So you think YOU have it bad?

[Gracey]

Top left of shot.
Not Freddy Kruger,
Is Wolverine.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I once read about a guy who accidentally got a jellyfish wedged in his butt-crack (he had a hose down the back of his wetsuit that pumped heated seawater into in it, and it sucked up the jellyfish) while he was scuba-diving as part of his job, they had to take him out to do first aid on him with his butt exposed in front of everyone, removing the jelly stingers. They gave him a cream that soothed the severe pain but his butt hole swelled shut and he couldn't poop for a couple of days. He said if you ever think your own job is bad you should remember his story.

Someone once told it must have been a lot worse for the jellyfish, but whether or not it actually suffered is debatable.

 

[Gracey]

How did the jelly fish get into the wet suit and makes it’s way through,
To stop specifically at the butt crack?

I’m imagining one of those close fitting wet suits.

 

[Tom]

I had pieces of jellies get in my wetsuit numerous times. They get pounded to pieces in the surf and on the rocks. Even pieces can sting.

 

[Gracey]

I had pieces of jellies get in my wetsuit numerous times. They get pounded to pieces in the surf and on the rocks. Even pieces can sting.

Thanks Tom.
Now I understand.

 

[Tom]

Thanks Tom.
Now I understand.

I was in a rush when I wrote and meant to add with us it got in thru the neck line. We normally did not wear hoods surfing. As I understood it then the jellies have all these cells containing tiny spring loaded stingers that contain the toxin up and down there tentacles. They are pressure activated whenever anything touches the end of the cell (Even for a while if the tentacle is broken off the jelly). Different jellies have different level severity toxins like different snakes venom. We had mostly Lion's Mane jellies that would drift down from Canada in summer, which are annoying but not dangerous like Man-O-Wars we ran into in the Caribbean. Even so we could rack up dozens of stings everywhere imaginable. My least favorite was in the roof of my mouth. After really bad days I'd be twitching periodically from the toxins for hours.

Getting stung in sensitive areas is worse. One day the jellies were getting pounded to pieces on the jetty we were surfing off of, and it was like swimming in jellyfish soup. I got it in the private part and I think the same day a friend got it in the butthole. His sounded worser. I can't stop laughing.

 

[LucyPurrs]

Wow, guess I was lucky while diving and snorkeling- never got jellyfish stuck in either a wetsuit or bathing suit despite swimming through swarms of them at times. Not all jellies sting. However when it's sea lice season , oh my that's awful. Sea lice are the larvae of jellyfish and create itchy rashes and blisters wherever bathing suit touches the skin (they get trapped there). You have to boil your suit to get rid of them (kill them). If you don't boil your suit they can reinfect you next time you put on the suit.

 

[SusanLR]

Sea Lice (Seabather's eruption) Prevalent in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Carribean, and along both the east and west coasts of the United States during the summer months, sea lice are probably the most commonly encountered stinging threat to divers and swimmers at the beach.

Sounds nasty and I've been swimming in the Gulf of Mexico for 40 years and never knew about them.

 

[LucyPurrs]

Sea Lice (Seabather's eruption) Prevalent in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Carribean, and along both the east and west coasts of the United States during the summer months, sea lice are probably the most commonly encountered stinging threat to divers and swimmers at the beach.

Sounds nasty and I've been swimming in the Gulf of Mexico for 40 years and never knew about them.

There's a "season" for sea lice- usually from Mother's Day or thereabouts to Father's day. It may be that the ocean was too cold for you to be swimming at that time or that they are more abundant around coral reefs. I know all the information says they are tiny juvenile jellyfish but personally I think they are fire coral spawns which would make more sense since coral spawns at specific times. Maybe they are both.

 

[SusanLR]

There are many different species of what are called sea
lice according to what I found in Wikipedia.
Some are jelly fish larvae, others are parasites.
It seems to be a generalised term for many stinging little
sea critters.
Sea louse - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_louse
A sea louse (plural sea lice), often confused with sea fleas, is a member of a family of copepods (small crustaceans) within the order Siphonostomatoida, the Caligidae. There are around 559 species in 37 genera, including approximately 162 Lepeophtheirus and 268 Caligus species.

• Scientific name: Caligidae
• Belongs to: Siphonostomatoida

• Biological classification: Family