Biting Insects Head louse
Head lice are small biting insects that live on your head, one single insect is called a head louse. They are no bigger than a pinhead in size and they move from person to person through contact. Lice are sometimes called nits though this actually refers to the shells of the eggs. Head lice can’t tell the difference between clean or dirty hair. They just want to survive and to do that they need to spread!
Click to find out more about Top Ten Biting Insects – Head louse
Biting Insects Bed Bug
Bedbugs take the opportunity to feed on both people and animals when we are at our most vulnerable, namely when we are asleep. They are small reddy brown flat insects being 1 mm to 7 mm and can be very persistent. This is because they can go without feeding for several months!! Bed bugs are experts at hiding and don’t always live in the bed often travelling good few metres from their hiding place before inflicting a bite. They don’t spread disease that is worth keeping an eye out for them, checking luggage your luggage if you have been away as they can hide in the seams of bags.
Click to find out more about Top Ten Biting Insects – Bed Bug
Biting Insects Mosquito
Unless you live in Africa where a mosquito bite can lead to malaria, these tiny little buzzing insects are no more than a nuisance. The problem with mosquito bites is given that they are so tiny they cause a massive amount of itching!! One solution to the itching is to press a hot spoon against the bite. The proteins that the mosquito injects into your skin get destroyed by the heat in the spoon so plunging a spoon into hot water and pressing it on the bites may give you some relief.
Click to find out more about Top Ten Biting Insects – Mosquito
Biting Insects Biting Midge
Click to find out more about Top Ten Biting Insects – Biting Midge
Biting Insects Warble fly
The warble fly is a particularly nasty fly with a life cycle that usually completes in cattle and deer. It can also bite humans. The eggs are laid on the legs of cattle then get licked of by the animal . The eggs hatch and the larval form migrates to the skin where it forms an inflamed ‘warble’ the fly hatches from this warble. Not common in the UK but not eradicated either !
Click to find out more about Top Ten Biting Insects – Warble Fly
Biting Insects Tick
Ticks are small arachnids, they tend to do particularly well in wet and humid climates. They can spread disease amongst other animals. They have eight legs and tend to live in long grass. They attach themselves to animals and people as they walk through this grass, they can carry a disease called lime disease. Toavoid this it’s best to wear long sleeve shirts and trousers to prevent the ticks getting to your skin. If you have to remove a tick that has bitten you, and they don’t bite straightaway use a pair of tweezers and grip the tick as close to the skin as possible and pull slowly and firmly upwards. Care should be taken not to leave the mouthparts in the skin or squash the animal as that can spread infection
Click to find out more about Top Ten Biting Insects – Tick
Biting Insects Flea
Click to find out more about Top Ten Biting Insects – Flea
Biting Insects Horse fly
Horse flies are about 3 cm up to 6 cm in size.
It is only the female horse fly that bites the male is a really useful fly as it pollinates lots of crops feeding on plants.
They have serrated mouthparts which rip open an area of flesh and skin. Unfortunately they also carrying a lots of bacteria so the wound will definitely need to be cleaned and is the reason why bites become so red and inflamed. Horsefly bites are incredibly painful they should be cleaned carefully, check for redness that seems to spread, if this is the case see a doctor! There are several cases of these bites leading to blood poisoning, so look for any spreading inflammation.
Click to find out more about Top Ten Biting Insects – Horse Fly
Biting Insects Flower bug
Click to find out more about Top Ten Biting Insects – Flower Bug
Biting Insects Blandford Fly
The Blandford fly is found in the UK and is a small black fly that is extremely painful.
Click to find out more about Top Ten Biting Insects – Blandford Fly
Click to find out more about Top Ten Biting Insects – Blandford Fly Bite
Biting Insects Ants
Great photo this, you can almost feel the pain! Red ants seem to be the worst. Ants can be very aggressive and their bite is associated with formic acid which explains why they itch so much!
Click to find out more about Top Ten Biting Insects – Ants
