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Although their venom can be quite painful, bee, wasp and hornet stings rarely kill a survivor unless he is allergic to that particular toxin. Even the most dangerous spiders rarely kill and the effects of tick-borne diseases are very slow-acting. However, in all cases, avoidance is the best defence. In environments known to have spiders and scorpions, check your footgear and clothing every morning. Also, check your bedding and shelter for them. Use care when turning over rocks and logs.
Scorpions
You’ll find scorpions (Buthotus species) in deserts, jungles and forests of tropical, subtropical and warm, temperate areas of the world. They are mostly nocturnal in habit. You can find desert scorpions from below sea level in Death Valley to elevations as high as 3,600 metres in the Andes. Typically brown or black in moist areas, they may be yellow or light green in the desert. Their average size is about 2.5 centimetres. However, there are 20-centimetre giants in the jungles of Central America, New Guinea and Southern Africa. Fatalities from scorpion stings are rare but they can occur in children, the elderly and ill persons. Scorpions resemble small lobsters with raised, jointed tails bearing a stinger in the tip. Nature mimics the scorpions with whip scorpions or vinegarroons. These are harmless and have a tail like a wire or whip, rather than the jointed tail and stinger of true scorpions.
Spiders
You recognize the brown recluse, or fiddleback, spider of North America (Loxosceles reclusa) by a prominent violin-shaped light spot on the back of its body. As its name suggests, this spider likes to hide in dark places. Though rarely fatal, its bite causes excessive tissue degeneration around the wound and can even lead to amputation of the digits if left untreated.
You’ll find members of the widow family (Latrodectus species) worldwide, though the black widow of North America is perhaps the most well-known. Found in warmer areas of the world, the widows are small, dark spiders with often hourglass-shaped white, red or orange spots on their abdomens.
Funnel-webs (Atrax species) are large, grey or brown Australian spiders. Chunky, with short legs, they are able to move easily up and down the cone-shaped webs from which they get their name. The local populace considers them deadly. Avoid them as they move about, usually at night, in search of prey. Symptoms of their bite are similar to those of the widow's — severe pain accompanied by sweating and shivering, weakness and disabling episodes that can last a week.
Tarantulas are large, hairy spiders (Theraphosidae and Lycosa species) best known because they are often sold in pet stores. There is one species in Europe, but most come from tropical America. Some South American species do inject a dangerous toxin but most simply produce a painful bite. Some tarantulas can be as large as a dinner plate. They all have large fangs for capturing food such as birds, mice and lizards. If bitten by a tarantula, pain and bleeding are certain and infection is likely.
Centipedes and Millipedes
Centipedes and millipedes are mostly small and harmless, although some tropical and desert species may reach 25 centimetres. A few varieties of centipedes have a poisonous bite but infection is the greatest danger, as their sharp claws dig in and puncture the skin. To prevent skin punctures, brush them off in the direction they are travelling, if you find them crawling on your skin.
Bees, Wasps and Hornets
We are all familiar with bees, wasps and hornets. They come in many varieties and have a wide diversity of habits and habitats. You recognize bees by their hairy and usually thick body, while the wasps, hornets and yellow jackets have more slender, nearly hairless bodies. Some bees, such as honeybees, live in colonies. They may be either domesticated or living wild in caves or hollow trees. You may find other bees, such as carpenter bees, in individual nest holes in wood or in the ground, like bumblebees. The main danger from bees is their barbed stinger located on their abdomens. When the bee stings you, it rips its stinger out of its abdomen along with the venom sac and the bee dies. Except for killer bees, most bees tend to be more docile than wasps, hornets and yellow jackets that have smooth stingers and are capable of repeated attacks.
Avoidance is the best tactic for self-protection. Watch out for flowers or fruit where bees may be feeding. Be careful of meat-eating yellow jackets when cleaning fish or game. The average person has a relatively minor and temporary reaction to bee stings and recovers in a couple of hours when the pain and headache go away. Those who are allergic to bee venom have severe reactions including anaphylactic shock, coma and death. If antihistamine medicine is not available and you cannot find a substitute, an allergy sufferer in a survival situation is in grave danger.
Ticks
Ticks are common in the tropics and temperate regions. They are familiar to most of us. Ticks are small, round arachnids with eight legs, and can have either a soft or hard body. Ticks require a blood host to survive and reproduce. This makes them dangerous because they spread diseases like Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, encephalitis and others that can ultimately be disabling or fatal. There is little you can do to treat these diseases once contracted, but time is your ally since they are slow-acting ailments. According to most authorities, it takes at least six hours of attachment to the host for the tick to transmit the disease organisms. Thus, you have time to thoroughly inspect your body for their presence. Beware of ticks when passing through the thick vegetation they cling to, when cleaning host animals for food and when gathering natural materials to construct a shelter. Always use insect repellents, if possible.
