Stings

[Mike]

Anybody got a picture of these things to stay away from them?

A google image search comes up with all sorts of different looking things.

 

[Where2Next]

Here ya go...

I took this picture as a memento, my friend (wearing a shorty) took home two arms, wrists, and fingers full of itchy red bumps. I forced, er um encouraged, my husband to wear a skin or 1mm, he was happy he wore his 1mm. Ahhh the wife was right. (Happens sometimes!)


From an old Scubaboard post, similar question with another photo... http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cozumel/264677-black-stinging-weed-underwater-what.html

 

[Beyond_Diving]

here ya go...
Macrorhynchia robusta Otherwise known as the stinging bush hydroid.

 

[SkipperJohn]

I had on a full 3 mil suit so my "rash" ends abruptly on my wrist. I should take pictures. As of today it still shows no sign of improvement. Interestingly, the rash was ultra hard to see for the first 2 days just being a little pink with no swelling. Close to 2 days later it began to turn red and swell. Fortunately the discomfort is very low. Yeah, I show it off, great battle wounds.

 

[PiranhaChris]

Wow looks like the gods of Diving have smiled on me.......a lot of Coz dives in board shorts and rash guard and never once have I surfaced with a Hydroid sting.
Never knew those were the little pricks doing it. Always heard that's what they looked like but never knew that was them. Great now I'm gonna be head to toe next dive lol.

 

[ed fisher]

Hey John.

My left hand was just a little rashed up until 9 days out of the water. Then over this past weekend, Deb's and my left backhand and wrist got nasty and itchy. Doesn't seem to bother the palms. I attribute it to the few times that we were waiting on the DM's to show a specimen to the others in the group. We would occasionally grab into the sand between things and hold on in the current. I know they are not allowed, but it would have been nice to have had a dive knife to hold in. But, there would be too many abuses if everyone did that. Followed all the advice (vinegar washes and cortisone creams) and by last night we are looking almost cleared up. Almost all of the club divers who were near the bottom suffered. Still well worth it for us.

 

[SkipperJohn]

wow, cleared up...
I guess I gotta get some cream.
Up until a few hours ago, mine looked about as bad as ever. It has over the last few hours begun to look better. The swelling is way down and the red is turning a deeper color. Almost like a scar. The few blistery looking centers are all but gone. The first sign of healing yet! WOOT!

 

[sharky60]

Yep, Hydroids...beautiful little creatures, I've got 2 pics of them haning in my office. But they pack a nasty sting, I guess that happens when you are related to jelly fish and anemones. They have really taken over the reefs since Wilma...

step 1. slight stinging on contact, then the water helps keep it cool and almost unnoticeable.
step 2. "Honey, I think I got stung by something down there!"... a little itching and slight burning, but no rash.
step 3. ...a few hours later..."Honey, I DEFINATLEY got stung by something down there!"...a pink rash starts to
blister up around the area...and then the itching REALLY starts!!! Where's the 'cordozone cream and benydrl!?
step 4. a few days of that and it the infected area starts to turn purple, itching subsides some.
step 5. the rash dries out loosing it's color and skin turns back to normal...

I usually come home with a nice purple rash of "battle scars" around my wrists. Hydrocordozone (sp?) cream & Benydryl for the itching and a little patience, a week or 2 and you'll be back to normal.

 

[SkipperJohn]

been 2 weeks now & the purple is starting. Sort of...

 

[CZMDM]

For whatever reason there are many more stinging hydroids in the last few years than I have ever seen. In some sandy patches (like the sandy areas between corals at San Francisco) there are large "fields" of the greenish ones. The San Juan is just covered with them.

I too seem to be highly reactive to the stings, but from what I've read here, maybe everyone reacts very negatively. What works for me is Claritin.