BURNED by a Giant Fireworm!

Alright guys, in this video I'm going to take on the

fireworm

bite so I can officially rate it on the Brave Wilderness Bite Sting Index. Now the bite of this poisonous worm is horrible. We're talking stabbing pain, massive swelling, and even long-term skin damage. So for me this is going to be a really bad day. But before I can pass this test, I have to catch one first. And the only way to do it is by getting into the water. Portions of this video are sponsored by My Singing Monsters. Today we will dive right off a public beach near Miami, Florida.

And if you can believe it, the waters near these beaches are teeming with

fireworm

s. Fireworms can grow up to a foot long and are covered in thousands of venom-laden bristles, earning them the reputation of being one of the worst stings in the entire ocean. And unfortunately for me, I'm going to experience this firsthand. I mean, if I can find one, I've seen something on the rocks just ahead. Oh, look at that. Our first spot of the day. That's a brunette. Moray eels are incredibly territorial and can be aggressive towards divers. So if I want to keep all my fingers, I'd better keep my distance too.

Now these reefs are a promising environment, but there are no fireworms yet. There's a lot of light down here, though, so I have a feeling it's just a matter of time. I think we need to go deeper. Alright. Yes, this looks perfect. What we are seeing here in front of us is a mud bottom environment, which fireworms love. And see that orange sponge? That's a fantastic sign. I have seen fireworms covering these sponges on many previous dives. Well. I see something with worms up ahead. Oh yes, there it is. The first fireworm of the day, and a decent size one at that.

Wow, did you see that? The fireworm is widening its spines in self-defense, which will make it even more difficult to catch them. Even with these gloves on, this is a very dangerous operation that should never be attempted. Please never do this. Getting bitten by a fireworm underwater could easily put you in a life-threatening situation. We have a little more time left in our tank. Let's see if we can find some more. Wow, almost immediately we have another one. Once you find fireworms, they will be almost everywhere you look. Let's see how many we can get. Now, for anyone wondering, rest assured, we'll be returning all of these fireworms to where I found them at the end of this video.

Wow, that's an absolute monster. I'm not even sure it will fit in this container. Let's try. Alright. Well, I think we found today's co-star. It's time to bring our worms to the surface and face the flame of the fire worm. Since it is important to return the worms to the water as quickly as possible, there was no time to waste. So I ditched my scuba gear and set about preparing for the sting test. The round table is set. I'm going to pull out some things that we'll use for today's experiment with the fireworm. I have a petri dish.

We will place them. Some clear Gorilla Tape. You might be wondering, Mark, what are you going to do with that? You will see it in just a few minutes. I have some white vinegar. I'll need it for the afterburner. And then of course this is for me, just a little bit of hydration here on the beach. I never leave home without my Summit Adventure Fuel. Now I'm going to keep the rest of the worms covered. We don't need all the worms we find. Of course, we found a lot of worms. There were hundreds of fire worms in this place.

The last one we found, I even had a hard time fitting it into the jar I took with me. So I think that's the one we're going to use for the experiment, because I'm curious. Does size matter when it comes to a fireworm bite? I think today we will find out. Let's put some seawater in our Petri dish. Nice, clean and cold. Now it's time to take out the fire worm. Oh. Oh yeah. Alright, here's the second worm. Entering. Get some of these thorns out of there. Check. That. Outside. Mark, that looks like a wool worm.

Skin worm? Is that a real thing? No, it's from a video game. My singing monsters. Are these in a video game? Yes. Oh yes. No way. It seems like, wait, let me see. Oh. You know, if you made a cartoon of a fireworm, the weird lech worm from my singing monsters, I would never have heard of my singing monsters. You play? Yes, it's a great game. And what do they do? They sing. They sing? Yes that's fine. The rare flea worm was probably modeled after a fire worm. Clearly. I mean, look at it. They are faces on fire.

This monster really sings. So after these fireworms finish making me sing, maybe we'll see it at the end of the video, but there you go. Wow. The rare woolworm for my singing monsters. As you can see, these worms are absolutely covered in thousands of these very small but very sharp poisonous spines. Now these spines are constantly growing so you will see there are some floating around and it really looks like fiberglass when you look at them under a microscope you can see how sharp the tips of the spines really are. Even a subtle brush with one of these creatures will land you in a world of pain right where I'll be here in a few more minutes.

But you can also see that it gets its name, fireworm, from its red coloration, because it looks like it's on fire and it certainly feels it when it touches your skin. Now, many people come into contact with these worms, namely divers and snorkelers, but you should be careful if you are swimming. If you're walking and feel rocks under your feet, there's a good chance it's home to a fireworm. If you step on one of these, it will illuminate you. Wow. And there we go. Come in strong. Let's look at that right there. To me, that's the most impressive thing about the fireworm, besides what the poison can do: this amazing flaming defense.

They can just spread and spread all those spines so that they can enclose their entire body. That whole middle part is no different than an average worm. In fact, when I squeeze it with these tweezers, they are super soft, squishy. And if they weren't covered in these incredibly painful spikes, they would be easy prey for anything that lives in the ocean. You may have heard me mention more than once that these worms are poisonous. So while those spines dig into your flesh like a cactus, they release a toxin. There is a mucus that these worms cover those spines with, much like a lionfish or a stonefish.

And when that toxin reaches the skin. It's going to cause instant stabbing pain, and that pain will continue cyclically as long as those thorns are lodged in my skin. And after that, I'll inevitably have to deal with tremendous swelling and probably some scarring. This is one of the bites that will leave lasting damage. Luckily for me, I get itchy a lot in this area because of the bite rate, so it will be one of many scars. It's time to get a bite from this strange sea creature, so you can officially rate it on the Brave Wilderness Bite Sting Index.

And this is one of the animals I've been very curious to rate since we invented the Bite Sting Index for Brave Wilderness, where we rate an animal's sting or bite on three different factors: intimidation, pain, and aftereffects. And for this worm, you definitely want to stay with the consequences because not only well, you see how bad a fireworm burn can be, but I'm also going to show you what to do if you ever get stung by one of these poisonous creatures. Yuck. Yuck. I know how bad this is going to be. It's time to find out.

What does the fireworm burn do to human flesh? At three. Ready? One two. Three. Wait. I didn't feel well enough. I am time. One more time. Here we go. Inflate, inflate. 1, 2, 3. Ah yes, the birds. Oh no. More or less. Oh. Oh. See all those fines? Oh my God. Ah ah. Oh. You can already see it's turning red. Oh, they stung me a lot. There are so many thorns. Hundreds. I got stung by hundreds. Oh, it's so bad. Well. Oh God. Oh, it's bad, man. It's really bad. Its on. Ah! Aaaaaaah! No! Ah! Ah! Oh my god, it's so much worse than the first time.

I've been bitten by these before, but never one this big. I have so many thorns in my arm right now. Oh my God! Oh, this will be the worst sting of my life. This will be my worst sting. Aaaaaah! I have to let it dry! Phew! Because, once it dries, you could use this tape to remove the thorns. Anything that's super sticky. If you don't have tape, look for something sticky. Just get those things out of there. You need to get those thorns out of your skin. Because right now I can feel the raw poison, like lava flowing over itself.

It's as bad as a bullet ant. It's as bad as a bullet ant. It could be worse. Yuck. Don't blow it. It makes it worse. Come on. Dry. Dry. Okay, I'll go. Wait guys, I'm going to walk for a second. It's okay, it's dry. It's dry. Alright, I'm taking all I can. I have to get this out. Okay, a piece of tape like that. Any tape will do. But I have this so you can see how many thorns it has. I'm going out. I'm going to try to do this at once. Here we go. Do you want to cover the entire area?

Oh! Oh! I didn't have a moment to go again, but look at that. Look how many thorns are there. Mmmmm! Come on. Ah! Ah! Well. Holy Mackerel. Look at those welts appearing. You see it? Oh my god, and they don't even look that bad compared to how it feels. It improves instantly as soon as you remove the thorns. It really makes a big difference. The next thing you want to do is white vinegar. It will help neutralize burns. Oh oh yes. Any toxin left on top of my skin. This vinegar will neutralize it. Strong tape, white vinegar.

If you don't have it with you, get it as quickly as you can because the faster you can remove those thorns from your skin, the faster you will be on the road to recovery. But I can tell you that the road to recovery from this is a long one. And you can see how much the hives are getting bigger. Tomorrow this is going to be unpleasant. But before I get into the BSI rankings, I'll try to distract myself and have a little fun. I want to know what the weird hairy worm in My Singing Monster sounds like.

Does it sound anything like this? That was me, right? We just reversed it. Looking at it on YouTube, we found an unusual worm. Is it like that? Wait, I have to hear that one more time. Okay, I agree. Uh, it doesn't sound like I expected it to sound. I was hoping it would sound like I did when I got

burned

by the fireworks. Maybe, Asa, maybe we should send my audio track to the fireworks. To the people of My Singing Monsters and they can. Good. Anyway, now comes the hard part, the healing process, the consequences. And uh, the pain score will be high, intimidation.

I'm going to have to think about those consequences. I'm going to have a lot of time to think about that because the consequences of this worm are going to last weeks. But you don't have to wait weeks. Let's get into it right now and officially rate the fireworm based on the Brave Wilderness Biting Index. In the face of intimidation, the fireworm looks intense. The bright red skin combined with thousands of thorns reminds me of a poisonous snake. Plus, having been stung before, I know how easily those spines can get stuck in your skin. And when you see a big one underwater, they are very intimidating.

So that's why I give it a 7.8 out of 10. For pain, once those thorns got stuck and started dosing me with venom, the burn was intense. The sensation was similar to being

burned

and electrocuted over and over again. And unlike my first sting, this time I was completely nailed, with at least five times as many bristles. Needless to say, it hurt me a lot. And that's why I give it a 9.5 out of 10. The aftermath of the fireworm is where it gets some major points. The burning went on and on, day after day and week after week, and the rash came back with a vengeance, leaving behind this intense itching, pustules and swelling.

Every time I became active or started sweating, the pain quickly returned, and to this day, there are still some scars left from the burn of this fireworm. So for this, I give the sequels score a whopping 9, 6 out of 10. All in all, the fire ranks at a nine on the brave wild BSI, which is a big score for a very painful creature.