Insects which sting

Those invasive Aedes mosquitoes love to live and breed close to people, in yards and even inside homes. Not many things freak us out more than finding a blood-sucking tick latched on to one of our appendages, or to one of our pets. Tiny, flat, eight-legged parasites related to spiders, ticks crawl out on leaves, tall grass and vegetation and extend their hooked front legs to latch onto passing animals and people.

Tick-related diseases are relatively rare in San Diego County. However, they have been known to transmit tularemia, otherwise known as rabbit fever, Lyme disease and spotted fever illnesses. Here are a few tips for protecting against ticks : Wear insect repellent when outdoors in areas where ticks might be. Stay on trails and out of the brush when hiking, and tuck shirts into pants and pant legs into socks.

Treat pets with a flea and tick regimen, and leave them at home, or keep them leashed when hiking. We let the cat or dog outside, they get fleas, bring them in the house, and then we get bitten too!

Fleas can carry plague if they bite infected wild rodents, and earlier this year a woman was infected with murine typhus from fleas brought inside by her pet cat. Protect against fleas by using flea control products on pets and by removing brush, rock piles, junk, cluttered firewood and food supplies — especially pet food — from around your home to keep rodents and animals away.

The three most common stinging insects are apids honeybees and bumblebees , vespids wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets , and ants fire ants are the stinging kind. Note that if you didn't get a good look at the insect that stung you, you may be able to identify it by the appearance of the hive, whether the insect was near the ground or higher in the air, and even by the way that the insect flies. Here's more information about each type of stinging insect:.

The only sting if their hive is threatened or if they're stepped on. Children running around barefoot, especially on grass or clover, where honeybees like to linger, receive the majority of honeybee stings.

This type of honeybee is becoming more common in the southwestern United States. Honeybees' stingers are barbed on the end, so after they enter the skin they stay behind, along with their internal organs. There is some debate as to what is the best way to remove a honeybee stinger.

Whatever method you choose, it is best to act quickly. The longer a stinger remains in the skin, the more venom will be released into the body. One quick way to get a stinger out is to use the edge of a credit card to scrape it out.

Don't use tweezers: This can squeeze more venom into the skin. Bumblebees can sting, but they aren't aggressive. Unlike honeybees, they don't have a barbed stinger so they can sting multiple times. Wasps are varied in color shades of brown, yellow, and red ; when they fly their back legs dangle.

They often live under the eaves of houses in honeycomb-shaped nests. They're rarely aggressive but they will sting if they're disturbed. Since they don't leave their stinger behind, wasps can sting someone multiple times. Fire ants are found mainly in the South and Southeast parts of the United States. These nests can be flat in sandy areas or as tall as 18 inches in moist areas.

Fire ants are most likely to sting if a person steps on their nest. Sterile "pseudopustules" can form where fire ants have stung and should be left intact. When the blood is flowing from the wound they will "lap" it up.

The larvae feed in a wide variety of wet or damp sites that are high in organic material. Most females feed during the warmer parts of the day, but some species prefer the hours at dawn or dusk.

Horse flies are larger than deer flies and usually have clear wings, while the deer fly has dark markings on the wings. Welts and lesions from the bite may last for days. The larvae of various species develop in a wide variety of damp or wet places high in organic matter. Most are attracted to lights. One vicious biter develops along the Atlantic coast in salt marshes and wet soil.

Another species, found in mountainous areas, feeds in the evening and night hours and is small enough to pass through ordinary screens. These are important pests in coastal and mountainous areas and can seriously interfere with outdoor activities.

They typically bite in shaded or partially shaded areas and may fly as far as 15 miles or more from a larval habitat. The larvae are found attached to underwater objects in fast-flowing sections of rivers and streams. For this reason, they can be very troublesome in mountainous areas. The saliva injected while feeding causes swelling and soreness that may persist for days.

Because of the widespread larval habitats and long flight range of most mosquitoes, deer and horse flies, biting midges and black flies, control by homeowners is not always practical.

Aerosols can be used indoors for occasional invaders. For day-biting mosquitoes, the elimination of artificial containers as a larval habitat can reduce biting since these mosquitoes only fly a few hundred feet from these sites. Turn over, puncture, cover with plastic or store potential larval habitats in an area protected from rain. Repellents should be used when outdoors as needed. Various formulations many different brand names containing "DEET" N, N-diethyl-m-toluamide can be applied to the skin to give several hours of protection.

Perspiration and activity tend to reduce the length of protection. Those formulations with a higher percent of "DEET" tend to last longer but also tend to cost more. For additional protection against mosquitoes that bite through clothing, Permanone the brand name of an aerosol containing permethrin , which is sprayed on clothing to repel and kill ticks, is also effective against flying insect pests for a day or more.

Electromagnetic and ultrasonic devices are sometimes advertised to control these pests; however, there are no scientific studies that substantiate these claims.

There is no evidence that black lights with electric grids for outdoor patios give any control of these insects. All adult fleas feed exclusively on the blood of their host. Fleas are common on most mammals, including cats, dogs and rodents.

They are wingless and have strong legs for jumping. Eggs from the female usually hatch in the nest or resting areas of the host. The eggs hatch in about 10 days into tiny, worm-like white larvae that feed on flea excrement, skin scales and other debris. The larva require a week to several months to complete development before they pupate and emerge as adults. Adult fleas can survive for two to four months without a blood meal.

Cat and dog fleas will readily bite humans, especially when the normal host is absent. When people go on vacation for a week or more, a large number of fleas can often be found waiting for the owners upon their return. Large numbers of fleas can also build up in yards.

Fleas most often bite people on the legs and ankles. A small red spot usually appears at the bite site surrounded by a red halo with little swelling. Young children tend to be more sensitive to flea bites than older children. The chigger is a tiny, red mite that, in its immature stage, will feed on humans, rodents, birds, snakes and a wide variety of other animals.

Chiggers are especially common in second growth areas, blackberry patches and forest edges. Chiggers are very active in crawling about looking for a host, and may crawl over the skin for some hours before beginning to feed. When the mouthparts are inserted into the skin, a fluid is injected that dissolves the cells upon which it feeds.

The chigger does not, as is commonly believed, burrow into the skin. Itching can begin three to six hours after exposure. Examination of the skin may reveal minute red mites moving about. A soapy bath taken as soon as their presence is noted will often remove many of them before they begin feeding. The two most common ticks that feed on humans in Georgia are the American dog tick and the lone star tick. The adult female tick drops from the host after a blood meal to lay her eggs.

The eggs hatch and develop through three stages: the larva sixlegged, very tiny — sometimes called a "seed tick" , the eight-legged nymph and the adult. During each of these three stages, the tick will attach itself to a host, take a blood meal, then drop off to continue the cycle.

All stages of the lone star tick will attack humans, but only the adult stage of the American dog tick will. Both ticks feed on a wide variety of animals, although the American dog tick is especially common on dogs and the lone star tick on deer and livestock.

Ticks are most common along trails and feeding and resting areas of their hosts. Both species can carry Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever RMSF , a dangerous disease that causes a skin rash and high fever that may be mistaken for measles. The black-legged tick is less commonly found on people, but transmits Lyme disease.

This disease initially has flu-like symptoms and sometimes an expanding red rash at the bite site. Months or years later the disease can invade the neurological or cardiovascular system or joints of the body. Lyme disease mimics other diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis. The characteristic bull's-eye rash only occurs in about 70 percent of the cases.

Early treatment with antibiotics is much more effective than treatment months or years later. When in tick-infested areas, you should check your body especially the back of the head at least twice a day for ticks. Since embedded ticks need 12 to 24 hours to transmit RMSF or Lyme disease, early removal is a good preventative for these diseases. Embedded ticks should be removed with tweezers or wrapped in cloth or paper to avoid contact with the fingers.

Grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible and gently pull directly, but firmly, away from the skin. Immediately wash the bite site and your hands with hot, soapy water to minimize the chance of infection, as juices from an infected tick can transmit RMSF. While spiders are beneficial in that they feed on various insects, there are at least two species in Georgia that are dangerous to humans. One is the black widow, which is very common throughout the state.

It is shiny black with a red hourglass design under the abdomen. This spider makes an irregular web in piles of trash and lumber, around rock borders and in cracks and crevices around the foundations of homes. The black widow is timid and will not usually bite unless handled. The other species is the brown recluse, which is extremely rare in Georgia.

Patients exposed to swarm attacks and patients with high venom-specific IgE levels are most at risk of anaphylaxis Anaphylaxis Anaphylaxis is an acute, potentially life-threatening, IgE-mediated allergic reaction that occurs in previously sensitized people when they are reexposed to the sensitizing antigen.

Unexpectedly large numbers of people seek medical attention for stings and their complications after hurricanes and possibly other environmental disasters. Apids usually do not sting unless provoked; however, Africanized honeybees killer bees , migrants from South America that reside in some southern and southwestern US states, are especially aggressive when agitated.

Apids typically sting once and dislodge their barbed stinger into the wound, introducing venom and killing the insect. Melittin is thought to be the main pain-inducing component of the venom. The venom of Africanized honeybees is no more potent than that of other honeybees but causes more severe consequences because these insects attack in swarms and inflict multiple stings, increasing the dose of venom.

Vespid stingers have few barbs and do not stay in the skin, so these insects can inflict multiple stings. The venom contains phospholipase, hyaluronidases, and the antigen 5 protein, which is the most allergenic. Although vespids also avoid stinging unless provoked, they nest close to humans, so provocative encounters are more frequent.

Yellow jackets are the major cause of allergic reactions to insect stings in the US. There are several species, but Solenopsis invicta predominates and is responsible for an increasing number of allergic reactions. The ant bites to anchor itself to the person and stings repeatedly as it rotates its body in an arc around the bite, producing a characteristic central bite partially encircled by a reddened sting line. The venom has hemolytic, cytolytic, antimicrobial, and insecticidal properties; 3 or 4 small aqueous protein fractions are probably responsible for allergic reactions.

Local apid and vespid reactions are immediate burning, transient pain, and itching, with an area of erythema, swelling, and induration up to a few centimeters across. Swelling and erythema usually peak at 48 hours, can persist for a week, and can involve an entire extremity. This local chemical cellulitis is often confused with secondary bacterial cellulitis, which is more painful and uncommon after envenomation.

Allergic reactions may manifest with urticaria, angioedema, bronchospasm, refractory hypotension, or a combination; swelling alone is not a manifestation of allergic reaction. Symptoms and signs of a fire ant sting are immediate pain followed by a wheal and flare lesion, which often resolves within 45 minutes and gives rise to a sterile pustule, which breaks down within 30 to 70 hours.