Black Widow Spider
What it looks like: ½ inch long with large, round black abdomen with a red hourglass-shaped mark on its underside. (The mark may also just be a red dot or two, but beware of any spider with a red mark on its belly.) There's also a brown widow spider.
Where it lives: Any protected site - under a house's eaves ot a picnic table, behind a bush, in a shed, etc.
When it's most active: Day or night, summer and fall.
Behavior: Not aggressive - it'll try to stay out of your way. Bite symptoms: fever, increase in blood pressure, sweating and nausea, with the worst level within one to three hours after the bite. Rarely fatal, but small children or older people are at added risk.
Best defense: Watch for a tangly cobweb (often in corners), not one of those nice neat circular cobwebs you see in the garden. A black widow usually hangs upside down in its web, making it easier to spot the red marking on its belly.

Harvester Ant
What it looks like: About ¼ to ½ inch long; reddish, with a couple of spines on the back.
Where it lives: Usually in rural areas, not urban, but can be found in nature centers. Look for a bare spot on the ground with an ant hole.
When it's most active: Mostly in daytime, especially mornings and evenings; tends to stay underground in peak heat of summer.
Behavior: Not as aggressive as fire ants, but will defend the nest.
Best defense: Leave the nest alone.

Asian Tiger Mosquito
What it looks like: About 1/8 to 3/8 inch long, black with distinctive white markings on top and white rings around legs.
Where it lives: Breeds in stagnant water.
When it's most active: Summer and fall, peaking in July and August.
Behavior: Our area's most common biting mosquito, and one of the few that bites during the day. Usually not out in bright sun, but can be active in shade. Also active in evening. Not connected with any disease yet.
Best defense: Use repellent with DEET; wearing drab-colored clothing may also help. Eliminate standing water around your property.

Honeybee
What it looks like: ½ to 5/8 inch long, orange-brown to black.
Where it lives: Nests are usually found in trees, 6 to 12 feet off the ground, but may also be built inside a house, sometimes inside walls.
When it's most active: Daylight, from spring until late fall. Swarms occur in spring.
Behavior: Not aggressive unless you get too close to the nest.
Best defense: RUN! Don't try to swat them. They emit an alarm pheromone that agitates other bees within 100 feet or more.
If you're in a wooded area, run through brush; branches swinging back and forth can confuse them. If chased by a swarm, get to a sheltered spot - a car or building - where you can close the door. Even if a few bees get in with you, it's better than facing a whole swarm.
If you're near water, don't jump in! They'll hover and wait for you to surface. Some of the worst attacks have occurred this way.

Africanized (Killer) Honeybee
What it looks like: Much the same as a regular honeybee.
Where it lives: Same kinds of places, but may nest closer to the ground than regular honeybees.
When it's most active: Same as regular honeybees, but Africanized bees swarm more frequently, not just in spring.
Behavior: Much less tolerant of activity near their nest. The sting is no worse than a regular bee's, but an attacking swarm may bee up to 10 times larger. They'll also pursue targets farther.
Best defense: Run faster. Run farther. Better yet, be very quiet if you see a nest - bees respond to vibrations made by loud noises. (Many people are stung while mowing the lawn.)

Bumblebee
What it looks like: About ¼ to 1 inch long, roly-poly and hairy; color ranges from black to black-and-orange or black-and-yellow.
Where it lives: Nests in the ground.
When it's most active: Daytime during summer and fall.
Behavior: A little less aggressive than the honeybee, but it will defend its nest.
Best defense: Run, don't swat.

Brown Recluse Spider
What it looks like: Light brown or tannish color, about ¼ to ½ inch long. Leg span can be up to silver-dollar size. Back of head has darker violin-shaped marking. Has three pairs of eyes arranged in semi-circle on front of head.
Where it lives: Dark, out-of-the-way storage spots, including closets.
When it's most active: Year-round indoors; spring and summer outdoors.
Behavior: Doesn't make a cobweb. It hunts prey (dead and live insects) at night.
Best defense: Before you put on shoes or clothing that haven't been worn in a long time, check them carefully.

Tick
What it looks like: Varies from pinhead size up to almost a half-inch if fully engorged with blood. Brownish, reddish, or grayish.
Where it lives: Same habitat as chigger, but will often dwell in back yard if it has an animal host there.
When it's most active: Daytime in summer and fall.
Behavior: It will "quest" - clutch a blade of grass with rear legs out and up - for days on end. When a human or animal passes, it grabs and cement itself to the body.
Best defense: In tick-infested areas, tuck your pants legs inside your socks; you can also apply permethrin to your clothes. Also, check yourself or have someone check you for ticks at least once a day.

Scorpion
What it looks like: The striped bark scorpion, our local variety is about 2 inches long, brownish with two dark stripes on the back. It's an arachnid, not an insect, with eight legs instead of six.
Where it lives: In new housing developments or recently built homes, where the natural habitat was recently disturbed. Sometimes they're attracted to lights (and the insects around them). They'll come into back yards in search of prey.
When it's most active: Nighttime, during the warmer months. It hides under rocks and such during the day.
Behavior: It won't seek you out, but if you step on one or come up next to one, it'll nail you.
Best defense: Watch where you're walking and what you turn over.

Flea
What it looks like: About 1/8 inch, brownish-reddish.
Where it lives: Breeds in pet resting areas indoors or outdoors, in the carpet or underneath furniture.
When it's most active: Daytime during spring to fall outdoors, year-round indoors.
Behavior: Feeds on blood of cats, dogs, and wildlife; doesn't live on human blood, but it will bite people.
Best defense: Treat your pets with a commercial flea control; supplement with yard and house treatment if you wish.

Bedbug
What it looks like: About 3/16 inch long, oval, flat, brown or reddish brown.
Where it lives: Hides in cracks and crevices during day.
When it's most active: Year-round, feeding at night.
Behavior: Bites are painless. Symptoms: itching; little blood spots on skin or bedding. Heavy infestation may produce an obnoxiously sweet odor. Not believed to transmit disease.
Best defense: Cleaning your house thoroughly doesn't help, unfortunately. Check around bed headboard - small dark spots (which might be blood) could be a tipoff of infestation. If you have a significant problem, call a professional exterminator.

Yellowjacket Wasp
What it looks like: 3/8 to ½ inch long, yellow- and black-striped.
Where it lives: Nests in the ground. May use old rodent burrow, or nest inside rotted landscaping wood or other woodpile near houses. It preys on caterpillars and other insects, but it may also seek a sugar source - discarded soda cans or bottles, or fruit in trash cans.
When it's most active: Daylight during the warm months, peaking in late August and September. Yellowjackets are more sensitive to disturbance when the nest grows large and has multiple queens.
Behavior: Will defend its nest and has the worst sting among wasps. Can also sting among wasps. Can also sting more than once.
Best defense: Run, don't swat. (They usually won't follow you as far as bees will.)

Mud Dauber Wasp
What it looks like: ½ to 1 inch long; colors range from shiny blue-black to black stripes to black-and-brown.
Where it lives: On a vertical surface, such as an outdoor wall or highway overpass.
When it's most active: Daytime during summer and fall.
Behavior: Not aggressive; it would rather be eating spiders.
Best defense: Not a concern; it's very peaceful.

Stinging Caterpillar (also known as puss moth caterpillar or asp)
What it looks like: About 1 inch long; colors range from cream to black, brown, or orange-red.
Where it lives: Ornamental trees and bushed - oaks, yaupons and dwarf yaupons, cedar elms.
When it's most active: Days or nights in mid- to late summer.
Behavior: Not aggressive; it has venom-tipped spines on its back that deliver a sting if you touch it.
Best defense: Don't pick them up. If you've got a bad infestation, treat them with a commercial caterpillar spray.

Velvet Ant Wasp
What it looks like: About 1/8 to 7/8 inch long; black body with bright orange or red pad on back.
Where it lives: On the ground; the female is wingless. It preys on other stingless insect colonies in the ground.
When it's most active: Daytime in mid- to late summer.
Behavior: Not aggressive toward people, but it has very tough skeletal tissue on back - hard to squish. It'll sting you only if you pick it up or step on it.
Best defense: Don't go barefoot in the yard.

Chigger
What it looks like: Less than 1 millimeter long (barely visible to naked eye), reddish.
Where it lives: Where forests meet grassy areas, as in pastures or fields, or on roadsides; less frequently in lawns.
When it's most active: May through September, peaking in early summer.
Behavior: They get onto shoes and clothing, then crawl up on skin and attach themselves, especially around areas of tight clothing (waistband, sock line, etc.). The bite produces a red, itchy spot, often with swelling.
Best defense: If you spot them quickly and wash them off with soap and hot water, you may lessen the reaction. You can also apply permethrin repellent to your clothing.

Insect Bites: Beware!

What's the Difference Between a Bite and a Sting?
The differences are due to the nature of the bite or sting. Venomous insects attack as a defense mechanism, injecting painful, toxic venom through their stingers to punish you so you'll stay away next time.

Non-venomous insects bite and usually inject anti-coagulant saliva in order to feed on your blood. Although local irritation and "allergic" reactions do occur from non-venomous bites, severe reactions such as anaphylactic shock only happen from venom stings.

Insect bites are, for the most part, harmless. Annoying, but harmless. Most reactions are mild, causing little more than bothersome itching or stinging and mild swelling that disappears in a day or so.

Biting insects generally aren't dangerous because allergic reactions are extremely rare, but they do spread diseases like Lyme, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, encephalitis, West Nile Virus and malaria.

It is important to be aware of the types of biting and stinging insects in your region. By knowing what you're up against, you can treat a bite or a sting effectively, recognize a severe reaction and even avoid itching and scratching altogether!