The Sting of the Wild

by Justin O. Schmidt

Entomologist Justin O. Schmidt is on a mission. Some say it's a brave exploration, others shake their heads in disbelief. His goal? To compare the impacts of stinging insects on humans, mainly using himself as the gauge.

In The Sting of the Wild, the colorful Dr. Schmidt takes us on a journey inside the lives of stinging insects, seeing the world through their eyes as well as his own. He explains how and why they attack and reveals the powerful punch they can deliver with a small venom gland and a "sting," the name for the apparatus that delivers the venom. We learn which insects are the worst to encounter and why some are barely worth considering.

The Sting of the Wild includes the complete Schmidt Sting Pain Index, published here for the first time. In addition to a numerical ranking of the agony of each of the eighty-three stings he's sampled so far (from below 1 to an excruciatingly painful 4), Schmidt describes them in prose worthy of a professional wine critic: "Looks deceive. Rich and full-bodied in appearance, but flavorless" and "Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a three-inch nail embedded in your heel."

Schmidt explains that, for some insects, stinging is used for hunting: small wasps, for example, can paralyze huge caterpillars and then lay their eggs inside so that their larvae can feast within. Others are used to kill competing insects, even members of their own species. Humans usually experience stings as defensive maneuvers used by insects to protect their nest mates.

With colorful descriptions of each venom's sensation and a story that leaves you tingling with awe, The Sting of the Wild's one-of-a-kind style will fire your imagination.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Nature, Animals, Biology, Audiobook, Natural History

257 pages, Hardcover

First published March 3, 2016

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no especial interest in entomology, but I really enjoyed this foray into the weird world of insects and the venoms they sting us with. Justin Schmidt is a research entomologist and former organic chemist, which means that his perspective is a) scientifically rigorous; and b) profoundly geeky. I love reading books by people who are geekier than I am! Keeps things all in perspective.

The Sting of the Wild is more a collection of essays than a book that has to be read in order. Schmidt combines autobiographical encounters with the biology of several groups of insects including fire ants, wasps, honeybees, and bullet ants. There's a wealth of interesting information in here, ranging from the historical treatment of fire ants (apparently we tried dumping every toxic chemical on their mounds, wiped out other competing insects...and cleared the way for fire ants to keep expanding their range) to cool facts that you (or at least I) didn't know about insects. Female wasps can choose the sex of their offspring: fertilized eggs become female, unfertilized become male. All honeybee workers are female (I really want to see this as a metaphor for humans). There are also some laugh out loud anecdotes about Schmidt's own fieldwork and the inevitable mishaps that occur when you work with stinging insects for a living.

Because of his background in o-chem, Schmidt is especially interested in the chemistry of the venoms and why they behave in the body the way they do. The ineffably painful sting of the bullet ant, for example, is highly lethal to mammals yet causes little tissue damage. Why? A peptide called poneratoxin, which causes "long-lasting contraction of smooth muscles in the body, undulating changes and bursts of transmitter release in nerves and muscles, blockages of cockroach nerve signal transmission, and impeding sodium channels of skeletal muscles." Yowch.

I originally found this book through references to Schmidt's evocative pain ratings in another, less impressive book on venoms, Christie Wilcox's Venomous. They are all collected at the end of The Sting of the Wild, and there are some real gems in here. The sting of the sweat bee (rated 1): "Light and ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm." The mud dauber (also rated 1): "Sharp with a flare of heat. Jalapeno cheese when you were expecting Havarti." Platythyrea pilosula, a sleek ant, rated 2.5: "A torturous itch and rash with serious lasting power. Should have spent the extra money and paid for a licensed tattoo artist." And at the top of the chart, the bullet ant (rated 4): "Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail embedded in your heel."

I love this combination of lively writing and good science. The Sting of the Wild took me a while to read because it was never unputdownable, and I was often too tired to read science right before bed, but I appreciated its depth of knowledge and simultaneous accessibility. Recommended to those with an interest in entomology, biology, and organic chemistry.

[Hank · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. Another good science book about a topic I know little about (insects), Schmidt is a true entomologist-geek and it gets a bit too geeky in the middle but all of the insects he covers are fascinating. He is famous for developing a sting pain scale which he covers, does not over sell and adds some good humor. Just for quick reference, bee stings=low, bullet ant=avoid at all costs.

[Becky (romantic_pursuing_feels) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was interesting. I picked it up after watching Kings of Pain and learning about Schmidt's work with stinging insects and his creation of the pain scale. The book is easily readable and not filled with dry facts or tons of hard to pronounce words. It was a fun mix of anecdotal stories and information. It's broken into nice sections, with most of the book taking focus on certain species. Schmidt's sense of humor comes through, especially with his pain scale descriptions, which are definitely worth reading. I'm happy to have picked this up!

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schmidt is a very entertaining writer, even if the book has more about stinging, biting creepy-crawlies than I really needed to know. Read due to Jennifer Mo’s enthusiastic review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... --and that's the one to read first. Thanks, Jennifer.

Some highlights: the Sting Scale! Jennifer quotes a few of those. Pure pain poetry. Hint: avoid Harvester Ants! These guys sting seriously hurts for a long time. Like honey bees, they leave the whole sting apparatus behind in your skin when they sting you. providing “a richer, fuller dose of venom.” Yikes!

Fire ants: here’s how to distinguish a fire-ant nest from others: “Simply walk up to the mound in question, give it a good, swift kick . . . And quickly step back . . . This test is not without its risks.” Indeed.

Well, I have more notes, but my library copy was *seriously* overdue. This was a start-and-stop read for me, but the best parts are really, really good. Worth checking out from your library, even if just to read the "Schmidt Pain Scale" in the back. 3.5 stars, rounded down because I kept stalling out.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read an article in the Tucson newspaper about this entomologist who specializes in venomous insects and since I'm deathly afraid of getting stung by a honeybeed, I knew I had to read his book. What this guy does for science is downright amazing and something not many people would want to accomplish. Would you want to get stung by as many insects as possible for the sake of science?
Schmidt did (last count 84) in order to create a "pain scale" for stings. The book outlines in-depth details of the lives of the insects and how they use their venom. All fascinating stuff and the pain scale is actually quite humorous.

I can't say this mitigated my fears but I do know what kinds of these critters I should be aware of while residing in the SW, including the dreaded fire ant and tarantula hawk.

This would be a great book for teen boys looking for an absorbing read.

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t find this book. It found me.

I was just browsing casually through the Audible categories for titles included free with membership, and after scanning a few lists in the biology sub-strand, this one jumped out.

I have a particular fascination for creatures that hurt us - from the total life-ending predators to those that merely pose a threat of discomfort, maybe some tears. Just the other week, I was indulging in a particular urge to see videos of people getting stung or bitten by exotic insects. In a warped case of perverted empathy, I find such things - especially when the victim is not expecting it and providing of course they are not truly injured - strangely satisfying, even comical. If ever I am stung by a bee or some horrible bull ant, I will, beneath my barely contained distress, readily acknowledge that I sort of had it coming.

Anyway, a mere look at the title description for this book had me sold. This brave lunatic, Justin Schmidt, voluntarily goes out in search of all stinging insects around the globe, to be strung by them in order to catalogue the level of suffering elicited. (It reminds me of an old Billy Connelly anecdote, about a pain-reading device and a town simpleton unwittingly using it as he steps on a stonefish; in other words: "Worst fuckin' pain known to man").

On top of that, this book serves as a very accessible and insightful guide to a vast number of nature’s more formidable specimens in the insect kingdom. Often amusing, sometimes gross and horrifying, always informative and even with a good deal I had not known before - granted, I am no particular enthusiast for bugs and insects, though I often advocate for the lives of spiders in my own house, much to my wife’s annoyance, who prefers the tyrannical approach of murdering anything that isn’t mammalian.

[Kusaimamekirai · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a veteran of lazy Sunday afternoons going down random YouTube rabbit holes, I’ve watched my share of people getting deliberately stung by insects.
What I didn’t know is that professor Justin Schmidt made his career out of being stung by as many insects as he could and creating a “pain index” on a scale of 1-4.
That this was long before YouTube, Twitter (yeah I’m gonna keep calling it that), TikTok, or any other clickbaity social media makes me feel like this was a true labor of love.
Reading this book, you definitely get the sense that it was. Schmidt had a real love and respect for the insects he studied, as well as a sense of humor which radiates from his writing. That I never really thought about bullet ants, cow killers, and social wasps before his book makes me feel like I was definitely missing something.
Yes, the book does occasionally get into the weeds at times (pardon the pun) with scientific explanations of the components of different venoms, but it is on the whole a fun and engaging look at insects we should all know more about. From a distance of course.

[Vishy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved, loved, loved it!

[Kitty Stryker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea how fascinated I would be by this book of stinging insects, but I kept quoting bits of it to my friends because it was so compelling and interesting! I appreciate the balance of science with an engaging writing voice, which kept me from feeling too lost. And now, I have a selection of factoids that I can entertain my friends with! Highly recommend, this was a really fun read. And the appendix in the back, of the pain scale for various stinging insects, is a delight.

[Emil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never thought I would read a book about insects, to my surprise it was super interesting.

[Allan Claydon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes me want to get stung

Insect stings are far less deadly than I realised, though I was surprised top spot went to a species of ant rather than wasp!

[Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never thought I'd binge read a book about insects but here we are. This is a funny and light-hearted book that also delves into the science relating to stinging insects and their venom. Absolutely fascinating.
The only reason it is not a 5 is that it is designed to be picked up and read here and there (not binged cover to cover) and repeats certain parts of the narrative as a result.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

When my library renewals ran out...I just returned it. I was enjoying it. The topic was engaging and his writing is stunning. I wasn't the biggest fan of how it was structured as individual vignettes rather than a cohesive tome, but something more must have been lacking, because while I loved the material and words, it wasn't as compelling as it should have been.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

First thought on this book was this dude(the author: Julius Schmidt) is freaking crazy. Second thought is he is also very good at sharing a topic that you can tell is dear to him. Don't get me wrong, the topic is crazy but he has a passion for stinging insects that is infections and comes across in the book. I found I learned quite a bit about a subject I knew nothing about in a manner that kept me entertained throughout even if it was at times just because his descriptions on his pain scale for stinging insects were always amusing.

A good book, worth reading. All I can ask for really.

[Tonstant Weader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Justin O. Schmidt is the entomologist who developed the Schmidt Pain Index that ranks how much pain different insect stings deliver on a scale of 1 to 4 with 4 being the rolling on the ground in agony pain. He wrote The Sting of the Wild to not just tell his pain index story, but to explore how stinging evolved and to what purpose.

His focus is on ants, bees, and wasps, the triumvirate of stinging insects. The insects are both prey and predator. Honeybees and fire ants sting to protect their homes. On the other hand, tarantula hawks (a wasp) stink to paralyze their tarantula prey so they can drag it home to be eaten alive for weeks as their eggs develop into pupa. I sure hope tarantulas don’t feel pain or have awareness because the larvae feed on them while alive and they don’t die until they develop into pupae and eat the brain and nerve cells. It’s so gross.

He also describes the life cycle of several of these species and some of them are fascinating. For example, we are generally told that critters cannot mate across species, that’s kind of what makes them species. However, two species (rough harvester ants and red harvester ants) of harvester ants have a sort of ant orgy where the females of both species mate with males of both species. The eggs fertilized by their own species become reproductives and the eggs fertilized by the other species become the nonreproductive workers. Amazing!



The Sting of the Wild is a great book for lay readers. Think of it as insect gossip, though verified gossip, of course. It has that convivial tone of sharing what’s going on with the Jones, but the Jones are killer bees. It’s full of fun anecdotes including tales of stings in history and tidbits of information such as the infamous “yellow rain” that Gen. Alexander Haig claimed was a chemical weapon dropped on the Hmong in retaliation for their helping the US that turned out to be bee poop.

You don’t have to be a bug lover to enjoy The Sting of the Wild. I sure am not one, but nature is endlessly inventive and Schmidt knows how to make her inventions interesting and enjoyable.

I received a copy of The Sting of the Wild as a gift from John Hopkins University Press with no expectation of review.

The Sting of the Wild at Johns Hopkins University Press
Justin O. Schmidt research publications at ResearchGate

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...

[Yasaman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 just because I'm ultimately not super interested in insects. The podcast Sawbones did an episode on Schmidt's pain scale for stinging insects, and mentioned this book, so I decided to check it out since it fits into one of my reading challenge categories. Schmidt does a good job of explaining why something that sounds insane on the face of it--getting stung by every stinging insect so you can create a scale to rate the pain--is actually scientifically useful. I'd kind of hoped for more about how the stings themselves and their venom impact the body, but fair enough, that's not Schmidt's specialty, he mostly cares about what the sting tells us about the insect.

Naturally, the book includes the pain scale, which goes from 1 (least painful) to 4 (most painful) and which has such delightful and evocative entries as, "Artistic wasp: Pure, then messy, then corrosive. Love and marriage followed by divorce. 2," and "A huge velvet ant: Explosive and long-lasting, you sound insane as you scream. Hot oil from the deep fryer spilling over your entire hand. 3."

What gets a 4, you ask? The bullet ant, the tarantula hawk, and the warrior wasp. The warrior wasp's sting is described as, "Torture. You are chained in the flow of an active volcano. Why did I start this list?" Dr. Schmidt clearly suffered for science!

[2025 READING CHALLENGE: MID BUT IN LOVE - a book about improbable natural disaster(s) and/or bees. There are a couple chapters about bees, so I think this counts!]

[A. Housewife · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a lot of fun. I didn't get through it quickly, but he's a great storyteller and it's so interesting to read about people who are fascinated by stinging and biting insects and love them. I learned a lot, am very impressed with the variety and different tactics and goals of different species, and I enjoyed learning it all. What an interesting world we live in, and I love when scientists write readable books like this so we can learn.

[Susan Waskey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoned this without finishing, a rare occurrence. The author's knowledge about the behavior and biochemistry of stinging insects is fascinating, but his arrogant, self-involved, repetitive, casually sexist writing ruined the book for me by page 100. What a shame.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this book from a podcast, cause I'm not much fan of entomology. So for me usually, I'd give it a 3, but 4 because Dr. Schmidt is a fairly fun writer. His pain scale in particular is gloomily poetic. Thanks for the list of bugs to avoid, Dr. Schmidt (R.I.P)!

[Morgan Lyons · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I thought my irrationally deep-seated fear of bees, wasps and other stinging insects would be lessened by learning more about them...I was wrong. They're all still terrifying. Perhaps even more so now that I know exactly how painful each of their stings are on the sting/pain scale.
That's mostly why I picked this book up: curiosity about sting pain. The in-depth analysis on the evolution of insects and the chemical compositions of their venom was a little deeper than I cared to go. So I would have been satisfied with a 30 page pamphlet rather than a 280-page book, but those 30 pages were great.

[Seamus · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome adventure into the world of stinging insects.

[Carl Hjelmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fun read, especially if you're into insects and know anything about Justin Schmidt. Very personal and really digs into the author's life experiences as well as a lot of fun info about the hymenopterans. I'd recommend!

[Alex Nussenzveig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Schmidt made the wonderful world of stinging insects enrapturing, and whimsical in this wonderfully written book.

[Piço · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I have the words to properly express my appreciation for this book. It was very fun and incredibly informative, probably the best book I've read regarding insect ecology and biology. It's not a masterpiece but I will rate it as such.

[Michael Flanagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the title suggests this book is about wild things that sting. Further to this it is about a entomologist who has come up with a scale to rate such stings. Being an Australian I was unaware of a lot of these little critters but that did not diminish my enjoyment of this book.

The Sting Of the Wild is mainly a story of the evolution of Insects and their defence systems. It is also a story of the authors own life fascination on the subject and his journey close and far afield to study them. Overall a good and entertaining read just lacked the sting in the tale to make it a great one.

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought The Sting of the Wild would be all about one crazy guy who makes all kinds of insects and arachnids sting him, just to see how it feels. In reality, this book is very different - I think the title and blurbs about this book misrepresent it a little bit. But the misrepresentation worked in its favor, because it drew me into a book that actually turned out to be very informative.

Justin Schmidt is an entomologist who has devoted his career to studying stinging ants, wasps, and bees. Yes, he has been stung by his fair share - hence the detailed pain ratings and descriptions of every stinging insect you can imagine in the book - but he is also extremely informed, intelligent, and passionate, and he communicates that passion very well in this book. Insects I never thought I could feel anything other than revulsion or at the very least indifference towards (such as sweat bees, fire ants, and wasps) actually turn out to be weirdly lovely-seeming in this book. They're so tenacious, such survivors, so hardy and so tough! Their lifestyles and cycles and evolutionary history are so weird! These stinging insects are creating dynasties, conducting military coups and raids, living and dying all underneath our feet, or otherwise out of the sight and mind of most humans. It's actually fascinating, and it's a testament to Schmidt's writing and keen sense for what's interesting and what's not that he takes a subject that could be quite boring, and makes it very entertaining.

I would recommend this book for anyone with an insect phobia (it actually does a really good job of sort of anthropomorphizing them without being cheesy?), anyone interested in evolution, and those who are curious about what a bullet ant's sting feels like but not curious enough to find out yourself.

[Seth · Rating 2 out of 5]

In concept, this book is amazing--a book about stinging insects, how they live, how they hurt, and how much they hurt is very interesting. In execution, however, the results became lackluster. The book was constructed in such a way that it could, in theory, be read with the chapters out of order--just jump to the bugs you find interesting and go from there. However, due to this design feature, the author often ends up repeating himself every chapter, making it a chore to get through the "go from there" portion of the reading. In addition, there are numerous rabbit trails and excursions that have little to do with the author's bug adventures or the insects at hand, and do nothing to contribute to the concepts being explained, leaving me, the reader, confused and sifting through what is actually important. I was definitely ready to be finished with this book by the time I actually made it to the end.

[Ben Gruber · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I don’t recall my first honeybee sting. I also don’t know how many honeybee stings I have received. The number is probably about a thousand, a number seemingly low for someone who has specialized in killer bees for a quarter century. The reasons for the low number are that bee stings are boring, I don’t like being stung, and I take precautions. Why boring? Just as eating lots of Halloween candy gets boring after a few days, getting stung by the same species gets boring after a while.”

3.5-4*. Charming, nerdy anecdotes about stings nestled between insect facts I didn’t expect to enjoy as much as I did and venom chemistry that I don’t understand enough to appreciate. The occasional typo, awkward phrasing, and repetition of a story from a previous chapter reduce readability slightly. As someone who isn’t regularly stung by insects the world over, I find the author’s perspective unrelatable in the best way; dude is crazy.

[Andra Opr · Rating 5 out of 5]

i cant i cant i cant waittttt to read this

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Schmidt takes you on a colorful journey inside the lives of stinging insects. Great book for facts you can rattle off at a dinner party. Probably my favorite part was the pain intensity list.