Healthy
Perspectives
By Marcy Shortuse
Florida is a beautiful state, whether you’re at the
beach or in the woods, and because our weather
allows warm year-round access to the outdoors,
many frequently visit – or even move here. For some,
it is an unrivaled paradise. For others, it’s a little more
complicated. Florida’s tropical weather brings bugs,
and lots of them. Because we have a climate where it
doesn’t freeze for long periods of time deep into the ground,
our insect population thrives all year long. Books have been written
about the immense amount of “skeeters” that were here before pest
control and mosquito eradication methods were used frequently en
mass; if you think about it, it wasn’t that long ago that people didn’t
dare step outside at night for fear of being bitten.
While we could also write a book on mosquitoes and no-see-ums,
there are other living creatures in Florida that bite and sting, that’s what
we will be focusing on here.