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On Wednesday, August 20, 2003, at 07:24  PM, Kieran and Donna wrote:
. . .    Any kind of shocker device will work on stings or brown 
recluse bites.
> I met a fellow who owns a nursery in McMinnville who bought a shocker 
> back
> when they first came out, before the FDA clamped down on them.

I read a couple of years ago that electric shocks had become popular in 
Africa as a treatment for poisonous snake bites, and various medical 
folks were studying it to see if the effect was real.  The article (in 
a main-stream science magazine) was sympathetic to the idea that it 
might work - like most of the other remedies folks have posted here, an 
electric shock will disrupt proteins.

Has the FDA "clamped down" on this device for being unproved or for 
being dangerous?  Do you know?  As you said, you don't need a special 
device, although it may be safer than the other easy options.  In 
Africa, people were mostly using auto batteries.  (Probably not worth 
the risk for a yellow jacket sting, but well worth it for some of the 
deadlier snake bites.)

Ginda