It has been described by entomologist Dr Justin Schmidt as feeling like “a running hair dryer has just been dropped into your bubble bath”.

Dr Schmidt was talking about the sting from a tarantula hawk wasp which boasts the second-worst sting in the world, according to the Schmidt sting pain index.

Dr Schmidt knows, because he has willingly stung himself with one.

So, too, did Coyote Peterson, host of the YouTube channel Brave Wilderness, the only difference being that Mr Peterson filmed himself being stung – and the agonising outcome.

Within seconds of the sting, Mr Peterson is writhing around on the ground, classing the pain as “the most intense pain I’ve ever felt”, adding that he couldn’t move his arm as a result.

The video, which has had about half a million views on YouTube, clearly shows Mr Peterson’s arm swelling in real time.

“(I) don’t think I can talk,” he says grovelling the dirt.

Mr Peterson is on a mission to experience the most painful insect stings and bites, such as being bitten by an alligator or having his blood sucked by leeches.

The tarantula hawk wasp is in fact not particularly aggressive, with its target being tarantula spiders.

The wasp’s sting is designed to paralyse the spider so the wasp can lay an egg inside the spider’s dead body.

Watch Mr Peterson writhe in pain: