Welcome to the Positive Pulse blog! Check in with us each month for tips on healthy living, right on our website. A short snippet will be featured in the NJSAP monthly newsletter as well, which you can sign up for here.
This months topic is bug bites and stings! We’ll talk a little bit about what bugs are out there, identifying bites and stings, and how to treat them.
Fire ants are a type of ant that can bite or sting. They were accidentally imported from South America to Alabama in the 1930s. The ants live in large numbers in colonies or nests in the ground.They are copper brown in color with a darker abdomen and are only about 2 – 6 mm in size. Fire ants are aggressive. They swarm when disturbed and have a painful sting. Fire ant bites typically occur when someone accidentally steps on an area of the ground where the insects live. Stings often occur on the exposed skin of your feet, ankles and legs. Fire ants can also attack animals, including pets.
Fire ant sting:
Within about an hour, itchy bumps or welts will develop. The bumps are usually in a circular or semicircular pattern and typically last for several hours. After several hours, blisters will develop where the bumps were located. They’re usually very itchy.
About a day or so later, the blisters fill with a yellow or white pus-like fluid. They go away within seven to 10 days.
Treatment:
Brush the ants off of your skin and washing the affected skin with soap and cold water.
Taking an oral antihistamine (an allergy medication, such as Benadryl®) may help the itchiness. Applying hydrocortisone cream on the affected skin two times a day should help reduce itchiness and the rash. Using cold compresses (ice packs) as needed can help reduce pain and swelling.
Mosquitos are flying insects that bite. All mosquito species have one pair of scaled wings with a pair of hind wings. Mosquitoes have slender bodies with long legs. While their size varies by species, most mosquitoes are smaller than 15 mm in length and weigh less than 2.5 mg. When a mosquito bites you, it pierces the skin using a special mouthpart (proboscis) to suck up blood. As the mosquito is feeding, it injects saliva into your skin.
Mosquito bites:
Your body reacts to the saliva resulting in a bump and itching. Some people have only a mild reaction to a bite or bites. Other people react more strongly, and a large area of swelling, soreness, and redness can occur. More severe reactions can include a large area of swelling and redness, low-grade fever, hives, and swollen lymph nodes.
Treatment:
Wash the bite and surrounding area with soap and water. Apply an ice pack for 10 minutes to reduce swelling and itching. Reapply ice pack as needed. Apply a mixture of baking soda and water, which can help reduce the itch response or use an over-the-counter anti-itch or antihistamine cream to help relieve itching.
There are multiple tick species that bite humans and animals and can spread bacteria, parasites, or viruses that cause diseases. Many of these tick species look similar to the naked eye. Additionally, ticks go through three life stages (larva, nymph, and adult), and they look slightly different at each stage. Ticks are also very small. Adult ticks are about the size of an apple seed, nymphs are about the size of a poppy seed, and larva are the size of a grain of sand. Finally, when ticks feed, they swell with blood, which can also make them difficult to recognize.
Tick bites:
Many people won’t experience any symptoms from a tick bite, but tick bites can cause:
small hard bumps or sores, redness or swelling, allergic reactions that can range from mild (local swelling and inflammation at the site of the bite) to severe (anaphylaxis), and flu-like symptoms, joint pain or a rash, which can also be symptoms of a tick-borne illness.
Treatment:
The longer a tick is on your skin, the more likely you are to experience symptoms or contract a tick illness. If you find a tick embedded on yourself or a family member, remove it as soon as possible using tweezers to grasp the tick against the skin surface.
Call your doctor or clinician after you remove the tick if you think it was embedded for more than 24 hours. They may want to prescribe a single dose of an antibiotic to help prevent infection. Keep the tick in a small plastic bag in case you need to show it to your doctor. To relieve itching, redness, swelling and pain you can take an oatmeal bath, put ice or a cold pack on the bite for 15-20 minutes once an hour until the swelling and pain subside or try over-the-counter medicines.
Resources:
https://www.healthline.com/health/bug-bites
https://www.cdc.gov/mosquitoes/about/about-mosquito-bites.html
https://www.healthpartners.com/blog/tick-bites/
