this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2025
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Science Memes

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Everyone's got a fetish, I guess. (mander.xyz)
submitted 3 days ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Inspired by the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, Michael L. Smith did us all a favour and answered the obvious follow up question on which body parts hurt the most when stung. He had honey bee guards sting him in 25 locations, multiple times to account for variability, over 38 days.

Results:

The three least painful locations were the skull, middle toe tip, and upper arm (all scoring a 2.3). The three most painful locations were the nostril, upper lip, and penis shaft (9.0, 8.7, and 7.3, respectively).

He and Schmidt were awarded with a shared Ig Noble Price for their efforts.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 day ago

As someone who has had pimples on his nostril before, I believe this 100%. That shit was inordinately painful.

[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 2 days ago

The shaft was only a 7.3?!?

Well we know what they're into...

[–] nailbar@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I guess that means he killed 25 bees. Should have used a hornet instead.

[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

75 bees actually, 3 rounds of stinging.

A sting from a honey bee is familiar to many because of its world-wide distribution. The sting can be reliably provoked, and standardized, making it an ideal experimental stimulus. Furthermore, its rating as the center point of the Schmidt pain scale suggests it may be a useful standard. The present study therefore used honey bee stings to determine whether sting location impacts painfulness, and how painfulness varies by location.

Reads as: honey bees are cheap to acquire and I ain't letting no hornet sting my private parts.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Where did a taint sting land?

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Between the balls and anus.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Tongue? Eye ball? Penis head?

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Was only the shaft part of the penis tested?

[–] VivianRixia@piefed.social 1 points 2 days ago

As a trans woman, can confirm, getting electrolysis on the upper lip is the stuff of nightmares. i can't imagine something as big as a bee stinger hitting you there.