BITES OR STINGS OF INSECTS, TICKS, CHIGGERS, AND SPIDERS
The bites or stings of insects, spiders, chiggers, and ticks can be painful. Some can cause infection.
First aid for bites and stings
Bee and Wasp Stings
Scrape away a bee or wasp stinger with the edge of a knife blade. Don’t try to squeeze it out. That will force more venom into the skin from the sac attached to the stinger. An ice pack might reduce pain and swelling.
Tick Bites
Ticks are small, hard-shelled arachnids that bury their heads in the skin of warm-blooded vertebrates. Protect yourself whenever you are in tick-infested woodlands and fields by wearing long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Button your collar and tuck the cuffs of your pants into your boots or socks. Inspect yourself daily, especially the hairy parts of your body, and immediately remove any ticks you find. If a tick has attached itself, grasp it with tweezers close to the skin and gently pull until it comes loose. Don’t squeeze, twist, or jerk the tick, as that could leave its mouth parts in the skin. Wash the wound with soap and water and apply antiseptic. After dealing with a tick, thoroughly wash your hands. Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that is transmitted form one animal (host) to another through the bite of an infective tick. You could be exposed to an infective tick just about anywhere in the outdoors. The deer tick is a major carrier of Lyme disease; it is hard to detect because of its size – an immature tick can fit through the eye of a needle.