| Your Health |
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Bug Bites
By Max
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If you have ever played outside you probably have come upon ants or bees. This didn’t bother you -unless you were bitten or stung. Bees, wasps, spiders, scorpions, and hornets attack when they feel they or
their home are in danger. Mosquitoes,
lice, fleas, and ticks bite When an insect bites you it injects venom into your skin. Usually venom isn’t comfortable but it doesn’t seriously hurt you. Stings from a scorpion, Black Widow spider, or Brown Recluse spider may cause a trip to the emergency department to be necessary. If anything bites or stings you tell an adult. They will look at the bite and decide what to do. If a mosquito bites you, try not to scratch the bite. It can cause the bite to swell, bleed, or become infected. If a wasp, yellow jacket, or hornet stings you, tell an adult; they For any type of bee sting, have an adult apply ice for the first 24 hours. For a honeybee sting, leave the stinger in and clean the area. The stinger will go away in two days. If you find a tick on you, tell an adult. They will pull it out in one smooth motion with a tweezers. The adult will put it in a jar of alcohol to kill it. Your doctor may want to see it later.
Some people have allergic reactions to insect bites or stings. If you break out in hives, have trouble breathing, or feel like you will throw up after a bee, wasp, hornet, or yellow jacket has stung you, you may be having an allergic reaction. Tell an adult right away so you can go to the emergency department. As the saying goes, “Prevention is better than the cure.” Stay away from bee or wasp nests. Don’t swat at insects. Black Widow
spiders can be found in any place in the western hemisphere.
This spider loves woodpiles, tree stumps, trash piles, If a Black Widow spider bites you, you may not know because it feels like a pinprick. After a half an hour to forty minutes the area of the bite will swell up and hurt a lot. If you think this spider has bitten you, tell an adult immediately. Bites from a Black Widow almost never kill, but you should go to a doctor right away because it could make you very sick. Get an adult to help you wash the bite well with soap and water, apply an ice pack to the bite, elevate the area, and keep it still. Have an adult try to safely catch the spider and bring it dead or alive. Make sure the spider is intact enough that the doctors can tell what it is. A doctor will give you medications to relax muscles and reduce To avoid getting bitten by a Black Widow spider try not to play on rock piles and woodpiles. If you are working outside near the places Black Widow spiders like wear gloves. Shake out shoes, blankets, and clothing that were stored in a mudroom, garage, or attics before wearing them. The Brown Recluse spider is a poisonous spider but is not vicious. It is also called the violin spider for the brown mark on its head. It will only bite if threatened, cornered, sat on, or accidentally touched. Brown recluse spiders are mostly found in the midwest or southern states. They like dark places like piles of rock, wood, or leaves. They also like dark closets, attics or basements. If
you are bitten by a Brown Recluse spider, you will only notice a slight
stinging pain. Four to eight
hours later it will hurt more. After a few days it might look like a bruise, or a blister
surrounded by a blue or purple that will turn black, brown and crusty. If you believe you have been bitten by a Brown Recluse spider, go Doctors
treat you with many medications like antibiotics, antihistamines,
steroids, and pain medicine. Sometimes
if the skin around the bite is really damaged, they may have to take skin
from somewhere else on the body and replace the damaged skin. To
avoid getting bitten by a Brown Recluse spider try not to play on rock
piles and woodpiles. If you
are working outside near
My Aunt Jane was a grocery checker while she was in college. One day while she was working she felt a sting on her calf and scratched it. A day later her leg hurt and was red and swollen. She went to the emergency room. That night she stayed at her house which was a mistake. The next morning when she went back to the doctor she found out it was a Brown Recluse spider bite. She could have died from it. A flea is a tiny brown bug that may hang out on your pets. They drink warm-blooded animals’ blood. You probably have seen a flea if you have pets. If a flea bites you, the bite will feel itchy. Usually flea bites happen in threes and fours. Flea bites look like tiny red bumps. If a flea has bitten you, do not scratch the bites; this could make To stop flea bites, you have to kill fleas before they get on your pets. Cats and dogs can use special flea killing shampoo, take medication once a year, or wear a flea collar. You can hire a professional exterminator to treat your yard with chemicals to keep the flea population down. Ask your parents to apply 10% DEET or less bug spray. Lice are a gray-white-brown parasite about the size of a pinhead. Lice is a plural for the word louse, which is the name of a single one of these parasites. They suck a microscopic amount of blood (like a vampire). They can live in people’s hair behind the ears and on the neck. Doctors
may give you a prescription for products like a shampoo that kills lice.
Don’t use hair dryers if you have medication because When
you get lice you will not feel anything.
The louse will lay tiny eggs called nits.
When they hatch the lice will bite the scalp and make tiny red and
very itchy bumps. If
your head gets extremely itchy tell an adult right away.
Lice are a common problem among kids.
It does not mean you are dirty if you have lice. Try
to avoid sharing hair things or touching the hair of people that have
lice. If you are at a
sleepover, you should bring your own pillow, sleeping bag, etc. Mosquitoes
can be found all over the world. The
female mosquito needs blood to lay her eggs.
When she sucks your blood she uses a special mouthpart.
Then she uses saliva to thin your blood so she can drink it.
The saliva is actually what makes the bite itch! A
bump called a wheal will form around the mosquito bite and will itch a
lot. The wheal will be a
pinkish color. The wheal will
disappear and a few days later the itch will too.
To
keep the mosquito population down you can eliminate stagnant water.
This keeps the mosquito population down because mosquitoes lay
their eggs in water. Female
mosquitoes can lay up to 300 eggs at a time.
Normally
someone will not have an allergic reaction to a mosquito bite but a doctor
can treat you if you do. If
you feel dizzy or sick tell an adult right away. To
avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes use insect repellant (10% DEET or
lower), or wear long sleeve shirt and long A tarantula is a hairy black, white, pink and gray spider.
This spider is about the length of a crayon, or 2–3 inches long.
Most people, even you, probably think tarantulas are dangerous
because they are large and weird looking.
This is not at all the case. The
tarantulas live in underground nests and avoid people whenever If
a tarantula bites you, the bite will feel and look a lot like a bee sting.
The tarantula has weak poison, so normally there are no severe
reactions in other areas of the body. If
you think a tarantula has bitten you tell an adult to wash the bite with
soap and water. Then mix meat
tenderizer with water and soak a cotton ball in this and apply to the
bite. If you don’t have
meat tenderizer, hold an ice cube to the bite.
Usually
there is no reaction to tarantula bites, but just like with bees some
people will have allergic reactions.
If this is the case, a doctor will give you medicine to stop the
reaction. If
you see a tarantula do not examine, touch, or play with it. Images Images of tarantula, louse, vile, mosquitoes, scorpion, Brown Recluse, Black widow, flea, and bee from "Microsoft Office Online" <http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx?cag=1> Images free for non-profit and personal use. (October-February, 2003-2004). Web Sites The Nemours Foundation. "KidsHealth for Kids" 1995-2004. <http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/> (January-February, 2004). |
you because they must suck blood to survive.
will
scrape away the stinger with a fingernail or credit card.
If you think a scorpion, Brown Recluse spider, or Black Widow spider has
bitten you, tell an adult right away.
storage
sheds, fruit and vegetable gardens, stonewalls, and undersides of rocks.
pain.
right to an adult.
them
infected.
the dryer
may set the medication on fire.
If
a mosquito bites you, wash the bite with soap and water.
pants.
possible.