If you're planning on summer adventuring in a locale known for jellyfish—surfing in Australia perhaps?—you can protect yourself from jellyfish stings with the most unlikely of tools—pantyhose.


Photo by bkgunner.

While there is some debate as to the mechanism surrounding how a thin layer of nylon mesh protects the wearer from stings—some jellyfish have very short stingers which cannot penetrate the mesh and others have stingers which are triggered by contact with the skin surface and the nylon provides just enough buffer—many an oceanic lifeguard will be more than happy to sing the praises of wearing a nylon bodysuit during jellyfish season and how it has protected them from being stung.


You can go two routes when acquiring the right gear to protect you from jellyfish stings. You can stop by your local lingerie store and pick up a nylon cat suit in your size—fellas, go ahead and blurt out an awkward "It's for my wife, not for fighting off jellyfish!" if it makes you feel better—or you can purchase a commercial suit designed for the purpose, like the Stinger Suit—primarily marketed and sold in—you guessed it—Australia. Photo by How Can I Recycle This.

If you forgo the suit and end up getting stung, bust out the blow dryer—assuming you were stung by the irritating and not life-threatening kind of jellyfish— and use a trick a friendly lifeguard taught me. Fire up a blow dryer and hold it as close to the site of the stings on the hottest setting you can stand (don't burn yourself) and then fan it back and forth over the affected area. The blow dryer dries out the stingers without activating them—like trying to rinse them off with fresh water would. Once you blast the area with heat you can use a safety razor or credit card to scrape the stingers off.

Check out more information about jellyfish including safety and sting-treatment tips at the link below. Have a jellyfish story to share? Let's hear about it in the comments.


Jellyfish Facts [Wikipedia]