Insect bites and stings

Insect bites and stings can cause an immediate skin reaction. The bite from fire ants and the sting from bees, wasps, and hornets are usually painful. Bites caused by mosquitoes, fleas, and mites are more likely to cause itching than pain.

Identifying Bites?

The type of wound or skin rash you develop following an insect sting can be used to identify the insect concerned. Also, while it may be difficult, careful observation of what the insect does immediately after stinging you can also help to identify it. If you have been stung by an insect and you feel that its identification may be useful for the physician who attends to the wound, you should take the following steps

1 - Observe the site of the sting at regular intervals following the incident in order to see what develops on the surrounding skin.

2 - Look for hives developing more or less immediately and a pustules developing as much as a day later to identify the insect sting as that of a fire ant.

3 - Look for slow-healing skin ulcerations that result in scarring. This will indicate that it is probably a bite from a spider.

4 - Frequently, the first evidence of the presence of bed bugs is the sudden appearance of very itchy bites on your torso. Bed bug bites are normally two or three in a row and often blood spots are deposited on the sheeting.

How are fleas treated?

More about bedbugs.

Flea bite close up

Flea bites on leg

Bedbug Bites