With the warmer weather (or hot weather, if you like) becoming more prominent, this also means that bugs of all types are more than ready to start running wild throughout Australia. Some, however, are worse than others, not just giving business and homeowners a little grief, but becoming an outright annoyance. In this blog, we will be looking at the three bugs in particular that can really make you want to scream during the warmer months.
- Ticks
While ticks may not be as prominent as the common house fly that happily tries to set up shop in any home or business, ticks are annoying in just how extreme their behaviour is. It’s not just the fact that they will attach themselves to you (or your pets) and suck out your blood, it’s also the fact that they carry diseases and, unlike the common house fly, they hide away waiting for their targets and subtly embed themselves there.
The ticks need to be taken care of before they can suck the blood out of you that are much worse than mosquitoes, which you can learn through zothexflooring.com where there are certain flooring designs that they are fond of.
They can suck on your blood for days, but chances are you will notice the pain before then. The pain’s not excruciating – that does not stop it from being agitating, however. When you do find them, you have to be careful about removing them, ensuring you not only remove them but they’re feeders as well.
The other thing that makes ticks such an unlikable little curse is that of the paralysis tick. They tend to latch onto your pets, such as your dogs and cats. If not accounted for early enough, these ticks can actually take the life of a pet, as their venom weakens and paralyses. It’s very tragic, which makes it so important to keep your pets treated for ticks and to keep an eye on them for any signs of paralysis – these could include difficulty walking and increased lethargy.
- Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes are essentially a no-show during our cooler months, the emergence of spring and summer really inspires them to return. In particular, mosquitoes love it when the weather truly reaches a peak of heat and humidity, which is why you will often find them hanging out in mangroves and tropical areas.
It’s easy why mosquitoes are annoying – if you’re planning to sit outside on a summer evening, chances are you’ll become their next meal unless you have some type of repellent on you or within your vicinity. The other problem is that mosquitoes can also carry some fatal diseases with them, in particular that of malaria.
On a more fundamental level, even the itch a mosquito bite can end up bugging you for days. So why does the bite itch? Well, essentially, before a mosquito starts sucking your blood, they spit into the freshly-made wound they created, which causes your immune system to kick in an attempt to protect you. That act of protection, however, is what inspires the itching. Then again, it’s better to have an itch than die from a saliva-related infection.
- Gnats
If you’ve ever gone for a walk during the summer heat and found yourself walking through a cluster of possibly thousands of little flying insects, chances are you just walk through what is known as a ghost of gnats.
Gnats are small flying insects that come from any number of species or families, related to the likes of mosquitoes and flies. In Australia, two prominent types of gnats that exist are the fungus gnat and biting midges/sand flies. Both of them can be seriously annoying.
Fungus gnats, for example, have a tendency of ruining plants and other garden life whereas biting midges have a tendency to bite humans and other animals. While on their own their plant destruction or bites would be insignificant, it’s the fact that gnats fly in massive swarms that give them their destructive power.
Also, because they’re tiny, they can enter into homes or greenhouses with greater ease than other pests, giving them easy access to their targets, whether they’re herbivores or carnivores.