralize an acid, sodium bicarb would do the trick, but why apply a BASIC paste to a BASIC toxin?   Using baking sode paste for hornet sting really worked Comments By: QualityJo Last night I was stung twice on my face by a hornet, and my husband suggested the baking soda paste. Worked wonderfully!   worked for my little boy Comments By: Amanda My 4 year old got stung last night while I was at work. My husband tried the baking soda paste and it worked beautifully!!!   tryin it now! Comments By: nadine i got stung by a wasp and im trying the baking powder thing now.. it already feels cooler and less itchy *5 mins later*... it does actually feel better but it still painful but it's not as itchy!