Beach stingers abound at Hawks Nest beach Myall Coast Myall Coast by News Of The Area - Modern Media - February 13, 2025 One of the bluebottles picked up from the shoreline in between the flags on Bennetts Beach. BLUEBOTTLES have plagued swimmers along the coast this summer, with Hawks Nest’s Bennetts Beach the site of a wave of incidents. The marine stingers, each of which is a colony of four separate organisms called “zooids”, are generally carried in on the prevailing north-easterly winds and the incoming tides. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au “The best treatment for bluebottle stings is hot water, as hot as the patient can stand without scalding, for 20 minutes on and off,” Tea Gardens Hawks Nest Surf Life Saving Club (TGHN SLSC) Captain Wayne Bower told NOTA. “Ice packs are only a temporary measure. “Hot water helps the pores sweat out the stingers, and products like Stingoes are only effective once the stinger is properly removed.” Bluebottles’ tentacles inject venoms containing proteins which, unless there is an allergic reaction, usually result in non-fatal, severe pain in humans. The recent wave of bluebottle stings has seen TGHN SLSC members resort to carrying buckets of hot water down from the Clubhouse, as their first aid room does not have a hot-water supply. The club is currently seeking grant or other funding for a readily accessible and lockable hot water shower. Researchers at the Australian Museum underscore the ‘hot water treatment’, with evidence that the heat also kills the proteins in the venom that bluebottles inject through their long tentacles. Vinegar and urine, once commonly touted remedies, are actually too acidic and can increase the pain of stings. A recent incident on the beach rendered a swimmer unconscious. Lifesavers ensured she was checked for stingers, discovering one in her thumb that needed tweezers to be removed. Recent waves of bluebottles on Bennetts Beach have seen them with tentacles up to one metre long, and lifesavers deal with them by picking them up by the bubble, and burying the entire thing in sand. “Some people stomp on the bubbles to burst them, but the saltwater that washes in on each wave can keep the tentacle alive, only making a hazard for the next person who steps on it,” explained Phil Everett, of Flipper’s Fab lifesaver crew. By Thomas O’KEEFE Plenty of signs warn of the stingers, and most regulars can read the north-easterly winds.
