WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Schmidt Stinging Pain Index 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:06.400 Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:09.680 there's Chuck and Jerry's here sitting in for Dave. But 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:13.360 he's here in spirit, so this is short stuff. So yeah, 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:15.880 I missed Dave. I missed Dave two. It's been a 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.240 little while. I haven't seen his lovely, handsome face. I 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:22.599 have not seen another human being in two years. Oh 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:26.079 that's not true, it's been a while. You know. A 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:29.360 human being who I have never seen but wouldn't mind 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:31.720 seeing because he has a great mustache is a man 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:36.199 named Justin O. Schmidt. He seems like a stash guy. Oh, 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:38.479 he's a big time stash guy from pictures. So I've 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:40.559 seen him in pictures. I've never seen him in real life. 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:44.519 How about that? Yeah, he seems like a guy I 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:46.440 wanted to see, like if there were any interviews with 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:49.320 him on video, because he seems like quite a character 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:52.160 you would have to be to come up with what 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:56.240 he did. Which is the Schmidt sting pain Index, which 0:00:56.280 --> 0:01:00.800 is a scale that qualifies at Lee east and I 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:05.760 guess quantifies numerically the pain associated with the stings from 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:12.240 different insects. Right, so we've talked about the hot pepper chart, 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.559 I think we've talked about the regular pain chart, yeah, 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:20.640 with the faces the faces, uh. And I think Schmidt 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:25.200 realized that there was they knew about like the damage 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:28.720 a sting could cause, but like not the actual pain level. 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:31.520 Is that right? Yeah? And he was already he you know, 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:35.680 he works with um, I'm not terrans bees, wasps and ants. 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.759 He's an entomologist, we should probably say, um and he 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:43.119 was getting stung already, and he's like, well, I might 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:44.840 as well be the one to just go ahead and 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:47.840 start making something like this so that there is some 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:51.760 sort of index of how how painful these things are. 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:54.800 And I think ultimately Chucky was trying to see if 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:58.240 there was a correlation between the amount of damage done 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.200 in the amount of pain inflicted in a really and 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:05.440 where was Dr Schmidt working at the time a home 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:09.280 of our national champion Georgia Bulldogs. That's right, feel so 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:11.679 good to say he was probably there not too long 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.519 after the last time they were national champions. Yeah, I 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:19.000 mean that was eighty and I think this was, yeah, 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:22.600 eighty four is when he first published the first index. 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:28.200 He's now at University of Arizona. No one in Georgia cares, Oh, 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:32.399 come on go wildcats. Sure, I think that's wildcats, right, Yeah, 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:36.320 that's wildcats, Arizona State, the sun Devils. So, as the 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:39.079 story goes, he was going back to his office at 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:42.239 U g A there on campus, probably north campus, where 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:44.040 the science buildings are. I didn't go over there much. 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.679 Not very good looking part of campus, but that's where 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:52.240 those science buildings are. And you haven't been to Athens 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.880 in a while, right, it's been a while. You should 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.920 check it out. It's it's a you'll see people there too, 0:02:57.919 --> 0:02:59.960 so you can kill two birds with one stone. Okay, people, 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.040 I haven't seen them in a while, that's right. So 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:06.440 he was coming back after a cross country road trip 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:10.200 with his wife, Debbie, who's a zoologist, and this is 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.400 when he put out his Schmidt. It was it's like 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:15.360 one of the few times you can name something after 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:20.799 yourself without like because of ego. You know, it's it's 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:22.920 rather appropriate. He named it for himself, not just for 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:25.520 all of the pain he endured. He was stung at 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.840 least a thousand times by his estimate, while he cataloged 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:32.760 eighty three different species, but also like the personality he 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:36.480 he associated with the index too. It's not just like 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.560 A sweat bee is a one moving on like he 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:42.840 he had to describe what the pain was like or 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:46.600 else it's basically useless. Yeah, I think, I mean, we're 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:48.360 going to probably spend the rest of this episode talking 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:52.480 about this stuff and how brilliant he was in his descriptions. Right, 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:54.800 should we do a couple of them before the breaker? 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:56.400 Should we break? I say, we break and then we 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.000 come back and just let him rip. All right, let's 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:25.400 do it go sweat bee. Sweat bee is a one. 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.160 I think that's that's surprising that it's even a one. 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:31.520 But sweat bees are little tiny bees that are attracted 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.120 to human sweat, as you probably know, um, And they 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:37.919 don't sting very often. And I don't think we said chuck, 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.920 umour doctor what? Yeah, we didn't say zero to four. 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.000 It's a big one. But also Dr Schmidt didn't. He 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:48.240 rarely tried to get stumped. But I think sweat bees 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:50.160 might have been one of the ones that he basically 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:55.080 had to to make sting him but induced thank you, 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:59.159 But he said that, Um, the sting is light, ephemeral, 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.400 almost rudy, as if a tiny spark has singed a 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:04.880 single hair on your arm. It's like a nice peanut 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:09.720 garugio too exactly. People very frequently. Um uh compared this 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:14.359 the Schmidt stinging pain index to like wine descriptions. I 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.840 love it tasting notes. How about fire ants? The fire 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:19.719 ant you would think would be higher, but it's only 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.520 a one. Uh and uh, you point out very astutely, 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.880 and we should thank a business insider um Atlas Obscura 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.200 terminics and science blogs for a lot of this stuff. 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.159 But you point out that you know, it's a fire ant, 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.159 not a thousand fire ants on your foot at once. 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:39.880 That's a whole different jam. But even still, fire a 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:43.320 fire ant bite hurts. So the fact that it's one 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:45.760 is a really good reference point for all the ones 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.719 that come after that. Sure, yeah, I mean it's not 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:52.279 a zero, so there is pain involved. And this is 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:55.760 and of course you're not allergic obviously. Uh. If you're allergic, 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:58.000 it's a whole different thing. But if you're not allergic, 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:01.880 it's described as a sharp, sudden, mildly alarming sting, like 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:05.560 walking across a shag carpet and reaching for the light switch. Okay, 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:08.960 so far, so good. I could handle those. Now we're 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:10.840 starting to get into where, like I just don't want 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:12.960 to have anything to do with these things. Like starting 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:16.960 with the bald face hornet, that's a two. That's a two. 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:19.720 And the way that Schmidt described it also apparently the 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.960 bald face hornets sting will keep going for about five minutes. 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:25.159 And I'm sure those five minutes seem a lot longer 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:29.080 than actual five minutes. But he said that, um, that 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:35.480 this sting is like rich, hearty, slightly crunchy, So well, yeah, 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:37.440 that's exactly right. What would that mean? So he goes 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:39.839 on to describe it as similar to getting your handmashed 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:42.200 in a revolving door, and all of a sudden it 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:44.680 does kind of like take more shape, doesn't it sort of? 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:48.000 And he had to do that because a bald face 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:50.680 hornet is a two, a yellow jacket is a two. 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:54.360 But he points out like their stings are much much different. 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:58.839 They feel the pain associated with them feels much different. Yeah, 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.320 because the yellow jack it can go on for about 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:05.120 ten minutes, give or take a minute or two, and 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:11.160 it described as hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W. C. 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:15.520 Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue. Sorry, uh, there's 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:17.120 also something I need to point out and I know 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:19.960 I've talked before about the time I was stung eleven 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:23.880 times in the face and neck when I came upon 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:29.440 a yellow jacket nest camping. They they hurt according to 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:32.880 how deep the stinger was. So the far and away 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:35.800 the worst one and the longest lasting, was the hardest 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:38.520 to get out. It was almost fully buried in that 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:42.080 little uh is it the orable bone right under your eyebrow? 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.000 And it was, it was almost completely in there, and 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.440 I barely got it out. And that one throbbed and 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:51.160 hurt for way longer than ten minutes. Why did you 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.200 do that? Why did I do what? Why did you 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:57.720 get stung by eleven yellow jacket? I didn't do it 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:00.760 on purpose. Man, Were you like going after their honey 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.080 or something. No, we were just we were going down 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:06.080 the side of a mountain toward a river, and you know, 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:08.000 they had their nests in the ground, and we just 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:10.960 disturbed it. And we got down to the river and 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:13.720 all of a sudden they we were swarmed. And I 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.720 probably ran a mile through the woods, and they were 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:19.240 probably not a mile, it felt like a mile half 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:22.080 a mile, and they were still coming after us. Like 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:24.560 we stopped and like here come eight or ten of 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:28.600 them still after us angry angry yellow jackets. I should 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:30.720 probably also point out to Chuck that I know that 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.640 their yellow yellow jackets are wasps and wouldn't make honey. 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:37.680 I was joking, right, How about red harvest ants. Have 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.000 you ever been stung by one of those? No, that's 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.319 a three though, That's that's getting on up there. Yeah, 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:44.720 well you could have though, because you lived in human 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:48.240 and they're found in New Mexico in Arizona. But they 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:53.800 they can inflame your your nerves for hours. It says, yes, 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:58.760 bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:03.120 your ingrown tone all. Actually, I had a descriptor that 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:04.640 I always said for years about the one in my 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:08.320 eyebrow was it felt like someone had a thumb tack 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:11.240 stuck on that bone and they were just tapping it 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:14.760 with a little ball peen hammer. So I guess I 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:16.840 get kind of identified more than I thought I did 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:20.800 with weird descriptions. Man, that sounds so terrible. I'm glad 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:25.200 you made it. Yes, the paper wasp is next. The 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:27.160 most pain I've ever seen my daughter in was this 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.840 past summer when she got nailed by a wasp. Awful. 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:34.000 It's a three point oh, she screamed, like I've never 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:37.120 heard before, and I felt so terrible. The good news 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:40.400 is it's only about fifteen minutes and then it completely 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:43.640 went away. Um and the pain. And this is actually 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:46.680 what she said. She said, it's caustic and burning, with 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:49.959 a distinctly bitter aftertaste, like spilling a beaker of hydrochloric 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.840 acid on a paper cut. That's crazy. So she's she's 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:56.000 read Schmidt's book. No, I think she just improved it. 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:59.280 I was like, wow, that's really good description. Maybe Schmidt 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:02.480 was astra projecting at that moment and happened to find 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.040 his way. I'm not. I'm fifty. I've never been stung 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:08.319 by a wasp. You better knock on wood, buddy. Although 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:14.560 the wasp, yeah, true, but before that eleven and trust me, 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:16.800 I paid for it with that eleven. But I had 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.480 only been stung maybe a couple of times in my life. Really, 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:23.080 I haven't been stung much. He's been stung like four 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.680 times already, and she's six and a half. Wow. We yeah, 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:29.560 I think that has me beat to what's your worst? 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:35.560 I don't remember. I've kind of blocked it out. And 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:38.640 I think about it, but probably be yellow jacket. I 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:42.719 think it was a yellow jacket as well, their ground dwelling, right, well, 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:45.320 yeah these were in the ground. Yeah, it's exclusively in 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:48.120 the ground. But yes, I've been stung by a yellow 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.840 jacket and it is not pleasant at all because they 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:55.480 just the wasps look painful. They do. You me found 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:59.760 this one, Um, I want to say it's a tarantula wasp, 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:01.400 but I don't know if it is or not. But 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:04.839 it was purple and orange and it looks just mean, 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:08.360 I know what you're talking about. And she was like that, 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:10.840 I that looks like something that shouldn't be near momo. 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:12.920 So she got away and then she went and looked 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.559 it up, and yes, it turns out it has one 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:19.840 of the most painful stings on the planet. It actually 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:23.040 is a four I believe, which would make it tied 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:27.920 with the bullet ant, which um Schmidt apparently says is 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:31.440 it's a four because that's all the scale goes up to. 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.400 But it's actually like off the charts painful. Yeah, it's 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:39.920 listed as four plus Central and South American ant big 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:46.680 and black and uh twelve hour pain, pure intense, brilliant pain, 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:51.000 like firewalking over flaming charcoal with a three inch rusty 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:55.000 nail in your heel man. Yeah, yeah, I've I've heard 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:57.880 that there's videos of people purposely getting stung by a 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:00.760 bullet ant on if you want to see that. Yeah, 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:02.640 there's like a whole group of people who like go 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:07.040 around using the Schmidt Stinging Pain Index and purposely get 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:11.000 stungs and make videos of it, just to see what 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:14.720 it's like. Write it out. Um, you got anything else? 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:18.280 I got nothing else? Okay, well that's it for short Stuff. 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:22.560 Everybody steer clear stinging insects. But if you ever do 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:25.240 get stung by one, check it out on the Schmidt 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:30.840 Stinging Pain Index and see if he's right and short 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:37.000 Stuff is out. Stuff you Should Know is a production 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:39.960 of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:43.160 visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:44.640 you listen to your favorite shows.