Bee sting on nostril, nipple or penis: where do you think it hurts the most?

Good thing there are some freaks out there willing to undergo the most bizarre and painful tests in the name of science. After all, would you volunteer to get a bee sting on your nostril, nipple or penis just so that everyone could know which of these three places is most painful? By the way, if you already have a guess about which of these three options is the most painful, get ready to be surprised!

But first, how about understanding how the pain index used in the test works? According to Discover, in the 1980s, a man named Justin Schmidt developed a scale specifically focused on measuring the intensity of pain caused by the bites of 78 species and 41 genera of the order Hymenoptera .

Schmidt also assumed that different areas of the body offer different levels of pain and, therefore, as the pain is subjective, the researcher decided to classify the intensity caused by the bites on himself. Taking the bee sting as a reference point, Schmidt took bites on 25 different body parts, which you can see in the following diagram:

The researcher chose a specific point - the forearm - as a reference and also repeated the test, totaling three bites on each area of ​​the body to make sure the pain measurement was correct. For, according to The Independent, Michael Smith, a student at Cornell University in the United States, decided to repeat Schmidt's experiments by holding nervous little bees and placing them against his own skin.

The experiment lasted 38 days, during which Smith took five bites a day and whose pain he rated on a scale of 0 to 10. The student also adopted the forearm as a reference point and whose pain he rated a 5. Interestingly - or not! -, the results reflected those described by Schmidt in the 80's. So if you were thinking that the penis was the most sensitive spot for mincemeat ...

Top 10

Contrary to what most people think, the penis was not in first place on the pain scale, but in third, coming after the nostril - the most painful place of all - and the upper lip. The scrotum appeared in 4th place, receiving the same classification as the palm and cheek. The armpit appeared in 7th place, followed by the nipple, and the least painful sites were the upper arm, head, and middle toe. Yes ... the experiment was very thorough!

Returning to Schmidt, he stated at the time of the publication of his study that he had been bitten by most of the 78 insect species he described. The only animals that received the highest marks were the Cape Verde ants - Paraponera clavata, also known as “bullet ants” - and the hunting wasps ( Pepsis formosa pationii ). And would you, the reader, be willing to take bites in the name of science?

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It is worth mentioning that there are several ways and scales to measure pain intensity. Schmidt's and Smith's - mentioned in this article - rank the level felt when we take insect bites.