what exactly happens under the skin when it swells due to a bug bite or a sting?

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what exactly happens under the skin when it swells due to a bug bite or a sting?

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

In a way it’s like being sick. When a bee stings you, they inject compounds into your body that are recognized as toxins by your body. Your body’s systems kick in to fix the problem resulting in symptoms that are less than pleasant.

A single wasp sting for example injects compounds that are designed to trigger your pain receptors like crazy which is interpreted as mass damage being done to your system. Now wasp venom has evolved to make it very painful compared to the actual amount of damage being done to you, which is very little. Despite this your body reacts to the pain and tries to fix it which results in swelling around the area due to the body’s immune response.

It’s actually a bit more complicated than this but this is a simplified version to make it easier to understand.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The body has mast cells. They release histamine in response to the injection of whatever the bug squirted into you.

Histamine has many effects throughout the body, but in the context of your question it promotes inflammation.

In this case inflammation causes the blood vessels to dilate which makes it easier for immune cells to go clean up whatever was injected into you.