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Bugs to watch out for

2K views 11 replies 11 participants last post by  kvesi122 
#1 ·
#3 ·
Yup....good info!

Biggest threat around my area is ticks, scorpions, and rattlers.

I always blouse my pants and use plenty of deet for the insects. Snake gators for everything else.

I also carry one of these wallet cards, "Ticks in California", from the California Department of Health, to aid in identification.

http://www.cdph.ca.gov/HealthInfo/discond/Documents/tickcard2007eng.pdf
 
#5 ·
black widow bite. first hand experience.

I was bitten about 2 years ago. I didn't feel it at the time. I was splitting firewood at the camp. The spider bite was on the upper arm where we older folks had been vaccinated for smallpox. I noticed a rash and irritation. I thought a bug had bitten me. About an hour and half later I started to have muscle contractions in my chest and could not breath when they contracted. By a half hour later I had to be helped from the truck to the E R. door. I could not walk and was having all major muscle groups contracting. Think of a charlie horse, except all the muscle groups in my back, chest, and legs were doing this. I have had multiple broken broken bones at one time, but the pain from this was 10 times worst. Morphine was the only thing that took the edge off of the pain. I was hoping that I would pass out. I never did!
The ER doctor didn't believe me when I told him I thought I had been bitten by a black widow. I was diagnosed as being dehydrated and put on a saline drip. I spent 22 hours in agony until my family DR. diagnosed the problem and started treatment. I could not sleep for several days because of severe sweating. I was laying on large towels on bed and having to change them every few hours. The sweating continued for 8 days and the muscle cramps slowly stopped after several days!

The reason I went into this much detail is to instill a little fear into what a black widow can do and to give you a heads up in helping your DR. diagnose the problem. My doctor came into the room and told me he had been practising medicine for over 40 years and I was the first case he could say for sure was a black widow bite. GI3

PS. There is an anti-venom available if it is correctly diagnosed!
 
#9 ·
I was bitten about 2 years ago. I didn't feel it at the time. I was splitting firewood at the camp. The spider bite was on the upper arm where we older folks had been vaccinated for smallpox. I noticed a rash and irritation. I thought a bug had bitten me. About an hour and half later I started to have muscle contractions in my chest and could not breath when they contracted. By a half hour later I had to be helped from the truck to the E R. door. I could not walk and was having all major muscle groups contracting. Think of a charlie horse, except all the muscle groups in my back, chest, and legs were doing this. I have had multiple broken broken bones at one time, but the pain from this was 10 times worst. Morphine was the only thing that took the edge off of the pain. I was hoping that I would pass out. I never did!
The ER doctor didn't believe me when I told him I thought I had been bitten by a black widow. I was diagnosed as being dehydrated and put on a saline drip. I spent 22 hours in agony until my family DR. diagnosed the problem and started treatment. I could not sleep for several days because of severe sweating. I was laying on large towels on bed and having to change them every few hours. The sweating continued for 8 days and the muscle cramps slowly stopped after several days!

The reason I went into this much detail is to instill a little fear into what a black widow can do and to give you a heads up in helping your DR. diagnose the problem. My doctor came into the room and told me he had been practising medicine for over 40 years and I was the first case he could say for sure was a black widow bite. GI3

PS. There is an anti-venom available if it is correctly diagnosed!
Cat,

If you don't mind my asking, how old are you? I physically pulled the black widow off of my arm and threw it on the ground. It bit me on the inside of my wrist. My arm felt hot and achy, you could see the veins in my arm turning red as it travelled up my arm. As the venom got up into my I started having serious stomach cramps and a fever. I had spasms but nowhere near as bad as you are speaking of. I was also only 23 at the time and very physically fit. I received no anti venin, only clindamycin.
 
#7 ·
When I field dress a deer the ticks drop from the cold body to the concrete floor of my garage and are crawling directly into my direction. Must have some kind of infrared sensor.
Grass mites drove me crazy when I left my shoes outside of the camper. Next morning my shoes had new inhabitants and I had a week of scratching my ankles.
Wolf
 
#8 ·
I've removed four ticks this year alone; so far none have had deleterious effects. A couple of years ago I got the bullseye rash and had to take Doxycycline for a couple of weeks, and when I was a kid I had tick fever which darn near killed me. Needless to say, I hate the little beggars. I use DEET and Permanone on my skin and clothing, but they still manage to find a way. Heck, I've had them drop out of oak trees onto my shirt.

I guess if you work or play outdoors, ticks, chiggers, spiders, yellow jackets etc are part of the territory. Wait until you're out bush hogging and run over a yellow jacket nest. Talk about a rodeo.

Besides ticks, my personal nemesis in the summertime is poison ivy. I have to cut 7 acres of grass once a week during high summer, and poison ivy grows everywhere. One thing that I noticed that helps immensely is spraying with a sunblock on all exposed skin, and after working, washing with Fels Naptha soap.

The sunblock seems to keep the urushiol in the ivy from adhering, and the Fels washes it all away. Since I started using both of these, my incidence of poison ivy outbreaks has declined markedly, which is a good thing since the only way to fight it on me is Prednisone, which I do not recommend.
 
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