Bugs and their bites

I cleaned out lots of weeds growing in a corner of the yard five days ago, but now I'm paying the price. I've got lots of chigger bites on one of my arms, and do the EVER itch! While looking up recommended treatments--there's not much you can do other than wait and use hydrocortisone cream--I decided to find a photo of a chigger. I found a terrific photo, and much more. If you want to see some excellent photos showing what the most common and most dangerous bugs look like, along with photos of what their bites look like, visit this slideshow by WebMD. You'll see chiggers, mosquitos, brown recluse spiders, black widows, scabies, red ants and much more. It's called the "Bad Bugs Slideshow," which stirs in an unnecessary moral dimension to the topic! But, again, the photos are really well done. You might be interested even if you aren't currently covered with bug bites.

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Say hello to Eriophora biapicata

eriophora biapicata Thought I'd post something different - a little taste of home. Literally from my own backyard in fact. This is a female eriophora biapicata, or Garden Orb-weaving spider (females are about one-quarter to one-third bigger than males). Unlike many Australian arachnids (and most Australian wildlife in general), this…

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