4PAIN LEVEL
Excruciating agony – shocking, fierce. Pain that makes you just want to lie down and scream. Tarantula hawk (a large spider-hunting wasp, family Pompylidae), bullet ant, Paraponera clavata (below), and warrior wasp, Synoeca septemtrionalis. “Like walking over flaming charcoal with a three-inch nail embedded in your heel.”
3 PAIN LEVEL
Very strong pain that can last up to half an hour. Paper wasps (Polistes species), velvet ants (family Mutillidae, actually furry wingless wasps), very large bull (Myrmecia) or harvester (Pogonomyrmex) ants. “After eight unrelenting hours of drilling into that ingrown toenail, you find the drill wedged into the toe.”
2 PAIN LEVEL
Sudden stabbing pain, giving way to an aching throb. Honeybee, Apis mellifera, bumblebees (Bombus species), social wasps (Vespula and Dolichovespula species) and American bald-faced hornet Dolichovespula…
