It felt like a razor cut me, sharp and painful. I was walking the dog with my hubby dear when a nasty black flying arthropod took a stab in the inner-most part of my arm. I was surprised that it hurt so much and started turning red and blotchy.
Great.
What was that?
I have had my share of bites, but this was not feeling like a bite or a sting. Sure enough, when I got home I went to my lab (laptop) and found what must have been the culprit:
Either it was a black biting horsefly or biting deerfly. I didn’t get that good a look at it.
Come to find out, only the females come to eat your blood. (Don’t ask me what the males eat.) They have these razor sharp scalpels, called mandibles that slice and rip into your flesh and then their saliva injects anti-coagulating serum, so your blood will run freely and they can suck it up.
She got no blood from me, as I swatted her away with that first slice through my skin. But her stab and nasty saliva caused some serious pain and a red-hot spot, which of course became insanely itchy in about 24 hours.
I swathed on some cortisone cream and benadryl gel and a cold compress of a can of Diet Coke. That seemed to help. Of course I read they can carry disease too, or turn into cellulitis, so that necessitated a little antibiotic.
I am recovering from the beast.
