Justin Schmidt — The guy who purposely got stung by insects for research
Day 77 / 365
In the 1980s John Schmidt set out to write a paper classifying the stings of different insects based on their pain level. How did he find the pain level? Well, he got stung by each and every one of those insects himself! So after over a 1000 painful stings, he was able to develop a pain scale known as the Schmidt sting pain index.
The scale divides the various stings into four pain levels, 1 being the least painful and 4 the most. Here’s how John described some of the insect stings in each level
Pain Level 1
This group contains most small bees and some ants. Here’s what John said about the white-faced bee sting, which he rated as a level 1-
almost pleasant, a lover just bit your earlobe a little too hard
Pain Level 2
Here things start to get a bit powerful. The pain in this level lasts for 2–5 minutes. The termite-raiding ant falls in this category, whose sting was described by Schmit as-
the debilitating pain of a migraine contained in the tip of your finger
Pain Level 3
Most insects in this category are wasps. The pain duration can go up to half an hour. The Maricopa harvester ant is at this level as well, and John had this to say about it-
after eight unrelenting hours of drilling into that ingrown toenail, you find the drill wedged into the toe.
Pain Level 4
This is the highest rating that John gave. One of the insects that he gave this rating was the warrior wasp. It's painful even to read his description of the pain
torture. You are chained in the flow of an active volcano. Why did I start this list?
And this lasted for about two hours!
This story is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here
Yesterday’s blog — Are we eating too much salt?