New species of mosquito?

[bystander]

Could be the stinging nettle caterpillars. They can leave welts after contact with skin.

[Iju]

quote:

---

Originally posted by bystander

Could be the stinging nettle caterpillars. They can leave welts after contact with skin.

---

That's what I thought.

[missydog1]

I thought the caterpillars stung, hurt, which would rule them out?

As I said before, crab spiders fit the MO perfectly. They don't even look like spiders. They look like little burrs. Touch even the edge of the web and they run down it and get in your clothes and will often produce a string of bites that become big it by welts that take days to simmer down.

Noting the noni treatment.

[Obie]

As I build immunity to the little fire ants,the bites are just what was described in the original post.
I know the bites are from the fire ants because I know what they look like and I see them around my house.
The crab spiders have a different bite or sting !!!

[coppercoin40]

ugg creepy critters in Hawaii - a negative in paradise ;D at least that is one thing we don't have to worry much about in Alaska, SE area anyways no poisonous plants, brown widow spiders but have never seen them, the slugs and snails don't carry rat lung disease but the slugs do love to eat up a garden!

What the heck do you do to avoid these creepy's like crab spiders!? I think I may have seen those at one house we looked at at the edge of the house (it was on stilts) about every inch apart was a single web strand and at the end it looked like a ball of something?

[DTisme]

The thing with fire ant stings is you know you have it the second it happens. Same with the stinging nettles. I mean the SECOND it happens. So that might be a clue. I never even pull a weed anymore without gloves on. And yesterday saw some fire ants in an area I didn't know we had them and went in immediately to put on long sleeves. (HOT!!) I didn't know about these crab spiders, Kathy - thanks for warning me. How big are these? Good to know they look like burrs.

[Midnight Rambler]

It's pretty hard to get the spiders to bite you; I walk into their webs all the time and get them falling on me, and have never been bitten by them. They're not like wasps that sting aggressively, you would have to get them in a tight space.

[flytraps]

Why don't you try putting up some fly traps, or fly strips and see if that helps so you don't get bit?

[missydog1]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Midnight Rambler

It's pretty hard to get the spiders to bite you; I walk into their webs all the time and get them falling on me, and have never been bitten by them. They're not like wasps that sting aggressively, you would have to get them in a tight space.

---

Maybe for you, but they bite me and my family all the time! Any time I accidentally walk into a web (and they can be subtle), later that day I get the welt and the itching. Their favorite spots are back of neck and anywhere inside a bra. [:0]

DT, they look like crabs (Dungeness round, not the king crabs), and they fold their legs in when they hang, so they easily look like dark burrs. They appear in November and persist until April or May, being at their worst in midwinter.

[coppercoin40]

that certainly sounds like what I seen hanging from the bottom of a house we looked at...