A large local reactioncauses swelling that extends beyond the sting site. For example, a person stung on the ankle may have swelling of the entire leg. While it often looks alarming, it's usually no more serious than a normal reaction. Large local reactions peak at about 48 hours and then...
Some of these allergies are so severe that people can die from a single sting without immediate medical treatment. Because of this danger, insect stings kill more people every year in the U.S. than poisonous snake bites. Honeybees and bumble bees can sting, but they are incredibly valuable ...
Allergens may be inhaled, ingested (eaten or swallowed), applied to the skin, or injected into the body either as medication or inadvertently by an insect sting. The symptoms and conditions that result depend largely on the route of entry and the type of allergen. The chemical structure of ...
smooth body and legs with relatively few hairs. Wasps also generally are predatory or parasitic and have stingers with few barbs that can be removed easily from their victims. Similar to other members of Apocrita, wasps have a narrow petiole, or “waist,” which attaches the abdomen to thetho...
alone. In the interest of time, let’s focus on these 3 common types of bees. Bumble Bees A bumble bee has a rounded yellow and black body covered with fine hair. Queens are about three-quarters of an inch in length, but workers are about half that size. While females can sting ...
Zika virus(suspected of causing microcephaly); dengue; and yellow feverto humans and other animals. Other types of insects or bugs that bite for a blood meal and diseases that are possibly transmitted are as follows: Licebites can transmit epidemic relapsingfever, caused by spirochetes (bacteria...
When bees or wasps sting an individual, they inject venom under the skin of their victim. Honey bees, including killer bees, have barbed stingers that tear off when they try to fly away after stinging, so these bees die after the sting and thus can sting only one time. In this case, ...
Thread-waisted wasp, (subfamily Sphecinae), any of a group of large, common, solitary (nonsocial) wasps in the family Sphecidae (order Hymenoptera) that are named for the stalklike anterior (front) end of the abdomen. Thread-waisted wasps are typically m
Biting midges (biting gnats) are small, gray, two-winged insects that are less than one-eighth of an inch long. You'll often feel the bite, which hurts, without ever seeing the culprit (hence their "no-see-ums" nickname).3 These pesky insects are a nuisance, particularly in hot and ...
Another animal that is dangerous to people is the bluebottle jellyfish, or Indo-Pacific Man o’ War. This is not actually ajellyfishor a single animal but a siphonophore — a colony of tiny, specialized polyps working together. They have long tentacles whose sting (even after they are was...