The median lethal dose (LD50) for an adult human is
2.8 mg of venom per kg of body weight, i.e. a person
weighing 60 kg has a 50% chance of surviving injections
totaling 168 mg of bee venom [10]. Assuming each bee
injects all its venom and no stings are quickly removed at
a maximum of 0.3 mg venom per sting, 560 stings could
well be lethal for such a person. For a child weighing 10
kg, as little as 93.33 stings could be fatal. Therefore, quick
removal of the stings is important. However, most human
deaths result from one or few bee stings due to allergic
reactions, heart failure or suffocation from swelling
around the neck or the mouth.
Table (6) shows the number of honey bee stings that
can cause death 50% of individuals exposed to bee stings
on the basis of body weight as cited by [8]. In case of a
child weighing 10 kg, about 93.33 or 186.67stings could
well be lethal for such a child assuming each bee injects
0.30 or 0.15 mg venoms, for a person weighing 60 kg,
about 560 or 1120 stings could well be lethal for such a
person assuming each bee injects 0.30 or 0.15 mg venoms