"CAIRO (Reuters) - Several years ago, a young Egyptian man abandoned his degree in archaeology to hunt scorpions in the country's deserts and shores, extracting their venom for medicinal use. At just 25 years old, Mohamed Hamdy Boshta is now the owner of the Cairo Venom Company - a project housing 80,000 scorpions in various farms across Egypt as well as a range of snakes, also kept for their venom." See: https://news.yahoo.com/young-egyptian-finds-fortune-scorpions-154028180.html
In comparison, (very low cost), some companies and governments (in Central America, Australia, and Africa), are producing and marketing a thirty dollar first aid device that used to be available in the usa, and (was said) to have been issued to all the US ARMY troops world wide. Most snake bites, spider bites, bee stings (like when allergic reaction), and even sting rays (like in the ocean) 'stings', were resolved in seconds of treatment with the device(s). Someone making thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars per antiV dose, did not like that, so they paid the US politicians in Texas to have the device(s) declared medical instead of first aid. This way, they could prevent their use(s) until /if/ someone 'produced' 5 million dollars research proof and approval to be certified for use as a medical device. (something about federal laws on medical device(s) that are not controlling the use(s) of first aid helps) .... My internet searches are a lot more censored, limited, and difficult the last few months.... I will look for the articles of interest about this, and perhaps someone else has some information too ?
We have two types of scorpions in Georgia. I got stung by one that was hiding inside a sleeping bag once. It wasn't any more painful than a yellow jacket sting, but it was a different kind of feeling.
I didn't know there were scorpions in the states (or really anywhere) outside of arid regions. I almost died of yellow jacket stings and went through a desensitizing shot routine. I tested allergic to everything but honey bees. I've been stung since undergoing that treatment, and have been stung a few times since without a reaction (but not by yellow jackets.) I wonder if I would also be allergic to scorpion stings.
I had an uncle who died of yellow jacket stings. He was clearing a patch of brush in his yard and ran across a nest by accident. I'm not sure they knew he was allergic to them before this incident. Probably not.
I'm sorry about your uncle. I recently had a friend die of yellow jacket stings. He was on his tractor and ran over a nest of them. You never know...death on wings. I was cutting my grass and ran over a ground nest when I almost died. I had never had a reaction to stings before, although I'm not certain I had ever been stung by yellow jackets. Sometimes the venom stays in your system so that "one sting" puts you over the top. Sometimes the sheer all-at-once volume from a number of stings will do it. I've been stung since (not by yellow jackets) and had no reaction, but I still carry an EpiPen. Interesting side-note: Yellow jacket nests are sometimes (but not always) underground. After I came back from Urgent Care, I waited until dusk as the yellow jackets were returning to the nest to see where the entry holes were. I poured gasoline down them and set them on fire. When I got up the next morning and looked, there was a ring of nest material around one of the holes where it appears they had drug the nest out in an effort to save it. They are highly aggressive wasps.
Yes, they chase you. I got stung by a bunch of them while mowing the yard a few years ago. The sad part was after I got the first round swatted off, I walked over the nest again, because it was not near where I got stung, and got stung by a 2nd round of them. Some of the stingers stayed in, and I had to get a piece of cardboard and scrape them out. It was very painful all over both legs. If you stayed still it got worse, so I had to keep walking most of the evening afterward. I guess that means I'm not allergic. But I read somewhere that you can develop and allergy to them by getting stung. Is that true?
I had thought that the venom may not process through your system, but rather accumulate, so subsequent stings inject incremental volumes venom. But I can find nothing to verify that on the web. Nor can I find out why you suddenly become allergic. WEBMD says: But they don't explain how or why. I do recall that when I got tested, there are 5 (or 7) different types of venom, depending on the family of bee/wasp that stings you. You can be allergic to some and not others (I am not allergic to honey bee venom but am allergic to everything else.) Now that I think of it, I went through a desentizing regime where I received incrementally higher doses of various venoms over a long period of time, so the whole "builds up in your system" doesn't make sense, does it?