Wash the sting site with sea water and remove any tentacles. For pain relief, immerse the sting site in hot water for 20 minutes. Make sure the hot water will not burn the person. It should be as hot as they can tolerate — up to 45 degrees Celsius.
Dr. Boniface says he recommends warm or hot water emersion because cold water can encourage nematocysts to pump more toxin into the skin. Most jellyfish stings will get better with home treatment.
First-aid care
Most jellyfish stings can be treated as follows: Carefully pluck visible tentacles with a fine tweezers. Soak the skin in hot water. Use water that's 110 to 113 F (43 to 45 C).
Often, it's best to rinse a sting with vinegar. Vinegar is a weak acid that might keep the stingers from firing for some kinds of stings (especially from dangerous types like box jellyfish). Do not rinse with fresh water (like tap or bottled water) because that can make more stingers fire.
Chesapeake Bay Jellyfish (Sea Nettle) - Baking Soda Rinse To Stop The Stinging: Rinse area with a mixture of sea water and baking soda for 15 minutes. This stops the stingers from stinging if still attached to the skin.
What should you do if a jellyfish stings you? Scientists have found that applying vinegar is the best solution, and that popular remedies including urine, lemon juice, and shaving foam could make the situation worse.
Jellyfish stings make raised, red welts that develop along the site of the sting. The welts may last for 1 to 2 weeks, and itchy skin rashes may appear 1 to 4 weeks after the sting.
After you remove the tentacles, soak the affected area in hot water (104-113 F or 40-45 C) for at least 20 minutes. If you don't have a thermometer, make sure the water is hot but not scalding. A hot shower is OK if that's easier than soaking. Stay in the water for 20 to 45 minutes.
Hot water inactivates the jellyfish toxins and so stops the pain; it is effective in about 90% of cases after 20 minutes.
Most jellyfish stings improve within hours, but some stings can lead to skin irritation or rashes that last for weeks. Contact your provider if you continue to have itching at the sting site. Topical anti-inflammatory creams may be helpful. Portuguese man-of-war and sea nettle stings are rarely deadly.
To help reduce the pain, you can put calamine lotion or hydrocortisone cream on a jellyfish sting. You can also use an ice pack or hot water to help with the pain and swelling.
Sores usually heal without medical treatment. Wounds should be cleaned 3 times each day and covered with a thin layer of antiseptic ointment. But when a deep sore develops, you may need medical treatment to help the sore heal and prevent infection.
The only way to avoid jellyfish stings is not to go into the water, even on the shore, or get wet with water collected in buckets that may contain fragments of the stinging tentacles. In case of a jellyfish sting, remember: Remove the remaining tentacles.
Most jellyfish stings are painful but not dangerous. A few jellyfish, however, release powerful venom into the skin. The stings of these species, if left untreated, can be dangerous or even deadly. Prompt jellyfish sting treatment can quickly alleviate pain and prevent a sting from getting worse.
Most often jellyfish stings cause instant pain and inflamed marks on the skin. Some stings may cause more whole-body (systemic) illness. And in rare cases they're life-threatening.
“People have said that on a scale of 1 to 10, the sting of a box jelly on bare skin is a 100. I thought the swim was over right then.” But Nyad rated the pain level a 6, and within 10 minutes, it had dropped to a 2.
Apply vitamin E or aloe vera juice to heal tissue and reduce inflammation.
However, in the event you do come in contact with a jellyfish and are stung, we recommend you help diminish the pain by treating the affected area with ammonia poured over the skin or simply apply meat tenderizer or toothpaste.
Pour vinegar on the jellyfish stings for 30 seconds. This stops any tentacles (nematocysts) that haven't already fired venom from firing. If vinegar is not available, wash the stings with sea water.
Two days after a jellyfish sting, the skin will have started to heal. It will still show faint tentacle marks. If you have a hypersensitivity reaction, you may notice a rash or hives. 1 These can usually be treated with oral antihistamines or corticosteroids.
Many marine animals, including some jellyfish, can rapidly regenerate tissues in response to injury, and this trait is important for survival. If a sea turtle takes a bite out of a jellyfish, the injured animal can quickly grow new cells to replace the lost tissue.
One of the main causes of this discomfort is a type of protein called a porin found in the venom of all jellyfish—and in all their relatives, including corals and anemones, which together form a group of creatures collectively known as cnidarians.
Unfortunately, in the real world treating a jellyfish sting by urinating on it may actually cause someone in Monica's situation even more pain, rather than relief. Urine can actually aggravate the jellyfish's stingers into releasing more venom. This cure is, indeed, fiction.
Irukandji jellyfish's stings are so severe they can cause fatal brain hemorrhages and on average send 50-100 people to the hospital annually. Robert Drewe describes the sting as "100 times as potent as that of a cobra and 1,000 times stronger than a tarantula's".