Objective: The purpose of this study is to describe the epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of bee sting cases that attended to our emergency service in the summertime and to emphasize that bee sting is a serious public health problem for the children living in the urban areas.

Materials and Methods: In this study the 156 cases that were admitted to the Emergency Department of Pediatrics of Ankara Training and Research Hospital in the period of June-August 2005.

Results: Of 156 cases, 67 % were male and age range was 1-13 years. Eighty three (53.2%) cases were stung by honey bee. The most frequent location of bee sting was extremities (%64) (particularly the upper hand) and followed by head area (25%). In 10% of cases more than one sting from different areas of the body were present. Cases were admitted on august most frequently (69.2%). Of the patients, 70.5% had local reaction, 23.7% had large local reaction and 5.1% had systemic reaction.

Conclusions: We wanted to emphasize that bee sting cases constitute a serious public health problem at emergencies departments of pediatrics in the urban areas.