An irritation member having a housing, wherein the housing has a front side and a rear side, as well as lateral surfaces connecting the front side and the rear side. The front side and rear side are larger than the lateral surfaces, thereby producing a parallelepipedal housing. The irritation member has blow-out openings on the lateral surfaces and an actuation element that is provided in a recess of the housing. In the event of non-actuation, the actuation element is thereby received in the recess of the housing and thus does not increase the size of the housing. As a result, the irritation member does not look like a conventional irritation member.