Pain is a normal part of life. Getting a shot from your doctor can be painful. Scraping your knee on the concrete can be painful. An ingrown hair can be painful. Most of these, however, are fairly temporary pain that goes away quickly and with very little treatment.

Sometimes, we’re faced with a situation in which we need to describe how painful something is, and one of the strangest phrases we have when it comes to describing pain is that something “is no more painful than a bee sting.”

For many, that isn’t very reassuring. Bee stings can hurt.

While it’s traditionally true that, unless you have an allergy, bee stings are often less painful than wasp stings and red ant stings, bee stings can still be quite painful. Bee venom is designed to cause pain, and many people that get a bee sting say that it is very painful.

Bee sting pain can also last for a long time, typically two hours or so provided there is no allergy. That is a long while to experience pain. Saying that something hurts “no more than a bee sting” is not a great analogy, as bee stings are painful.

Why Do We Use This Phrase?

Many people use this phrase to describe injections, or minor medical procedures. But this phrase is also frequently used when talking about pests.

For example, house centipedes – the very large, fast, long legged pests that scurry about in bathrooms and walls – have a bite that is almost always described as “no more painful than a bee sting.” A Google search for “house centipedes” and “bee sting” yields thousands of results.

You can imagine that this is not very reassuring to people, especially when you also consider the size of these pests and how quickly they move. Even though house centipedes rarely bite – even less so than spiders – they *look* like they’re aggressive, and so imagining one of them causing a painful spider bite can make people very uncomfortable.

Most likely, the reason we use this phrase is because we know we can survive it. Unless allergic, most people find the pain irritating, but not traumatizing.

Still, it may be time to think of a new phrase, or consider that this particular phrase is not very reassuring.

Pest Control and Pain

Rather than dismiss bee stings as though they are not painful, we should instead focus on prevention, so that we do not have to think about the potential for pain in the first place. High quality, thorough pest control can eliminate pests and prevent them from entering, so that you do not have to worry about how painful something is for you or your family.

We don’t have great ways to describe pain. “No more painful than a bee sting” is still probably not one that people find comforting. Still, with pest control from ExtermPRO, we can make sure that you don’t have to worry about the pests that might cause these stings and bites, and can focus on enjoying your home instead. Learn more by contacting our team, today.