by | May 30, 2024 | Healthy Living
What Are The Most Common Bites and Stings in the United States?
You’re enjoying a favorite local park, soaking up some sun, and tossing the ball to your dog when suddenly you feel a slight itch on your ankle. You chalk it up to being poked by the somewhat longer grass. But, after a few minutes, you realize that the itch has intensified and now there’s a raised bump. You notice a cloud of swarming mosquitos. You forgot your insect spray and rather than becoming a buffet for hungry insects, you call your dog and head home.
Understanding Insect Bites and Stings
Correctly identifying common insect bites and stings isn’t just about satisfying curiosity – it’s a skill that can protect your health and your loved ones. Knowing which insects can threaten long-term health can inform how you prevent or respond to potential complications, especially for vulnerable groups like children. Understanding insect habits and preferences allows you to avoid unpleasant run-ins and take precautionary steps.
What Happens When a Person is Bitten or Stung?
When an insect bites or stings, it injects substances that can trigger reactions ranging from mild itching to severe, life-threatening allergic responses or even tissue damage around the bite site like with a brown recluse spider. Insects typically bite to find food sources or in self-defense. While mostly a nuisance, some bites and stings can have profound consequences.
The main reasons insects bite or sting is to find food or self-defense. For instance, mosquitoes require blood meals for reproduction while insects like yellow jackets and mud daubers sting primarily when they feel threatened. Unfortunately, stings and bites can cause a severe allergic reaction for some.
The Seven Most Common Culprits Nationwide:
Mosquitoes
From the Northeastern states to the Southwest deserts, mosquitoes are pervasive warm-weather nuisances. Mosquito bites are capable of transmitting dangerous diseases like West Nile virus and Zika virus. Malaria and dengue fever are increasing issues in the U.S. likely due to warmer winters and longer summers which help mosquitos live longer and travel further despite municipal mosquito abatement programs. Look for small, itchy bumps or swollen red spots that often appear soon after being bitten. Applying calamine lotion to the affected area helps.
Ticks
Ticks thrive across the country’s wooded areas. Tick bites can happen without you knowing as they are often painless and don’t itch. The black-legged (or deer tick) lives in the eastern half of the Midwest region and spreads Lyme disease. The Rocky Mountain wood tick of the Mountain and Pacific Northwest regions can transmit Colorado tick fever and Rocky Mountain spotted fever marked by fever, headache, and muscle pain sometimes requiring hospitalization. In the southeastern and south-central U.S., the Lone Star tick can transmit alpha-gal syndrome that causes a serious allergic reaction to meat.
Fire Ants
Established across the Southern states, fire ants bite you to hold on, then deliver intense, burning stings forming tiny pus-filled blisters. While fire ant stings typically just cause localized skin irritation, the stings can sometimes trigger severe allergic reactions requiring emergency care.
Fleas
Flea bites leave clusters of small, intensely itchy red bumps – often with a rash surrounding the bite site. Fleas love to hang out in the warmer parts of the body and hide easily under clothing. Fleas can spread tapeworms and diseases like plague and murine typhus. Unfortunately for humans and animals, fleas are becoming more resistant to many flea control chemicals.
Spiders
The brown recluse and black widow spider each possess venomous bites requiring medical treatment. Brown recluse spider bites often start mild and then worsen as the tissue surrounding the bite site begins to die, while the widow’s bite causes intense pain and potential systemic effects like nausea and muscle spasms. The good news with these spiders is that they tend to leave us alone if we leave them alone.
Bees and Wasps
You’ll know instantly if you have suffered bee or wasp stings from the sharp, burning pain from the injection of venom. This is followed quickly by redness, itching, and swelling. When a bee stings you, the bee retreats, but its stinger stays lodged in the skin. Wasps don’t lose their stingers and can sting repeatedly. Severe pain and allergic reactions can occur from the stings of either of these insects. Many suffer severe reactions to insect stings causing a medical emergency requiring immediate medical attention.
Chiggers
These tiny mite larvae attach to you when you brush against vegetation, leaving small, extremely itchy red bumps or blisters. Though the irritation resulting from their bites can last a few weeks, over-the-counter products can help provide relief for most chigger bite reactions.
How to Prevent Bites and Stings
Protective clothing like tightly woven long sleeves, long pants tucked into the socks, and using insect repellent containing DEET or picaridin offer the best defense against fleas and ticks. Removing standing water sources around homes prevents mosquito breeding grounds. Keeping yards well-maintained with trimmed vegetation minimizes ticks and other insect habitats.
Bees and wasps love sweet things, so keep drinks and trash bins covered and when outside, remove food trash from your picnic area as soon as possible.
When to Seek Medical Attention
Watch for signs of severe allergic reaction and anaphylactic shock after bites and stings such as:
- Significant swelling beyond the sting site—especially in the face, eyes, tongue, or lips
- Dizziness
- Difficulty breathing or swallowing
- Chills and a fever over 100 degrees
- A bite or sting looks red and swollen pointing to an infection
- A rapid drop in blood pressure
- Any of these symptoms is cause of an immediate trip to the emergency room.
From the humid Southeast to the mountainous West, recognizing common bug bites empowers you to properly manage reactions and any associated health risks. A bit of insect knowledge provides peace of mind when encountering our buzzing, biting co-inhabitants.
