What the heck bit me at the beach?

**TooFarTampa** · 04-12-2009, 08:56 PM

Hey guys, I got stung or bitten by something last night, about a half hour before sunset, at Seacrest Beach. It was about 1/4 or 1/8 of an inch long, and sand-colored. I went to brush away a bunch of sand off my son's shoulders as we were leaving the beach and this bugger was apparently in that sand, and bit me -- hard!

It hurt immediately and I was too busy getting it off me to examine it. First I had a red dot from the bite, and within a few minutes I had a welt the size of a dime. The welt spread and the bite throbbed all night, even with Advil and hydrocortisone cream. Today about a 3-inch radius around the bite is slightly red and swollen and feels like a bad bruise.

I'm thinking it might have been a venomous sting, but it wasn't a hornet or wasp or yellowjacket and it did not look like what I remember of yellow flies (also, if anything the wind was coming from the south not north).

I thought at first it was a sand flea or no-see-um but it appears from my research that those bites are small, red and itchy. This does not itch at all, it is just painful.

Anyway, I'm hoping to figure out what it is so I can avoid it! I guess this was a good reminder to use repellant!

**30A Skunkape** · 04-12-2009, 09:12 PM

Once I had a similar experience in Seacrest Beach. I was pulling weeds and whatever it was popped me on the thumb. It wasn't like a hornet sting, it was just an intense throbbing, and my thumb went numb for several days while it was swollen. I didn't see what the offender was. I thought it must have been an ant, but it was not like a fire ant sting that I am familiar with. Perhaps an ant lion?

**rdelong43065** · 04-12-2009, 09:13 PM

Scorpion maybe?

**30A Skunkape** · 04-12-2009, 09:21 PM

Originally Posted by rdelong43065

Scorpion maybe?

A good possibility, there are tons of those little buggers around Seacrest.

**njackie** · 04-12-2009, 09:52 PM

Be careful and go to the doctor, I had a similar experience this summer and it turned into a major infection that blistered and oozed. See a doc!

**TooFarTampa** · 04-12-2009, 09:53 PM

Originally Posted by rdelong43065

Scorpion maybe?

Rest assured it was not a scorpion, but now I am all freaked out after googling Florida scorpions. Thanks!

Skunky you may be on to something with the antlion. It looks like it could have been one of the larvae that hang around in sand pits waiting for ants to fall in. My son was digging around in the sand and rolling in it for awhile and I may have disturbed a larva that was just stuck on his shirt. The fact that they are slightly venomous leads me to believe that's the culprit -- but they don't bite humans very often it appears. Guess I was just lucky.

**TooFarTampa** · 04-12-2009, 09:55 PM

Originally Posted by njackie

Be careful and go to the doctor, I had a similar experience this summer and it turned into a major infection that blistered and oozed. See a doc!

Eeek! I will keep an eye on it ... it does feel tender like a deep infection, but I figured that's just the tissue getting rid of the venom. Thanks!

**30A Skunkape** · 04-12-2009, 10:04 PM

Originally Posted by TooFarTampa

Rest assured it was not a scorpion, but now I am all freaked out after googling Florida scorpions. Thanks!

Skunky you may be on to something with the antlion. It looks like it could have been one of the larvae that hang around in sand pits waiting for ants to fall in. My son was digging around in the sand and rolling in it for awhile and I may have disturbed a larva that was just stuck on his shirt. The fact that they are slightly venomous leads me to believe that's the culprit -- but they don't bite humans very often it appears. Guess I was just lucky.

I found at least a few of these critters in the dirty laundry basket when we lived in Seacrest. They love to hide there, apparently.

**TooFarTampa** · 04-12-2009, 10:08 PM

Originally Posted by 30A Skunkape

I found at least a few of these critters in the dirty laundry basket when we lived in Seacrest. They love to hide there, apparently.

I thought you were being sarcastic!

**30A Skunkape** · 04-12-2009, 10:11 PM

Originally Posted by TooFarTampa

I thought you were being sarcastic!

Not at all. If you start turning over stones and rooting through leaf litter there you will find them. They also come into houses ala spiders. I think John R. found one in his shoe or sock or some such in a most unfortunate manner

**ShallowsNole** · 04-13-2009, 11:14 AM

TFT, I have no idea what bit you, but Skunky's right about scorpions. And from sticking my hand in a paper grocery sack that had been stored under my mom's kitchen sink, I can tell you they hurt like hail.

Scorpions like pine trees. We had problems with them when we moved to Freeport. We cleared the pine trees from our lot (for different reasons - ie to keep one from coming through the window in a hurricane and so as not to attract lightning) and the scorpions went away.

Didn't make the rattlesnakes go away, but at least the scorpions were gone.

**Cheering472** · 04-14-2009, 12:56 PM

ICK. I am sorry you were bitten. Hope it feels better. Repellant all around for everyone. Heck I'm starting to itch here at my computer just hearing about all those creatures.

**Andy A** · 04-14-2009, 01:12 PM

Is there any chance it could have been a brown recluse spider? The way you describe the reaction to the bite sure sounds like it could have been one but then I don't know their habitat habits.

**Mango** · 04-14-2009, 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by Andy A.

Is there any chance it could have been a brown recluse spider? The way you describe the reaction to the bite sure sounds like it could have been one but then I don't know their habitat habits.

Oh gosh, I hope not. Whatever you do, do not google images of that spider.

Hope you feel better soon and if it does get worse, get medical attention.

**Rita** · 04-14-2009, 04:29 PM

Originally Posted by Andy A.

Is there any chance it could have been a brown recluse spider? The way you describe the reaction to the bite sure sounds like it could have been one but then I don't know their habitat habits.

Wouldn't be a likely habitat for the Brown Recluse. It prefers darker places like in basements for example. I remember seeing the "shells" of Brown Recluses in the basement of a home in Illinois. We took a trip to see them in a college entomology course. The empty shell just looks like a tan spider hanging there.

.

**TooFarTampa** · 04-14-2009, 04:49 PM

Originally Posted by Mango

Oh gosh, I hope not. Whatever you do, do not google images of that spider.
Hope you feel better soon and if it does get worse, get medical attention.

Well, of course I did, and eww. But no that wasn't it. It was very compact.

Whatever it was, the bite was much better yesterday and is almost all better today. I'm glad to know that whatever it was doesn't seem to be common, so maybe it was just bad luck and not something that I need to worry about every time I set foot on the beach.

We'll be on the lookout for antlions and will make sure to bring the repellant. Thanks all.