What to Do If Stung by a Jellyfish? A Full Breakdown of the Correct Treatment

Jellyfish are very beautiful aquatic animals, with a body shape like a transparent umbrella. They can be found in tropical waters, temperate waters, shallow water areas, oceans about 100 meters deep, and even freshwater areas. They existed as early as 650 million years ago, appearing even earlier than dinosaurs. Now let us take a look at what to do if stung by a jellyfish!

Is a Jellyfish Sting Poisonous?

A jellyfish sting is poisonous. The surface of jellyfish tentacles and tissue around the mouth has nematocysts, which contain nematocysts sacs that store venom. They can fire nematocysts threads through the nematocysts sacs to inject venom into the human or animal body, producing multiple biological toxic effects on the cardiovascular system, blood, nerves, muscles, and so on. Jellyfish venom has lethal activity, hemolytic activity, cardiovascular toxicity, liver toxicity, neurotoxicity, enzymatic activity, and so on. After being stung, humans may experience rash, redness and swelling, itching, pain, lowered blood pressure, and even difficulty breathing, fainting, shock, and death.

What to Do If Stung by a Jellyfish?

1. Remove the tentacles: First, if the jellyfish tentacles are still stuck to the skin, try to get them off, but make sure the injured person does not move around. If conditions allow, wear gloves to remove them, or use thick clothing, tweezers, small wooden sticks, and so on to gently separate the jellyfish tentacles from the skin.

2. Rinse with seawater: Then rinse the stung area with seawater to inhibit the activity of unfired nematocysts on the skin. Using fresh water has the opposite effect. Any action that changes the balance of salt concentration inside and outside the nematocysts may stimulate the nematocysts sacs to fire and release more venom.

3. Scrape off nematocysts: If conditions allow, use a small knife, razor, card, or something similar to gently remove the nematocysts from the skin. Before scraping, applying shaving foam or soap lather works better. After scraping, rinse again with seawater, vinegar, or saltwater solution.

4. Take medication: Finally, let the stung area dry naturally. You may take some antihistamine drugs such as diphenhydramine, or apply hydrocortisone cream. In follow-up care, the open wound needs to be cleaned daily, and antibiotic ointment should be applied to prevent bacterial infection.

What Are the Most Venomous Jellyfish?

1. Box jellyfish: Each tentacle of the box jellyfish has enough venom to kill 50 people and can stop a person's heart and lung function within 3 minutes. Since 1884, at least 5567 people have died from this animal, and the death rate it causes is even higher than that of snakes, sharks, and saltwater crocodiles.

2. Portuguese man o' war: What secretes the fatal venom in the Portuguese man o' war is the tiny nematocysts in the tentacles. Although the venom secreted by a single nematocyst is negligible, the intensity of the venom accumulated by thousands upon thousands of nematocysts is no less than that of any venomous snake in the world today.

3. Sand jellyfish: The adult sand jellyfish has a bell diameter of 25 to 60 cm, with a maximum of nearly 1 m. The outer bell surface is smooth, and the mesoglea is thick and hard. Its nematocysts are highly toxic. After a human is stung, the skin becomes red and swollen, painful and itchy, and in severe cases there may be shock or even death.

4. Lion's mane jellyfish: The lion's mane jellyfish is a creature that can cause human death, but it rarely moves in places where humans frequent. The nematocysts in its tentacles contain toxic needles and sacs filled with venom. When the venom enters the human body, it rapidly causes paralysis and death.