What's biting you? A quick explainer on Montreal's biting bugs
Entomologist Chris Cloutier says the usual suspects include mosquitoes, flies and spiders
We are well into bug bite season, and while you scratch away at the little red bumps on your body, you might have wondered — which bug should I blame for this discomfort?
Chris Cloutier, an entomologist at Vanier College and a specialist in mosquitoes and biting bugs, came on CBC Montreal's Daybreak to talk about the usual, creepy crawly suspects that keep you scratching.
Suspect #1: Mosquitoes
The most likely culprit behind that scratchy bug bite: a mosquito.
Mosquito season runs from June until September.
And while you might think that they might have a harder time surviving with the sweltering summer we've been experiencing, the sheer number of mosquitoes around means they continue buzzing and biting away.
They tend to survive because they lay a lot of eggs and each bug can live for weeks.
"There are just so many of them," says Cloutier. "It doesn't do too much to relieve the bite."
And not only are there a lot of mosquitoes, there are many different types, too.
Cloutier says that in his research he found 35 different species of mosquitoes on the West Island alone.
The mosquitoes that aggressively attack your face and buzz around near your ears aren't the same ones that bite you on your feet and ankles.
Suspect #2: Flies
Deer flies, black flies, and sand flies are some other possible culprits. While black flies and sand flies are smaller and can get away with biting you without you noticing it, they tend to have rougher bites.
"They kind of cut the skin open and lap the blood that comes from it."
Deer flies are bigger, and better known because they tend to take a chunk of skin with them when they bite.
"They're more kind of smash and grab," Cloutier says, "so you tend to notice them for sure."
Suspect #3: Spiders
Most spiders aren't biters. Out of several hundred different species in Quebec, Cloutier says, there's only a handful that have fangs that are big enough to penetrate human skin.
But when they do bite, they inject non-lethal venom into our bodies, triggering an automatic response from our bodies.
And that's not even the worst part.
Spiders are "messy eaters," Cloutier says, which means that their fangs tend to get very dirty with leftovers from their meals.
So after the initial sting of the bite, you could get a bacterial infection, which can be even more dangerous.
Suspect #4: Wasps
The black ants that you find around the home generally don't tend to bite, but their cousins, the wasps, have nasty stings.
"I'd say on the danger scale of things that can sting and bite, wasps are certainly up there," Cloutier said.
Because they're social animals, they tend to sting multiple times, and can trigger allergies.