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Wasps, Bees and Hornets.
Millions of people are stung each year by bees, wasps, hornets and yellow jackets. These
insects, are all members of the HYMENOPTERA family. They inject their venom into the victim. Most people react with localized swelling, redness, and itching, and these symptoms will usually disappear in a few
days. Such reactions are local reactions. Appling ice to the site immediately, will help reduce these symptoms.
A severe allergic reaction can cause redness, itchiness, hives, swelling of the lips and eyelids, difficulty in breathing, wheezing, a drop in blood pressure, shock, and unconsciousness. Symptoms may also include nausea, dizziness, stomach cramps, and
diarrhea. This type of reaction is very serious and is known as anaphylactic shock, It can be fatal if medical attention is not obtained immediately!
PREVENTION
Anyone who has ever experienced a severe reaction to insect stings must exercise caution at all times when outdoors:
- never walk barefoot outdoors – wear shoes with a closed toe.
- avoid loose hanging clothes that can trap insects between the your body and clothing.
- avoid wearing floral patterns and blue or yellow clothing.
- Do not use perfumes, hairsprays, or scents of any kind which could attract these insects.
- Do not eat outdoors as this will attract insects and do not ingest sugared soft drinks when outdoors.
- If you are gardening – watch for nests in vines, trees, wood piles, shrubs, or in the ground, they could be
anywhere. They love fertilizer so be sure to keep it in a sealed container.
- never participate in outdoor activities alone…hiking, swimming, boating, fishing golfing an allergic person may
need immediate help.
- insects are attracted to garbage, so keep all areas clean and covered.
- I have found if you take some plain brown paper lunch bags, fill the bags with air tie them off with a string and hang them outside in places that the stinging insect are
attracted to. they think it is a nest so they stay clear of that area.
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TREATMENT
EPINEPHRINE in the form of EpiPen or Anakit. With the permission of your Doctor, This
could be administered as emergency treatment, to the allergic person with systemic symptoms, then the patient should be taken to the nearest hospital. In some cases, a second dose may be required. It is always best to discuss emergency treatment with your allergist before anything happens, so you are prepared for a serious reaction and know how to function in an emergency.
Only the honeybee leaves its stinger in the skin, and it is necessary to remove this immediately. The sooner the stinger and sac of venom are removed, the smaller the amount of venom received by the victim. A scrape of the fingernail removes the stinger and the sac. Avoid squeezing the sac, since this only forces more venom through the stinger and into the skin.
Hornets, wasps and yellow jackets do not leave a stinger, and they should be brushed from the skin promptly.
Patients who are severely allergic to hymenoptera venom can take immunotherapy treatment, consisting of weekly or bi-weekly injections of specific venoms. It is important to have an allergist do a complete medical history, examination, and appropriate tests to determine your sensitivity. After the initial few months of therapy, a patient can be switched to maintenance injections, which are every four to six weeks.
After about five years of venom treatment it has been noted that 95% of patients are protected against specific venom and if a skin test is negative, treatment may be stopped. Nevertheless, it is still recommended that these patients carry with them an emergency sting kit.
Patients with an insect allergy should wear a MEDIC ALERT bracelet and carry emergency epinephrine at all times.
Be sure you have been shown how to correctly administer epinephrine by a trained professional before you may have to use it. It may not be possible to read instructions when you are undergoing a reaction.
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are believed to have evolved around 170 million years ago during the Jurassic era (206–135 million years ago) with the earliest known fossils from the Cretaceous era (144–65 million years ago). They evolved in the land mass that is now South America, spreading initially to the northern continent Laurasia and re-entering the tropics from the north. Ancestral mosquitoes were about three times the size of the extant species and they are a sister group to the Chaoboridae (biting midges).
The female mosquito (in almost all species) sucks the blood of mammals, including humans. Mosquito bites often swell up hours after happening, causing a red ringed white bump about a centimeter in diameter. This bump can itch for days and over-scratching the bite can cause it to bleed. Continued over-scratching can cause scars. Mosquito bites can transmit diseases, such as malaria and West Nile Virus, so authorities in many areas take measures to reduce mosquito populations through pesticides or more organic means. An easy way to reduce mosquito populations in a residential area is the removal of standing water (where mosquitoes breed), and the use of repellents, such as Deet. Most species are nocturnal, and hide in the shade during the
day. So bug repellents are more needed in these causes.
Natural history
The females require protein for egg development, and since the normal mosquito diet consists of nectar and fruit juice, which has no protein, most must drink blood. Males differ from females, with mouth parts not suitable for blood sucking.
A mosquito larva The females of blood sucking species locate their victims primarily through scent. They are extremely sensitive to the carbon dioxide in exhaled breath, as well as several substances found in sweat. Some people seem to attract mosquitoes more than others. Empirical studies of mosquito bites suggest that the risk of being bitten follows an approximately negative binomial distribution. Being male, being overweight, and having type 'O' blood may increase the risk of being bitten. Mosquitoes can detect heat, so they can find warm-blooded mammals and birds very easily once they get close enough. Mosquito's see your body as a glowing light, the warmer you are the brighter you appear to them, which makes you an easy target.
Treatment of mosquito bites
There are many treatments of mosquito bites, ranging from pure folklore to cures with a scientific basis. The effectiveness of any treatment is difficult to gauge, because of the personal subjective nature of "itchiness"; it can be enough for the person to believe in the treatment (the placebo effect) for the treatment to be effective. The most natural treatment, scratching the itch, can cause skin damage and increase the itching sensation, so treatment is often desirable for children and others without the self-control to not
scratch. Easier said than done right, well there are a few products on the market to reduce the
itchiness.
There are several commercially available remedies. A common treatment is direct application of calamine lotion, which may have a soothing effect, although its effectiveness is not medically proven. Other insect bite relief sticks such as After Bite are commercially available. Oral or topically applied antihistamines, and diphenhydramine in particular, seem to be particularly good at relieving the itch. Topical corticosteroids such as hydrocortisone and triamcinolone can help with more severe or inopportunely placed bites. Some of these products must be obtained by a doctors prescription.
It is often said that there will be no bitemarks or itching if the mosquito is allowed to suck the blood and leave. Visible, irritating bites are due to an immune reaction, i.e., hypersensitivity. This hypersensitivity is a reaction of IgG and IgE antibodies to antigens in the mosquito's saliva. Some of the sensitizing antigens are common to all mosquito species, whereas others are specific to certain species. There are both immediate
hypersensitivity reactions (Types I & III) and delayed hypersensitivity reactions (Type IV) to mosquito bites.
Another treatment is the direct application of a cloth soaked in very hot water - steaming, but not boiling. The purpose is to trigger the release of all the histamine in the area at once, thus removing the source of the itching sensation until more histamine can be reproduced, about 8 to 10 hours.
Among Australian school children, a popular home remedy for mosquito bites involves using a ballpoint pen to draw four arrows on the skin, at right angles to one another and each pointing at the mosquito bite. The indentations in the skin made by the pen seem to relieve itching, perhaps combined with a placebo effect. A similar remedy is to "hot cross bun" the visible site, by pressing in with your fingernail in an X shape.
Another home remedy (of unknown origin, although it appears to be used in North America as well as Europe) involves applying a small amount of human saliva to the affected area. The saliva will dry, thereby cooling the area and providing some relief. As before, however, the placebo effect likely plays a role as well.
Commercial insect repellents
A mosquito biting a human. An insect repellent is a substance applied to skin, clothing, or other surfaces which discourage insects (and arthropods in general) from landing or climbing on that surface. There are also insect repellent products based on sound production, particularly ultrasound (inaudibly high frequency sounds) or the sounds of natural enemies of various insects.
Common insect repellents include:
citronella
DEET
Oil of lemon eucalyptus
Avon skin-so-soft bath oil, regular scented.
Picaridin or icaridin (a piperidine derivative)
Some insect repellents, particularly permethrin, are insecticides. Other insect repellents work instead by masking human scent, or by using a scent which insects naturally avoid.
Insect repellents help prevent and control the outbreak of insect-borne diseases such as malaria, Lyme disease, bubonic plague, and West Nile fever. Insects commonly serving as vectors for disease include fleas, flies, mosquitos, and
ticks.
Spider bites
Most spiders are unlikely to bite humans because they do not identify humans as prey. Spiders, even small ones, may however bite humans when pinched. For instance, a common jumping spider, around 3/8 inch (1 cm) long, when pinched between the folds of a human's palm may inflict a bite that is about as painful as a bee sting.
Spiders in the world which have been linked to fatalities in humans, or have been shown to have potentially fatal bites by toxicology studies of their venom, include:
-The Brazilian wandering spider
-The Australasian funnel-web spider
-The Six-eyed sand spider, and possibly other spiders of genus Sicarius -
The widow spider - The recluse spiders
Spiders which likely are not deadly to humans, but which are nonetheless medically significant
include:
-The hobo spider (this is doubtful, however)
-The yellow sac spider
-Certain species of tarantulas
-The false black widows
Spiders which can inflict painful bites (often similar to a bee sting), but whose bites generally do not cause any systemic or long-lasting effects, include:
-The huntsman spider
-The redback jumping spider (not to be confused with the very dangerous redback spider, the latter being one of the widow spiders).
None of these spiders will intentionally "come after you," but they should be removed from one's house to avoid accidental injury. In any case if you have any concerns about a spider bite that you have just
received, you should go immediately to your doctor, or if there are any signs of a reaction go to the nearest emergency ward. Many authorities warn against spraying poisons indiscriminately to kill all spiders, because doing so may actually remove one of the biological controls against incursions of the more dangerous species by ridding them of their competition.
If dangerous spiders are present in your area, be mindful when moving cardboard boxes and other such objects that may have become the shelter of a poisonous spider. There is no need to be fearful; just do not grab a spider.
Spider bites can be a real problem, some people have a very serious reaction the spiders that are commonly know to be harmless. it is
recommended that if you have any concerns of being bitten by any type of spider, that you wear gloves when you are working outside, or any where else that you could come across a spider. they don't like to be surprised. If you do get
bitten and start to swell or fell unwell, seek medical attention.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Spider bites)
Some of this information was obtained, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Disclaimer: In no way is this information meant to replace the advice and care from your
doctor, or any other medical professional. Patients should inform their doctor/allergist/dermatologist if
they are pursuing one of these treatment routes. |
