Plan your Jellyfish sting free 2022 Hawaii vacation now. Keep these tips in mind before booking cheap flights to Hawaii.
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I was stung by a little blue box jelly at Waimanolo Bay on June 18, 2019 (yesterday). The pain was intense, like burning, stabbing shocks. A lot like a tattoo feels! The lifeguard told me it would calm down in about an hour. It was at least 3 hours of intense pain and took 6 hours before it wasn’t at a distracting level. The lifeguard sprayed it with (I assume) vinegar solution. Rinsing it with seawater after actually helped (but only while I was pouring it over my leg). I checked the water carefully for visible tentacles. The hot shower when I got back to the hotel helped much more- it actually felt better while I was in there but as soon as I got out it came back. I had some stomach cramps and some nausea all afternoon and just felt…weird.
We went back to Waimanolo today and the sign was up >_<
Still a beautiful day though, this is truly paradise. Thank you for this forum/article too. We were reading while I sat there burning with neurotoxins on the beach that day.
Maholo!
The jellyfish in Australia are deadly because they eat a different diet than what they eat in Hawaii. Australia has many deaths. each year. Even with a protective suit for snorkeling, your face, head, neck, hands and feet are exposed. I’d avoid snorkeling in Australia during their Jellyfish season. Best to visit their aquariums and swim in a pool and return home alive! There is a homeopathic remedy called Apis Mellifica that could save your life from a bee sting or spider bite and is easy to carry with you. Many people who are allergic to bee stings and insect bites will react strongly to a jellyfish sting.Increasing Vitamin C can also be helpful to decrease the inflammation. Thanks
Hi Maggie.
Thanks.
Aloha.
I was stung by a jellyfish on Aug. 4th, 2019 around 9 AM on Kaanapali beach on the western side of Maui. 10 days later and my arm is itchy, slight burn, and some discharge. I’m going to Urgent care right now. My reaction after being stung: Arm burning, hotel employee sprayed vinegar and had me sit in jacuzzi around 40 min. I had pain, the bottom of my feet started tingling, then my whole body felt weird. I started to get a strange sensation around my jaw and mouth area, almost numbing. I threw up 3 times and the mouth area felt better. Terrible muscle spasms for 2-3 days.
I got stung on my swim to Mokolii island right next to Kualoa ranch May 10, 2019. I was stung on my left hand finger, neck, and right armpit area. Armpit got the worse of it. It took about an hour for it to finally calm down and for the pain to be a 2 of 10.
Solution: I used my own body heat to keep it warm. I put on my shirt and didn’t use the sleeve for my right armpit that go stung. I just kept my arm and armpit touching to keep the stung skin warm using body heat. Just be careful about running the stung area with anything.
DON’T RINSE WITH FRESH WATER that actually makes it worse! You want to spray with vinegar to deactivate the toxin-releasing barbs, then scrape away the tentacles (use tweezers if you can see them but usually they’re not visible so scraping is the best alternative), then cover with vinegar-soaked bandages.
If you get dizzy, have chest pains, muscle spasms, difficulty breathing, etc. get to a hospital. The toxins can cause anaphylactic shock.
Source: medical clinic in Maui, took a trip there after being stung by a box jelly on the calf, thigh, and forearm.
Maui, Ulua Beach, March 28th and Po’Oleneanna March 31; got stung both times. Especially Ulua. Irritating and awful looking, but don’t have big after affects, like nausea, heart issues, etc…It felt like electrical shocks. Today, I knew exactly what is was.Vinegar, antihistamines, itch cream. My husband says I have ocean war wounds. I hope they don’t leave marks. Still plan to go in water while I am here. I was unlucky.
Over New Years scuba diving off Waikiki beach after coming up from a night time unfortunately many box jellyfish were around our boat entrance and another diver kicked one right into my face. They were small though with the body being six inches or so. Stingers actually cut my cheek. Hurt for four days. Made me nauseous all night as well. Maybe in Oahu they aren’t lethal because they are generally too small ? Only hot shower reduced the pain but as soon as I’d get out of shower it would come right back
Having experienced the electric shock feeling from jellyfish larvae while snorkeling in Indonesia, I know that jellyfish stings are no joke. While snorkeling in Australia, we learned that folks all wear stingsuits, a lycra garment that covers a person head to toe. These suits completely protect the snorkeler. Now we always recommend them whenever jellyfish might be present.
I got stung on Lawa’i Beach on Kaua’i on Sept 25th 2018 (last week). I was snorkeling and all of a sudden felt burning/stinging all over my head (I have a shaved head). I grabbed the jellyfish and threw it so my hand got stung a bit as well. I poured vingar all over my head and also used some cortizone cream. The stinging went away after about an hour. It hurt pretty bad, sort of like a whole bunch of wasp stings all over.
I was stung by a jellyfish on July 7, 2018 while on a boat tour/snorkeling expedition out to Niihau and the Napali Coast. The sting was around and above my ankle. It stung like heck and I felt the poison go up my leg. A little later my chest tightened and I felt like I had extreme heartburn. None of the crew from the ship seemed concerned much and told me to just spray this “solution” they had in a spray bottle on deck. I don’t know what it was but suspect it was probably vinegar. I later went to a doctor on the island of Kawaii but he also was not concerned much and said unless I had an immediate allergic reaction it was no big deal. People in my home state of California say it must not have been a box jellyfish as I would be dead. Still, all the pics I look at on line that resemble what I saw are of box jellyfish. SO what is the deal? You don’t die from a sting of a box jelly, or it wasn’t that type of jellyfish? Would like to know.
I’ve been doing some research into box jellyfish for an upcoming trip and it looks like there are several varieties with only one or two varieties being deadly. And even with the deadly ones, your chance of survival depends on your size, size of jelly fish, surface area contacted by tentacles. It is true though that if you were going to have a serious reaction it would have been immediate. Death occurs in 5-20 minutes after being stung due to heart failure. So far I haven’t read anything about Hawaii having the deadly variety, so that could account for the crews lack of concern?
You don’t die from a Box jellyfish sting, it hurts a lot but it is not lethal.
As the Doctor said, “unless you have a serious allergic reaction” you just going to fell the pain!
You don’t die from a box jellyfish (most of us who live here in Hawaii would be dead if you did!) Not sure if you could possibly die- probably if allergic like with bees…You probably have a small curved “whip” scar if it was a box jelly and the pain might have lasted a few days depending on the severity of the sting… hope this helps!
Today on the beach of Waikiki,my family and I had a morning swim and during the swim my daughter complained of itchiness I did not take notice brushed it off thought it might be ocean fleas,then I started itching ,again thought it was fleas,then a hour went by went on swimming.Then all of a sudden a burning sensation goes all over my arm my back my face I screamed yelled try to take off this jelly like thing,then I finally make it to shore the lifeguard starts running to me sprays vineagar,tells me you be okay will go away in fifteen min,Im crying shaking almost passed out,walked away and all I could here was it’s confirmed jelly fish in water put the sign up,I was so furious thanks kinda too late your sign.Next time I hope and pray for better precautions from lifeguards.Thank you for the Vinegar! Much Mahalos Excurciating Civilian