If you think your job is painful, try being stung by 78 of the most venomous insects in the world.
That’s what entomologist Dr Justin Schmidt did in order to construct his ‘Schmidt Sting Pain Index’, which ranks the resulting sensations.
He deemed the most painful to be from the warrior wasp, likening it to being ‘chained in the flow of an active volcano’.
Dr Schmidt, along with his zoologist wife Debbie Schmidt, sought out the feisty critters all over the world and noted his experience after getting stung.
Sadly, the dedicated scientist passed away in February, but his pain index and colourful descriptions continue to help research into the chemistry of venom.

Dr Justin Schmidt was stung by 78 of the most venomous insects in the world to create the ‘Schmidt Sting Pain Index’, which ranks the resulting sensations

Dr Schmidt (pictured), along with his zoologist wife Debbie Schmidt, sought out the feisty critters all over the world and he noted his experience after getting stung
The work, for which Dr Schmidt was stung over a thousand times by ants, bees and wasps, was published in the book ‘The Sting of the Wild’ in 2016.
Each prick was ranked on a scale of one to four, with four being the most painful.
The sting of a honey bee was given a two, and described as ‘burning, corrosive, but you can handle it’.
To go up or down an entire point, the bite had to be discernibly more or less painful, but half points were given to those which were in between.
One creature that was given a pain index of one was the red fire ant, which lives in South America, and uses its venom to catch prey and defend its colony.
Dr Schmidt described its sting as ‘sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet and reaching for the light switch.’
He added that it will result in small, itchy lumps that will last about 30 minutes to an hour, which will eventually turn into small, filled blisters.
The venom of the Western cicada killer, which it uses to paralyse cicadas before eating them, was given 1.5 and said to be ‘pain at first sight’.
A Western yellowjacket sting has a pain level of 2, and was likened to someone ‘extinguishing a cigar on your tongue’.
At level 3 is the velvet ant – ‘hot oil from the deep frying spilling over your entire hand’ – and Florida harvester ant – ‘somebody is using a power drill to excavate your ingrown toenail’.

Dr Schmidt deemed the most painful insect sting to be that of the warrior wasp (pictured), likening it to being ‘chained in the flow of an active volcano’
Only three insects were given the highest pain index of four; the bullet ant, warrior wasp and tarantula hawk wasp.
The latter’s sting was described as ‘blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair dryer has just been dropped into your bubble bath’, while Dr Schmidt likened the bullet ant’s venom to ‘walking over a flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail embedded in your heel’.
‘For the stinging insect, how not to be eaten assumes crucial importance, and herein lies the value of the sting,’ he wrote in ‘The Sting of the Wild‘.
‘The stinging insect is focused on not ending up in the stomach of the visitor at the entrance to the nest.’
Stingers evolved from the female reproductive organ, ovipositor, which is simply an egg-laying tube.
However, in some male species, this part is presented as a hardened, thorn-like genitalia used to ward off attackers and catch its prey.
Dr Schmidt came up with the idea for the scale in 1973, after he and his wife returned home from a trip to Georgia, USA, where they had gathered harvester ants.
They were both stung during their work, which Debbie described as a ‘deep ripping and tearing pain, as if someone were reaching below the skin and ripping muscles and tendons’.

Dr Schmidt likened the venom of the bullet ant (pictured) to ‘walking over a flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail embedded in your heel’
This pain was a lightbulb moment for Dr Schmidt, as he realised that there was a ‘day and night’ difference between the harvester ant sting and those of honey bees, wasps, and hornets, according to Atlas Obscura.
The so called ‘King of the Sting’ then went to study the medical implications of this insect’s venom, but found it was not well known.
However, he did find that the specific pain and skin reaction triggered by a venom is dependent on its chemistry.
Plus, while there were definitive ways of measuring its toxicity, the same was not the case for pain, and the two did not appear to be related.
Therefore, he decided to create an accurate pain scale of his own, to ultimately help improve understanding of how the venom works.
Dr Schmidt told Atlas Obscura that he would grab fistfuls of insects and stuff them into vials to take them back to the lab, so would often get stung during the process.
But if this weren’t to happen, he would actively apply them to his arm until he received a nasty prick.
‘I don’t put on suits of armour or get myself all psyched,’ he told the publication.
‘When I go to the doctor’s office, if I know I’m going to get an injection, it hurts a whole lot more the more I know I’m going to get a big, fat needle stuck in me.
‘It’s very much the same way with stinging insects.’

The sting of the tarantula hawk wasp (pictured) was described as ‘blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair dryer has just been dropped into your bubble bath’
He determined the pain index score by assessing the physiological damage it caused, and the ‘ouch factor’.
As there is no true definition of pain, the University of Arizona entomologist had to get creative with his descriptions of how each sting felt.
‘Pain truth comes in two flavours, imagined and realised,’ he wrote in his book.
‘With stings, our imagination is vivid and strong, even if the sting pain is not realised.’
If you think you can handle the all stings in the world, Dr Schmidt made two other findings that might change your views.
Firstly, he said that the more painful a sting felt, the more aggressive the species tended to be.
Adding further insult injury, some creatures would also release a pheromone with their sting – telling other insects to join in the fun and give more stings to the victim.
If that has still not put you off a sting, io9 reported how the stingers affected our bodies.
‘First, enzymes soften, then burst open cellular membranes. Some of these cells, inevitably, will be nerve cells. Wrecking these cells screws up all the electrochemical signaling that nerve cells do, so they end up firing off signals more or less at random.
‘Other chemicals restrict blood flow, keeping the pain-causing stuff undiluted and in one place.’