What stung my hand?

Could have been a tiny sliver of wood or metal. I got a tiny metal sliver in my finger last week from a metal thing with improperly smoothed edges.

Would it make an itchy bump under the skin though? I used to work in a wood shop and a smithy. Used to tiny slivers of wood and metal. But don’t recall small itchy bumps under the skin.

When working on fiber optic cables, I used to experience this.
I am not saying you have a shard of fiber in your hand, but possibly a small shard of glass.
Go get a piece of very sticky tape. Dab your injury spot several times.

The fiber optic cable made a little itchy ball under your skin?!

I’m thinking not glass, because I did pull out the wispiest dark brown thing. But I can see it being a fiber from a fiber optic cable.

How interesting!

@raum ”The fiber optic cable made a little itchy ball under your skin?!”

It’s irritated because a foreign object got stabbed into you basically. So I would imagine that anything would make you swollen and itchy, It’s not supposed to be there and your body wants it gone.

Bee or Wasp? Wasps usually don’t leave their stinger, but maybe it broke off. Did the pain last a long time? Wasp pain tends to be more painful and last longer before any itching sets in. Brown sounds more like a wasp, bees tend to be black and yellow, but bees do come in different colors depending on the type of bee.

It doesn’t sound like you have to worry about the following, but I’ll say it for general knowledge: If it gets red and the redness is growing at a fast rate still on the second day and it’s painful, that could be cellulitis, do not ignore it, go to the doctor. When I get it, it usually grows about a centimeter every 12 hours. Swelling the first few hours is usually just a reaction to whatever happened. Redness and pain growing the 2nd day and beyond is usually a serious infection. Red stripes going up your hand and arm towards your heart is an emergency. Some infections aren’t very visible but cause lots of pain, and intense pain that gets worse and worse over hours isn’t normal after a small skin break the infection can be in the tissue below the skin.

If it wasn’t a bee than I suspect a fire ant.

Fire ant usually has a white very small bump and redness around it. If you only had one bite you were lucky if it was a fire ant.

It might have been an incapacitated or dying bee.
At least it seems that a bee just lying in some exterior furniture feature isn’t in the best of health, but might still have one last scrontum of energy to defend itself.

Hmm, I wonder what results Googling “Raum’s county hymenoptera” would yield. ;p

I think a bee or wasp would leave a pretty visible stinger, right?

I didn’t realize that ants could leave a stinger! But if so, that might be more likely since the thing I pulled out was very tiny, wispy and barely visible.

I’m not concerned really. More curious than anything else.

So either a glass fiber from the broken iPad? (But why was it brown?) Or a teensy stinger from an ant? (Do stingers really come that tiny?)

Both are feasible. There was a broken iPad nearby. And I had accidentally sprayed an anthill in the garden the other day. Some of the displaced ants have wandered into the house. :/

Hymenoptera! Learned a new word today. Thanks!

Maybe it’s an ant coming for payback since I disturbed their ant hill.

Wasps usually don’t leave a stinger. They can sting and sting and sting.

Stinging nettle leaves small stingers like that. Maybe someone had a bit on their clothes and sat there before your encounter.

Definitely not a wasp then!

Ooh…that might be it. A nettle hair is probably closer than a stinger. Though don’t remember feeling such a sharp prick initially with a nettle hair. More sneaky.

Tiny spider?

Do spiders leave stingers?

Since we are limited on bugs, any chance the wind blew a small fiber onto the upholstered banquette & your hand hit it just right causing it to pierce the skin??? The irritation might cause both the bump & the itching.

I wouldn’t rule it out. @kritiper’s suggestion of it hitchhiking in on someone’s clothes seems pretty likely.

And the wisp of a nettle hair seems more likely than a stinger. Given the size of it.

Just surprised about how it felt. A bump with soft edges, I’d expect. The tiny round hard ball under my skin was an interesting reaction. Like a fluid had been injected. Very itchy. Slight itchiness radiating out. And closest finger looked slightly swollen.

Itchiness subsided after I pulled it out. And this morning that finger was no longer swollen.

I don’t think spiders have stingers, but maybe it broke off it’s fang in your skin?

Gah! Should not have googled spider fangs right before bed.

We’re beginning to see a few cases of monkeypox in my area. Tonight on our local news, they were telling us what to be aware of. Your swelling & itching was one of the symptoms. They did say it can be spread by fabrics IF an infected person had been there first. NO mention of a stinger; however, IF you start to run a fever & come down with flu-like symptoms, you might want to check in with your doctor!!!

I know it’s a long shot…just wanted you to be aware!!!

Appreciate the heads up! But probably not that. Because I definitely pulled something out of the center of it. Stinger, fang, nettle hair or what not.

I agree with you, but still felt compelled to offer the thought!!! Being one who trusts my gut, I’ve said it & it’s out of my hands now!!!