Most of us, at one time or another, have

Most of us, at one time or another, have suffered the indignities of an insect bite.

Let’s look at some of these outdoors pests of the warm months.

If I had to pick my favorite pest, it would have to be the mosquito. Even in the fall after several hard frosts, on a halfway mild day, out come the mosquitoes.

With vampire-like feeding habits, the female mosquito finds her victim by body odor, good or bad. Even perfume and deodorant odors help her locate her dinner. Being nearly twice the size of the male mosquito, she is equipped with a hypodermic-like proboscis that injects a powerful anti-clotting fluid just under the skin.

The resulting flow of blood is a feast for the mosquito. Both the wound, though tiny, and the anticlotting fluids she injected cause the itch and discomfort. Many people are allergic to the bite, and most of us would prefer not to be bitten.

Ticks are notorious disease bearing hosts, and can transmit these diseases by their bite or by their stomach contents. When attached ticks are removed by force, it is possible to force their stomach contents into the bitten area.

These stomach contents are mostly the semi-clotted blood of this victim and perhaps one or more other victims. The blood of the other victims could contain any number of disease organisms including Rocky Mountain spotted fever, encephalitis, yellow fever, and even rabies.

The newest information is that ticks can cause paralysis just by biting, before starting to draw blood or transmitting any of the germs it carries. The biting beak of the tick is a toxic substance to the victim, and if a person is subject to toxic shock, paralysis or even death can occur.

The newest disease discovered that ticks can transmit is called Lyme disease. It is thought to be a new strain of virus that can cause high fever, muscle cramps, onset of arthritis, and partial, temporary paralysis. Several deaths occur each year from Lyme disease and several