Schmidt Sting Pain Index or The Justin O. Schmidt Pain Index was created by Justin O. Schmidt, an entomologist. Having been stung by almost every type of bee, wasp, and ant, Schmidt created (on his own time) an index to compare the overall pain of Hymenopteran stings on a four-point scale.

• 1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.
• 1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.
• 1.8 Bullhorn acacia ant: A rare, piercing, elevated sort of pain. Someone has fired a staple into your cheek.
• 2.0 Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.
• 2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine WC Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.
• 3.0 Red harvester ant: Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail.
• 3.0 Paper wasp: Caustic & burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of Hydrochloric acid on a paper cut.
• 4.0 Pepsis wasp: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath (if you get stung by one you might as well lie down and scream).
• 4.0+ Bullet ant: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail in your heel.

References

• Conniff, Richard. "The King of Sting", in Outside, v. 21 n. 4 (April 1996), pp. 82-84, 147.
• Conniff, Richard. "Stung: How tiny little insects get us to do exactly as they wish", Discover, June 2003.
• Evans, David L. Insect Defenses: Adaptive Mechanisms and Strategies of Prey and Predators, Table 14.1, 1990. ISBN 0887068960

See also

• Scoville scale to measure the hotness of a chilli pepper
• Dol scale to measure pain

Scales | Entomology