The Times, Gainesville, Georgia |
Tick
rience facial swelling, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps, dizziness or trouble breathing they should call 911 Continued from page 4 immediately. “Stinging insects such as bees, at The Longstreet Clinic, wrote in wasps and fire ants do not carry an email to The Times. disease but they can inject a The best way to remove a tick is to grip the tick as close to the venom that can irritate the skin. skin as possible with tweezers If a person is allergic to the insect and slowly pull the tick straight venom, this can cause a deadly out. Be sure to wash and disinfect reaction,” Manzoor said. the bite area. Hinkle ranks the mosquito just behind the tick in terms of dan- Don’t blame a spider ger because of the potentially leOf all the creepy crawly things peothal viruses it can transmit. ple are afraid of, spiders rank high on However, the Georgia Departthe list. ment of Public Health points out But according to University of Georthat most mosquitoes are not car- gia Entomology Professor Nancy Hinrying diseases. kle, there’s little reason to be afraid of A typical reaction to a mosquito them. Spiders don’t bite people unless bite, Manzoor said, is local pain, they are being crushed and bite in desshe said. redness and itching around the peration, Most of the spiders in Georgia are bite. perfectly harmless and in fact do a lot “There can be more severe of good by keeping insect populations reaction also that patients can in check. But there are some spiders experience. This involves gen- that can cause painful reactions, like eralized body itching, wheezing, the black widow. “In addition to black widow spivomiting, dizziness and loss of ders, here in Georgia we now have consciousness,” Manzoor said. the brown widow spider, which has Other, less sneaky, insects like moved into the state in just the last wasps and bees, have compo- couple of decades. While you want to nents in their venom designed to avoid being bitten by these spiders, risk in minimal,” Hinkle said. cause pain in vertebrates. This theShe said neither of those spiders mechanism evolved as a way to produces a deadly bite, and a recent protect their nests from preda- study shows that bites from the brown tors — how bees keep bears out widow are even less of a problem than that of the black widow. of their honey. People tend to worry about being “Of course, no one wants to get bitten by a brown recluse spider, but stung by these, but, save for indi- Hinkle said there are so few of these viduals who are allergic to their spiders in Georgia that there isn’t a stings, these insects are more need to even address them. In Georgia, ticks and mosquitoes of an annoyance than a health are more likely to cause problems threat,” Hinkle said. a bite. Manzoor said a person can re- with The Georgia Department of Public duce their chances of being stung Health suggests using an insect repelby a wasp or bee by staying calm lent to keep biting bugs away and stayand slowly stepping away from ing indoors at dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are more active. Keeping the insect. If a person is stung by one of the skin covered can also minimize the chances of being bitten. these insects and starts to expe-
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Sunday, July 29, 2012
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