Insect bites & stings
How to ease a bite or sting at home, and the signs that need urgent help.
Most insect bites and stings are harmless and settle within a few days. Here is how to ease the symptoms, and the signs that need urgent help. Please read this and keep it handy.
Your care details
To be completed by the team before you leave.
This can come on fast. Do not wait to see if it settles.
- Swelling of the lips, tongue, mouth or throat
- A tight throat, or trouble breathing or swallowing
- Wheezing, or breathing very fast
- Feeling faint or dizzy, collapsing, or a child going limp or floppy
- A fast-spreading rash, or skin turning pale, blue or grey
- Being stung inside the mouth or throat
Contact your GP, NHS 111, or the service named above.
- Spreading redness, warmth and swelling around the bite after a day or two
- A fever, or you feel generally unwell
- A spreading circular or bull's-eye rash days or weeks after a tick bite
- Flu-like symptoms in the weeks after a tick bite
- A sting in the mouth or throat, even if breathing is normal
- You cannot remove a tick, or its mouthparts are left in the skin
Use fine-tipped tweezers or a tick-removal tool. Grasp the tick as close to the skin as you can and pull straight upwards, steadily. Do not twist, jerk, squeeze the body, or try to burn it or smother it with cream — these make it more likely to release infection into the skin. Clean the area afterwards and wash your hands. Small mouthparts left behind will usually work their way out on their own. Note the date. If you develop a spreading circular rash, or flu-like symptoms, in the following weeks, see your GP and tell them about the tick — early Lyme disease is treated with antibiotics.
Easing a bite or sting
- If a sting is left in the skin, scrape it out sideways — do not squeeze it.
- Wash the area with soap and water.
- Put a cold pack on it and raise the area to reduce swelling.
- Try not to scratch it.
- A pharmacy antihistamine or cream can ease the itching.
- Take paracetamol or ibuprofen for pain if you can take them.
Ticks and Lyme disease
If you have a tick, remove it with fine tweezers held as close to the skin as you can, pulling slowly straight out without squeezing it, then clean the area. See your GP if a spreading circular rash or a flu-like illness appears in the weeks afterwards, as this can be Lyme disease.