I interviewed my 52 year old Aunt who was visiting from Seattle. She was very close with my grandmother, who I never had the opportunity of meeting, and I asked her questions about things that her mom taught her. She did have a couple things that she fondly remembers her mother teaching her, one of those things was how to deal with bee stings.

Collector: “Was there anything in particular that your mother taught you as a child?”

Informant: “Well, one thing that I learned was how to deal with bee stings in a very quick manner. All you need is baking soda and water. My mother would always mix the two into a type of paste and apply it to the bee sting.”

Collector: “Would this work?”

Informant: “Yes! it would make it feel a ton better. After a while the redness begins to go away, the pain begins to numb and the stinger even pops out eventually.”

I thought this fact was very cool because it gave me a little insight into the types of things my grandmother would do, because I never knew her. I tried to research the origins of this practice but there really is not a specific time which this remedy was realized. It does seem as though it is something that many people are aware of, and just as it is a remedy passed down through generations in my family, it is also the same in other people’s as well.