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Lucky for all of us, an entomologist named Justin O. Schmidt decided to take one for the team and let a lot of bees, ants, and wasps sting him. Then, he would rate the level of ouchiness in an admirably systematic method. He published his “Schmidt Pain Index” in 1984 (refined in later papers, eg 1990), which ranked the sting-pain on a scale from 0 (completely benign) to 4 (mostly dead). The descriptions of the stings he presents are borderline precious, hearkening back to wine-tastings or sampling a pungent perfume:

1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.
1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.

cactuscat wrote:Tarantula Hawk Wasp is supposed to be one of the most painful, and looking at them I have no trouble believing it ... You have to figure that if the sting will paralyze a tarantula, it's gotta hurt! Thankfully, they don't seem inclined to sting people too often.

joe bartels wrote:With true concern my fellow hikers asked me to hold still so they could... get a photo