Posted by Owen Jones
The problem with all-purpose insect repellent is that no one insect repellent will repel all insects. There are so many different type of insects that nothing will stop them all. Some insects in some areas for example have been particularly focused, like bed bugs in New York, and so they have developed a tolerance to repellents that does not exist elsewhere.
This is not such a problem if you know the area where you are staying, because you will know the most prevalent insect pests in your area, but what about if you go on holiday? You may take a box of your favourite mosquito ointment to Acapulco on your dream vacation only to find that there are no mosquitoes there but that the sand flies are murderous.
Mosquitoes are not really difficult in Scotland, but midges are in the summer and mosquito repellent does not have an effect on midges (or sand flies) even though they get up to the same sort of monkey business. The key is local information. Before you go anywhere attempt to do some research on local nuisance insects.
In fact, unless you know that your favourite mosquito repellent works where you are going, there is not a lot of point taking it with you, since the locals will already have the best repellents for their own specific local problem insects. The only potential exception is a balm with a high percentage of DEET.
It may be illegal where you are going to sell a cream containing more than 25% DEET, but you feel safer with 50%. I know that I would feel safer with 50% DEET, if I were going to Gambia, where the world's most deadly mosquitoes lives.
Another insecticide that kills pretty much all insects (except bed bugs) is permethrin, but you may not be able to get it where you are going. The difference between DEET and permethrin is that DEET deters mosquitoes by baffling their senses - basically, you slip under their RADAR - but permethrin kills insects.
This confusion works for plenty of insects that perceive their prey by carbon dioxide emissions like ticks and possibly bed bugs. Permethrin is not so effectual against bed bugs because they have a waxy coat which does not allow the chemical to actually reach their skin, where it would kill them.
This waxy coat can be removed, but you will not have time if on vacation to do it. The overall best answer to most, but not all insect pests is putting DEET at about 25-35% on your skin, which will give you five to eight hours protection and spaying permethrin on your clothes. Permethrin can last up to six months and can survive several washes.
If you are sitting outdoors it is a good tactic to hang up a bug zapper - the kind that has an ultraviolet lamp inside a highly charged electric grill. A handheld racquet style bug zapper is also good for clearing a tent or bedroom of a few mosquitoes or flies before retiring.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on several topics, but is currently involved with finding a home remededy for mosquito bites. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Getting Rid of Mosquito Bites.
Tags: animals, biology, diseases, environment, Gardening, health, insects, mosquitoes, other, Outdoors, recreation, science, travel, uncategorized
Posted by Owen Jones
We all get bitten by insects from time to time - we are simply too plentiful a source of food for insects to overlook. However, some individuals react quite badly to an insect bite, while others do not seem be all that much troubled by them. The most widespread insect bites are from mosquitoes, ants, fleas and gnats or midges and now bed bugs are coming back too..
If you are not overly allergic to these bites there is no need to do anything about the bite itself although you might want to eradicate an plague of ants, fleas and bed bugs. Mosquito and other insect bites normally produce an itchy, red swelling, which should go down within one to three days, although some individuals do have them for much longer.
We say that insects bite, but it is not always true. It is slapdash speech. Some insects bite (like ants), some insects sting (like wasps) and other insects suck blood (like mosquitoes, fleas and bed bugs). Most people are more likely to display a reaction to blood sucking although the stings are the most agonizing.
Blood-sucking insects squirt some spittle into you through a pore before sucking blood. This spittle contains an anticoagulant to make the blood flow more liberally and it might contain an antiseptic and an analgesic too to ease the pain of a possible infection or reaction to the bite. It is this saliva that causes the swelling and itching in most instances.
This is like an allergic reaction, but doctors do not consider it to be an allergy. Some individuals really are allergic to the bites of blood-sucking or stinging insects and they might need to be hospitalized. They suffer much more than an itchy swelling for a day or two. You will soon know if you are allergic. You may even pass out or go into a coma.
Anyway, the main concern for most of us after being 'bitten' is to alleviate the itching and reduce the swelling. It appears that some items work better on some individuals than on others, so it is a question of testing different things until you find one that suits you and the type of bite that is afflicting you.
Tiger Balm works on most insect bites for most people, but some individuals just have to rub a slice of lemon or an ice cube on the bite to make the bite more tolerable. If you are going to treat mosquito and other insect bites, you ought to do it as soon as you can after having been bitten. Strive to get that spittle out so that it does not have time to trigger your bodies natural defences.
Some lotions seem to neutralize the saliva whilst others seem to pucker the skin enough to squirt it back out. If the saliva is back outside it cannot induce an infection although most infections like this are the result of scratching with unclean finger nails
Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several topics, but is currently involved with finding a home remededy for mosquito bites. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Getting Rid of Mosquito Bites.
Tags: animals, biology, diseases, environment, Gardening, health, insects, mosquitoes, other, Outdoors, recreation, science, travel, uncategorized
Posted by Owen Jones
The majority of insects will defend themselves if they feel threatened. This is fairly amazing when you think about how small insects are compared with the mammalian interloper. Most insects will only atttack if you wander into their territory. There are also insects that have to drink blood and they actively seek their prey. This type includes insects such as mosquitoes and fleas.
Ants form the biggest section of biters. All ants will try to bite if they feel the need, but most black ants simply do not possess big enough mandibles (or jaws) to get a grasp. The big exception in all ant and ant-like species are the soldiers, which have colossal mandibles compared to the workers.
Red ants can bite with or without poison and some sting as well. Formic acid is their normal chemical weapon. Some ants inject it, which is what we feel if we are bitten by red ants, but other ants spray it into the eyes of its aggressors.
The most painful sting of any insect is delivered by the Bullet Ant of Central and South America. The Bullet Ant's sting has the top rating possible on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. The scale goes from zero to four; zero being painless (to humans) through two for bees and wasps to four for excruciating pain.
The Fire Ant, which is famous for its painful bite ranks a 1.2 on this scale, but level 1.8 is likened to having a staple shot into your cheek. The European honey bee is on level two and the Red Harvester Ant is on level three.
Some bites and stings are not so high on the scale but can still be deadly. The Jack Jumper Ant is in this group and individuals, especially hypersensitives, have been known to die from Fire Ant stings, which inject piperidine alkaloids rather than formic acid.
The mandibles of the Trap Jaw Ant are the fastest closing jaws in the animal kingdom. They have been clocked at 230 KPH (143 MPH). Another curious ant defence is carried out by a Malaysian species: it ejects its stomach over its aggressor. The stomach acids contain acetophones which completely immobilize insects. Unfortunately, the soldier dies because its stomach has been torn out.
Bees, ants and wasps are all related in the order known as Hymenoptera. Bees and wasps just sting although some wasps do have large jaws as well. One definition of a wasp is 'any insect of the order Hymenoptera that is neither a bee nor an ant' (Wikipedia).
Not all wasps are black and yellow. There are not a lot of insects that do not have a sort of wasp preying on it, which makes them very important in the biocontrol of harmful insects. A lot of wasps do not sting their prey to kill it for food, they sting it to immobilize it.
When paralyzed, the wasp lays her eggs in the prey, which becomes fresh food for her young when they hatch out. This is usually the only time that a wasp eats meat in its whole life, because adult wasps eat nectar and honey like bees.
When a bee stings it releases pheromones which encourage other bees nearby to sting as well. The most aggressive stingers though are vespid wasps (common black and yellow wasps).
Fleas, ticks and bed bugs, unlike mosquitoes, really feed on blood, that is they use it for food, whereas the mosquito uses it as the 'white' of her eggs. There have been times in our history when losing a few drops of blood to a flea was not the worst thing about being bitten by them. They also carried the Plague, which wiped out a large percentage of the population of Europe a number of times.
Spiders and scorpions make up the causes of the majority of insect bites although they are comparatively rare.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on a number of subjects, but is currently involved with finding a home remededy for mosquito bites. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Getting Rid of Mosquito Bites.
Tags: animals, biology, diseases, environment, Gardening, health, insects, mosquitoes, other, Outdoors, recreation, science, travel, uncategorized
