The Difference Between Insects Bites

Most insects will defend themselves if they feel at risk. This is quite amazing when you think about how small insects are compared with the mammalian interloper. Most insects will just attack if you wander into their territory.

There are also insects that have to drink blood and they actively seek their prey. This sort includes insects such as mosquitoes, bed bugs and fleas.

Ants make up the biggest section of biters. All ants will attempt to bite if they feel the need, but most black ants simply do not possess big enough mandibles (or jaws) to get a grip.

The big exception in all ant and ant-like species are the soldiers, which have colossal mandibles compared to the workers.

Red ants can bite with or without poison and some sting as well. Formic acid is their normal chemical weapon. Some ants inject it, which is what we feel when we are bitten by red ants, but other ants squirt it into the eyes of its attackers.

The most painful sting of any insect is delivered by the Bullet Ant of Central and South America. The Bullet Ant's sting has the top rating possible on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. The scale ranges from zero to four; zero being painless (to humans) through two for bees and wasps to four for excruciating pain.

The Fire Ant, which is famous for its painful bite ranks a 1.2 on this scale, but level 1.8 is compared to having a staple shot into your cheek. The European honey bee is on level two and the Red Harvester Ant is on level three.

Some bites and stings are not so high on the index but can still become fatal. The Jack Jumper Ant is in this group and people, particularly hypersensitives, have been known to die from Fire Ant stings, which inject piperidine alkaloids instead of formic acid.

The jaws of the Trap Jaw Ant are the fastest closing jaws in the animal world. They have been measured at 230 KPH (143 MPH). Another unusual ant defence is carried out by a Malaysian species: it ejects its stomach on to its aggressor.

The stomach acids contain acetophones which completely immobilize insects. Regrettably, the soldier dies because its stomach has been torn out.

Bees, ants and wasps are all related in the order called Hymenoptera. Bees and wasps only sting although some wasps do have large jaws too. One definition of a wasp is 'any insect of the order Hymenoptera that is neither a bee nor an ant' (Wikipedia).

Not all wasps are black and yellow. There are not a great deal of insects that do not have a type of wasp preying on it, which makes them very vital in the biocontrol of destructive insects. Far of wasps do not sting their prey to kill it for food, they sting it to paralyze it.

When paralyzed, the wasp lays her eggs in the prey, which becomes fresh food for her young after they hatch out. This is usually the only time when a wasp eats flesh in its entire life, because adult wasps feed on nectar and honey like bees.

When a bee stings it releases pheromones which encourage other bees close at hand to sting as well. The most belligerent stingers though are vespid wasps (common black and yellow wasps).

Fleas, ticks and bed bugs, unlike mosquitoes, really feed on blood, that is they use it for food, whereas the mosquito needs it as the 'white' of her eggs. There have been times in our history whilst losing a couple of drops of blood to a flea was not the worst thing about being bitten by them.

They also carried the Plague, which wiped out a large percentage of the population of Europe a number of times.

Spiders and scorpions make up the causes of most insect bites although they are comparatively rare.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is at this time involved with Insect Removal. If you want to know more, visit our website now at Pest Management at Home.