Ah yes, summer's at its peak, and you're going out to have some fun. At a barbecue, by the sea, in a park, or on a lakeshore. But wait! Who's gonna bug you, and spoil all the happiness? Someone very small, but very annoying. Yes, it's those two-year-old twins running amuck, spilling the lemonade, and pulling the doggie's tail.
Aren't they a handful? Where are their parents? Has anybody got a leach? Okay actually, this isn't about them. It's about some other pests. Yep, Insects. There are zillions of them, and most are innocent and scared out of their wits of the huge humans. Just a few others can bite or sting you and cause real trouble. Let's see which ones you'd rather keep off your party list.
Identify a bug bite
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| Spider |
1. Spider
Nearly all 40,000 different kinds of spiders are venomous. Don't panic! Not for people. Human skin is too thick for most of them, and they can't inject the poison. A spider's bite usually looks like 2 dots in a circle. But there are 3 kinds of spiders whom you'd better avoid: the Black Widow, the Tarantula, and the Brown Recluse. Their bites can cause intense pain for 1-1.5 hours. Symptoms also include dizziness and shivering, and it can be hard to breathe. Brown Recluse spiders live in the Midwest and South of the central US regions.
All choose houses, barns, and lofts, and can hide behind furniture or floorboards. They have a violin mark on the forebody, but it's difficult to see. That Black Widow lives in the whole territory of the country, usually outdoors in protected places, like heaps of stones or firewood. It has a red or orange hourglass mark on the belly. Uh uh, YOU turn it over to look! Tarantula bites are very rare and – thank goodness !– New World tarantulas are not venomous. However, if you try to disturb him on purpose, he can throw out needle hairs, which can cause an allergic reaction. You get it. Don't mess with tarantulas!
If a spider did bite you, don't do this: - put a tourniquet on the damaged arm or leg - cut the wound by yourself trying to get rid of the poison - eat Wash the bite area with soap, put ice on it, and take a painkiller if necessary. Drink a lot of water. If the bite is on the arm or leg, go to bed and put it down to stop the spreading of the poison. To prevent an allergic reaction, you might need to take an antihistamine. Anyway, if the bite starts swelling or you feel pain, call the doctor immediately.
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| Mosquito |
2. Mosquito
Mosquito bites usually look like swollen red spots about the size of a small berry. They can often be mistaken for a skin allergy. The difference is that they're usually only found in open areas of the body, where the skin is the thinnest, and blood vessels are closer to the skin. Mosquitos very rarely get underclothes, since it's dangerous for them. Any brightly colored swollen circle is usually a mosquito bite. It takes its final shape very immediately and doesn't change for a long time.
A lot of red spots after a walk, or in the morning when you wake up, are signs of the insects' attack. While biting a human, mosquitos inject their saliva, which contains a blood-thinner, into the wound. Here is what causes the swelling, redness, and itching. An allergy, however, has different symptoms. A rash spreads all over the body, even under clothes. Rash areas merge and don't have a particular shape; they can change their look very quickly. Antihistamines help to relieve the symptoms of an allergy. Some people have an allergy to mosquito bites because the body reacts to blood thinners in their saliva and tries to destroy them. It's quite a common thing.
An allergy to mosquito bites has the following symptoms: a single bite can cause an extensive rash on a big area of the body. Often the affected person has intense itching and swelling around the bite. A runny nose and itchy and watery eyes are signs of an allergy to mosquito bites too. Mosquitos can also carry infectious diseases. If you get a fever, pain in your joints, and your lymph nodes start swelling after a mosquito bite, call the doctor immediately – it could be an infection.
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| Tick |
3. Tick
Anybody reacts to a tick's attack with a red spot in the place of a bite. This insect can stay attached to the skin for a long time, sucking blood and increasing in size. You can get a tick from any area of forest or timber, a walk in the park, or even the backyard if you've got uncut grass there. They can also attach to animals, especially dogs, and catch a ride inside your home on them. The worst thing about ticks is that they can infect people with encephalitis, borreliosis (Lyme disease), and other diseases.
Not all ticks are disease carriers; about 80-90% of them are clean of any viruses or bacteria. But there can be an allergic reaction to the tick's bite if a person is prone to allergies, has weak health, has been operated on recently, or gets a lot of bites at once. A tick's mouthparts allow it to stick to the skin, deep and firm, without causing pain to a human. Ticks are pretty merciful, aren't they? No. That's why you might not find it on your body until the next day, or even several days after the bite.
Sometimes you don't notice the tick or the bite altogether. You'll face the biggest danger of getting infected if you live in a region endemic to ticks' infections, or visit it during its highest activity, from the middle of May till the end of September. But one can be attacked during any warm season. Ticks usually stay on high grass and catch on the legs of people or animals. They choose the grass along the paths since they can smell the people passing by.
Sometimes they climb to the bushes and lower branches of trees. Having reached a human body, the tick starts searching for an area with thin skin, which is easier to bite through. That's why it often sticks to the belly or the small of the back, chest, armpits, neck, ears, and the hairy part of the head. If you've found a tick on your body, remove it with tweezers and go to this doctor, even if you feel ok. Some diseases have a pretty long incubation period and have no signs at first. You'll need to take a blood test to make sure that there's no infection. You can also take the tick itself to a laboratory, where it'll be tested for diseases
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| Bug |
4. Bug (in general)
Bug bites look different. Some people don't notify them at all; others have a strong allergic reaction with itching and pain. A bug bites through the skin, trying to feel for a proper capillary. That's why it often leaves a line of five to seven bites in a row. Sometimes it's difficult to tell a bug's bite from allergic dermatitis. Bites look like a gathering of micro-skin injuries in the same area, usually making up a line.
On sensitive skin, the line can turn into a single red swollen spot, and it can be challenging to see the exact places where the skin was pricked. Sometimes there'll be darker red spots there. Itching is one of the nastiest effects of a bug's bite. The bites can keep itching constantly, and be painful to the touch. Bugs usually attack open areas of the body: face, neck, shoulders, and arms. Hygiene is the bugs' main enemy. So first of all, you'll need to wash the bitten spots with soap. At worst, you'll need an anti-inflammatory medicine or an antihistamine.
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| Bee |
5. Bee
A bee can leave a stinger in the spot anywhere it got you. You'll have to extract it carefully. Bee stings aren't dangerous if you don't have an allergy to them. The trauma can look different, depending on the part of the body where the sting is. If it's on a leg, arm, or back, the damage will be minor. The skin gets red and swollen, or a small thick blotch will appear. You'll feel a stinging pain and burning. Then the spot around the sting gets white, and there'll be a pins-and-needless sensation around the bite. This happens because of the bees' poison, apitoxin. 15-20 minutes after the sting, you'll feel intense itching.
The spot where the stinger itself punctured looks like a small reddish wound. The swelling lasts from 1 to 20 hours and reduces with time. It's quite different if a bee stings you on soft and sensitive parts – the face (eyelids, areas around eyes, lips), neck, head, armpits, etc. In that case, there'll be more intense swelling. Your eye could even swell completely shut. And it can last from 36 hours to 8 days. The intensity of the pain depends on the person's pain barrier. For people with a high barrier, it won't be too much discomfort. After you've been stung, tend to the wound with hydrogen peroxide and put ice on it.
The cold will relieve the pain and reduce the swelling. Things are much worse if you have an allergy to apitoxin. The bite can lead to Quincke's disease and life-threatening anaphylaxis. Most people with a severe allergy to bees will carry emergency treatment with them any time they're outdoors. Otherwise, call the doctor immediately and take an antihistamine to reduce the symptoms. Finally, if the bee is musical, it's best to leave it bee.
