Unfortunately, in the real world treating a jellyfish sting by urinating on it may actually cause someone in Monica's situation even more pain, rather than relief. Urine can actually aggravate the jellyfish's stingers into releasing more venom. This cure is, indeed, fiction.
Healing may take many weeks. Permanent scars may occur at the site of a sting. Sores usually heal without medical treatment.
First aid for minor jellyfish stings
- Thoroughly rinse the affected area with vinegar or with a commercial spray if available.
- Remove the tentacles while still rinsing.
- Apply a heat pack or immerse the affected area in water of a temperature at least 113 °F for 40 minutes.
The following tips may help you avoid jellyfish stings:
- Get information about conditions.
- Avoid water during jellyfish season.
- Use protective lotions.
- Wear a protective suit.
Their experiments showed that the best way to treat a sting from a man o' war is to rinse the wound with vinegar to remove any residual stingers or bits of tentacle left on the skin, and then immerse the wound in hot water—ideally at a temperature of 113 degrees F (45 degrees C)—for 45 minutes.
And in a shocking turn of events, by far the most effective treatment for a jellyfish sting was—drumroll please—Sting No More, a product designed to treat jellyfish stings. The spray contains vinegar to inhibit the nematocysts, plus urea to help dissolve the sticky substances that help tentacles adhere.
It's the tentacles that sting. Jellyfish sting their prey with them, releasing a venom that paralyzes their targets. Jellyfish don't go after humans, but someone who swims up against or touches one — or even steps on a dead one — can be stung all the same. While jellyfish stings are painful, most are not emergencies.
A jellyfish sting starts off like a sharp, burning pain. It feels like you've been stung by a bee, but in a long line. The pain faded, but I developed hives along the sting site about 24 hours later. They got really itchy, like a long line of mosquito bites.
Aequorea jellies glow with a bioluminescent protein used in the biotechnology industry. Bioluminescence is light produced by a chemical process within a living organism. The glow occurs when a substance called luciferin reacts with oxygen. This releases energy, and light is emitted.
Common signs and symptoms of jellyfish stings include:
- Burning, prickling, stinging pain.
- Red, brown or purplish tracks on the skin — a "print" of the tentacles' contact with your skin.
- Itching.
- Swelling.
- Throbbing pain that radiates up a leg or an arm.
You've been stung by a jellyfish. Jellyfish have special cells along their tentacles called cnidocytes. Within these cells are harpoon-like structures full of venom, called nematocysts. The nematocysts shoot out when triggered by touch and can penetrate human skin in less time than it takes you to blink.
Jellyfish stings cause immediate, intense pain and burning that can last for several hours. Raised, red welts develop along the site of the sting, which may look like you have been hit with a whip. The welts may last for 1 to 2 weeks, and itchy skin rashes may appear 1 to 4 weeks after the sting.
Leatherback turtles and ocean sunfish have long been known to gorge on jellyfish, gobbling hundreds of them every day. But leatherback turtles and ocean sunfish are exceptionally big. Leatherbacks can weigh over 2,000 pounds; ocean sunfish can reach 5,000 pounds.
A jellyfish sting starts off like a sharp, burning pain. It feels like you've been stung by a bee, but in a long line. The pain faded, but I developed hives along the sting site about 24 hours later. Jellyfish have stinging cells that, under a microscope, actually look like harpoons.
Some species of jellyfish are suitable for human consumption and are used as a source of food and as an ingredient in various dishes. Edible jellyfish is a seafood that is harvested and consumed in several Asian and Southeast Asian countries, and in some Asian countries it is considered to be a delicacy.
Are all jellyfish poisonous? Those gelatinous, undulating creatures we call jellyfish all produce at least some toxin, but not every species is dangerous to humans. There are a couple thousand varieties worldwide, from small sea nettles to large moon jellies, and the severity of their stings varies.
Prevention
- Get information about conditions. Talk to lifeguards, local residents or officials with a local health department before swimming or diving in coastal waters, especially in areas where jellyfish are common.
- Avoid water during jellyfish season.
- Use protective lotions.
- Wear a protective suit.
Darwin boy, 10, survives potentially deadly box jellyfish sting. Box jellyfish have the most rapidly acting venom of any known creature and are capable of killing a person in under five minutes. Officially the stinger season in the NT begins on October 1, although stings have been recorded for all months of the year.
Long tentacles have numerous venomous microscopic nematocysts which deliver a painful sting powerful enough to kill fish and even occasionally humans. Despite its appearance, the Portuguese man o' war differs from most animals called jellyfish which are single organisms.
[Takeover!
Some 20 to 40 people die from stings by box jellyfish annually in the Philippines alone, according to the U.S. National Science Foundation.A jellyfish has no ears or eyes or nose and no brain or heart! They do not even have a head. Their body is almost totally made of water and is soft having no bones at all. Jellyfish are invertebrate animals because they do not have a spine or backbone.
Box jellies, also called sea wasps and marine stingers, live primarily in coastal waters off Northern Australia and throughout the Indo-Pacific. They are pale blue and transparent in color and get their name from the cube-like shape of their bell.
Some just look like small, clear blobs, while others are bigger and more colorful with tentacles hanging beneath them. It's the tentacles that sting. While jellyfish stings are painful, most are not emergencies. Expect pain, red marks, itching, numbness, or tingling with a typical sting.
In the adult, or medusa, stage of a jellyfish, they can reproduce sexually by releasing sperm and eggs into the water, forming a planula. The polyps clone themselves and bud, or strobilate, into another stage of jellyfish life, called ephyra. It is this form that grows into the adult medusa jellyfish.
Jellyfish range from about one millimeter in bell height and diameter, to nearly 2 metres (7 ft) in bell height and diameter; the tentacles and mouth parts usually extend beyond this bell dimension.
The box jellyfish actively hunts its prey (small fish), rather than drifting as do true jellyfish. They are capable of achieving speeds of up to 1.5 to 2 metres per second or about 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph).
Comparative list
| Source: CNET |
|---|
| Animal | Humans killed per year |
|---|
| 1 | Mosquitoes | 1000000 |
| 2 | Humans (murder only) | 475,000 |
| 3 | Snakes | 50,000 |
While jellyfish stings are painful, most are not emergencies. Expect pain, red marks, itching, numbness, or tingling with a typical sting. But stings from some types of jellyfish — such as the box jellyfish (also called sea wasp) — are very dangerous, and can even be deadly.
The jellyfish has four such structures. Regardless of the jellyfish's position, the upper lens eyes are oriented so they look upward. Box jellyfish have 24 eyes of four different types, and two of them -- the upper and lower lens eyes -- can form images and resemble the eyes of vertebrates like humans.
Treatment for jellyfish stings
- Remove the person from the water.
- Call for help (dial 000)
- Assess the person and commence CPR as necessary.
- Liberally douse the stung area with vinegar to neutralise the stinging cells - do not wash with fresh or sea water or rub with towels or sand.
