Stinging nettles, including the European common nettle Urtica dioca, the New Zealand Ongaonga stinging nettle Urtica ferox, and the Australian giant stinging tree Dendrocnide moroides, are renowned for causing pain following contact with the fluid-containing stinging hairs. Small molecule neurotransmitters, including histamine, serotonin, and acetylcholine, have been thought to mediate these painful sensations. However, injection of these compounds alone cannot recapitulate the severity and symptomatology of nettle stings, and stinging hair fluid devoid of these components still causes pain on injection. We recently discovered that peptides targeting neuronal membranes and ion channels mediate pain following nettle stings. These peptides are disulfide-rich and, in the case of compounds derived from D. moroides, resemble neurotoxins from spider and cone snail venom structurally. Our results provide an intriguing example of inter-kingdom convergent evolution of animal and plant venoms with shared modes of delivery, molecular structure and pharmacology.