Learn about the best essential oils to use. When mosquitos feed on your blood, your skin reacts with round, itchy red bumps. Learn how to stop the bites from itching. Flea bites and bedbug bites are both treated topically, but there are some differences.
Learn how to tell them apart. If you have swelling in just one eye or have found a spider in the area where you were bit, it's safe to assume a spider or similar bug is to blame. Most spider bites are harmless, and symptoms will go away after a few days.
Seek immediate medical care if you suspect the following. Learn how to safely and quickly remove a leech, as well as how to recognize a leech and when to seek immediate medical treatment. Termites feed off wood and live in dark environments. A noticeable bug bite is more likely to be from a different insect, but here's what you can look…. If you share a bed with your pets, you may find black specks called "flea dirt. Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect.
Bug Bites and Stings. Medically reviewed by Cameron White, M. Pictures of different bites and stings Types of insect bites Causes Risk factors Symptoms Diagnosis Treatment Outlook Prevention We include products we think are useful for our readers. Pictures of different bites and stings. Share on Pinterest.
Share on Pinterest Image by: Felisov. Types of biting and stinging insects. What causes reactions to bites and stings? Who is at risk for bites and stings? Symptoms of flea bites may begin within hours after you're bitten, and the bites tend to appear in groups of three or four. You may notice itching, hives, and swelling around an injury or sore, or a rash of small, red bumps that may or may not bleed. Flea bites are most common on your ankles and legs, but may also appear in your armpits, around your waist, and in the bends of your knees and elbows.
A flea-bite rash turns white when you press on it and tends to get larger or spread over time. Scratching the rash can lead to a skin infection, according to the NIH National Library of Medicine , and may need medical attention.
In extremely rare cases, fleas are infected with the bacteria that causes plague. The disease can spread from wild rodents to pets and people. Over the past 10 years, as few as 1 and as many as 17 cases of plague were reported in the United States, according to the CDC , most in the rural West.
Symptoms of plague include swollen lymph nodes, headache, fever, and chills that appear from one to six days after the bite. Beestings cause a sharp pain that may continue for a few minutes, then fade to a dull, aching feeling.
The area may still feel sore to the touch a few days later. A red skin bump with white around it may appear around the site of the sting, and the area may itch and feel hot to the touch. If you've been stung by a bee before, your body may also have an immune response to the venom in the sting, resulting in swelling where the sting occurred or in an entire area of your body, including your throat and lungs.
If you have this type of allergic response, called anaphylaxis , it is a medical emergency that needs treatment immediately. Symptoms of a severe allergy to a beesting include hives, swelling, trouble breathing, dizziness, cramps, nausea, diarrhea, and even cardiac arrest.
Lice bites are tiny red spots on the shoulders, neck, and scalp from small parasitic insects that can live on your clothes or in your bedding. Some people may develop a larger, uncomfortable skin rash from lice bites. Continual scratching of the itchy spots could lead to an infection, marked by symptoms including swollen lymph nodes and tender, red skin.
An infected lice bite may also ooze and crust over; it will need to be treated by a doctor, but lice are not known to carry other diseases. Ant bites and stings are typically painful and cause red skin bumps. Some types of ants, like fire ants, are venomous, and their bites can cause a severe allergic reaction. Fire ants bite first to hold on and then sting, giving a sharp pain and a burning sensation.
If you're bitten by fire ants , you may see white, fluid-filled pustules or blisters pictured a day or two after the sting. These last three to eight days and may cause scars. The bumps may also be itchy and red, and you may have swelling around the site. It's important not to scratch or break open the blisters because they can become infected, notes the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.
Carpenter ant bites are also painful because they spray formic acid into the bite, which causes a burning feeling. Mites do not usually spread disease, but their bites can irritate the skin and cause intense itching.
Itch mites usually feed on insects but will bite other animals, including people. The bites usually go unnoticed until itchy, red marks develop that may look like a skin rash. Chiggers are a form of mite that inject their saliva so that they can liquefy and eat skin. In response to a chigger bite , the skin around the bite hardens. The surrounding skin becomes irritated and inflamed pictured , and an itchy red welt develops. Mites also cause the condition called scabies , which is contagious from person to person, notes the CDC.
Female scabies mites burrow into the skin to lay eggs. When the eggs hatch, the larvae come to the skin's surface. Get medical help right away if you develop worrying symptoms, such as a high temperature, chills, headaches and feeling sick, after a mosquito bite abroad. Tick bites are not usually painful, so you may not realise you've been bitten straight away.
Ticks in the UK can sometimes carry a potentially serious infection called Lyme disease , so they should be removed as soon as possible if you find one attached to your skin. See your GP if you develop any symptoms of Lyme disease , such as a rash that looks like a "bull's-eye on a dartboard" or a fever. A bite from a horsefly can be very painful and the bitten area of skin will usually be red and raised.
Horsefly bites can take a while to heal and can become infected. See your GP if you have symptoms of an infection, such as pus or increasing pain, redness and swelling.
They usually cause small, red lumps that can be painful and very itchy, and can sometimes swell up alarmingly. Bedbug bites typically occur on the face, neck, hands or arms. They're typically found in straight lines across the skin. The bites are not usually painful, and if you've not been bitten by bedbugs before, you may not have any symptoms. Mite bites cause very itchy red lumps to develop on the skin and can sometimes also cause blisters.
Mites usually bite uncovered skin, but you may be bitten on your tummy and thighs if your pet has mites and has been sitting on your lap. Some mites burrow into the skin and cause a condition called scabies. The area may measure up to 30cm 12in across, or your entire arm or leg could swell up.
The swelling will usually last longer than 48 hours, but should start to go down after a few days. This can be painful, but the swelling won't be dangerous unless it affects your airways. If you're bitten or stung many times by one or more insects, your symptoms will be more severe because a larger amount of venom will have been injected. You're more likely to have a systemic reaction SR if you've been bitten or stung before and become sensitised, particularly if it was recently.
People who've been sensitised to bee stings are more likely to have an SR than people who are stung by wasps. It's rare for an SR to be fatal, particularly in children, although someone with an existing heart or breathing problem is at an increased risk.
Read about treating insect bites and stings. Most insect bites and stings cause small reactions that are confined to the area of the bite localised reactions. They can usually be treated at home. As soon as you've been stung by a bee, remove the sting and venom sac if it's been left in your skin. Do this by scraping it out, either with your fingernails or something with a hard edge, such as a bank card. When removing the sting, be careful not to spread the venom further under your skin and don't puncture the venom sac.
Don't pinch the sting out with your fingers or a pair of tweezers because you may spread the venom. If a child has been stung, an adult should remove the sting. Wasps and hornets don't usually leave the sting behind, so they could sting you again. If you've been stung and the wasp or hornet is still in the area, walk away calmly to avoid being stung again. Most insect bites and stings cause itching and swelling that usually clears up within several hours.
If local swelling is severe, your GP may prescribe a short course of oral corticosteroids , such as prednisolone, to take for 3 to 5 days.
If you have an allergic reaction after being bitten or stung, even if it's just a skin rash hives , your GP may prescribe an adrenaline pen an auto-injector and show you how to use it. You'll also be referred to an allergy clinic for further tests and treatment.
If you develop blisters after being bitten by an insect, don't burst them because they may become infected. Blisters don't usually cause pain unless they rupture burst and expose the new skin underneath. If possible, use an adhesive bandage plaster to protect the blistered area.
See your pharmacist if the bite or sting fills with pus and feels tender to touch, your glands swell up and you feel unwell with flu-like symptoms. Your pharmacist may prescribe oral antibiotics medicines to treat infections caused by bacteria. You'll need to take these as instructed, usually 2 to 4 times a day for 7 days. If you have the symptoms of a systemic reaction SR , it could lead to anaphylactic shock.
Anaphylaxis may need to be treated with an adrenaline injection, antihistamines, oxygen or an intravenous drip directly into a vein. If previous insect bites or stings have caused a large skin reaction, such as redness and swelling more than 10cm 4 inches in diameter, your GP may refer you to an allergy clinic. The criteria for referring someone to an allergy clinic may vary depending on what's available in your local area. Immunotherapy desensitisation or hyposensitisation is a possible treatment option if you're allergic to wasp or bee stings.
It involves being injected with small doses of venom every week to alter your body's immune response to venom. You need to be observed after each injection to make sure you don't have an allergic reaction to the treatment. Over time, your body becomes used to the venom desensitised and you're no longer at risk of anaphylaxis. When a high enough dose has been reached, the injections are given at four to six-week intervals for a further two to three years.
Your allergist allergy specialist will decide how much venom is injected and how long the injections need to continue for. This will depend on your initial allergic reaction and your response to the treatment. For more information about immunotherapy, see treating allergies. If you've been bitten by a tick, remove it as soon as possible to reduce the risk of getting a tick-borne infection, such as Lyme disease a bacterial infection that causes a pink or red circular rash to develop around the area of the bite.
If you suspect that you have a tick bite, complete our self-help guide to assess your symptoms and find out what to do next. Return to Symptoms. Next Review Date:. Avoid scratching the bite because it will cause further swelling and increase the risk of infection. Most tick bites will heal within three weeks.
Read more about how Lyme disease is treated. Secondary bacterial infections are a common complication of insect bites and stings. They include:. An infection can occur if you scratch an insect bite or sting, or it may be introduced at the time you're bitten. Infections are usually treated with antibiotics.
Lyme disease is an infection caused by a species of tick known as Ixodes ricinus. Ticks aren't insects — they're small arachnids. Your risk of developing Lyme disease is increased if you spend a lot of time in woodland or heath areas as these areas are where tick-carrying animals, such as deer and mice, live. The initial infection is characterised by a red rash that gradually expands outwards from the site of the bite.
Antibiotics are usually used to treat the infection. If untreated, the long-term effects of Lyme disease include problems with the nervous system, such as:. The condition can also damage the joints, which can lead to arthritis and, occasionally, heart problems, such as inflammation of the heart muscle myocarditis and inflammation of the fluid-filled sac that surrounds the heart pericarditis.
West Nile virus is an infection with flu-like symptoms that is spread by mosquitoes.
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