Bug Bites

SciShow Tangents

Some are itchy, some are painful, some go totally unnoticed by us every single day...bugs have such variety in the ways they chomp, some chomps aren't even from bug mouths, but from bug butts! Join us while we debate, query, and learn all we can about the wide world of bug bites.

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[This, That, or the Other: These Ouches Are No Slouches]

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cla.12103

https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/10878/sting-wild

[Trivia Question]

Size of giant toe-biting water bugs found in Cyprus

https://travaux.pensoft.net/article/94457/

https://www.livescience.com/animals/insects/giant-toe-biter-water-bugs-discovered-in-cyprus-for-the-1st-time

https://blog.abchomeandcommercial.com/do-water-bugs-bite/

https://cyprus-mail.com/2024/03/20/massive-bug-sighted-keep-your-toes-out-of-the-water/

[Fact Off]

Epomis beetle larvae and adults eat frogs as role-reversal predators

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0025161

Bumble bees bite plant leaves to make them flower early

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aay0496

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bumblebees-bite-plants-to-force-them-to-flower-seriously/

https://wisconsinbumblebees.entomology.wisc.edu/about-bumble-bees/life-cycle-and-development/

https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/67/17/4925/2197656

[Ask the Science Couch]

Causes of itchiness and how calamine lotion / zinc oxide works

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4862869/

https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/how-stop-bug-bites-itching

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9532860/

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2019.02090/full

https://jsstd.org/calamine-lotion/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4120804/

Patreon bonus: Bugs with big mandibles or bite marks (even if they rarely bite humans)

https://pukaha.org.nz/the-wacky-world-of-new-zealand-weta/

https://newzealandecology.org/nzje/2995

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/stag-beetles.html

https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/217/7/1065/13119/Biomechanical-determinants-of-bite-force

https://www.nps.gov/articles/giant-water-bug.htm

[Butt One More Thing]

Beaded lacewing (Lomamyia latipennis) larvae paralyze termites with farts before eating them

https://www.wired.com/2015/06/silent-deadly-fatal-farts-immobilize-prey/

https://www.nature.com/articles/289506a0