Beware: These Insects are Poisonous, Deadly

An insect is a small animal that has six legs. Most insects have wings.

Ants, flies, butterflies, and beetles are all insects.

What makes an insect deadly?

According to a Professor of Biology, David Rivers, “Insects can fall into two categories, one where the individual produces something that is so painful or so lethal that one individual insect is lethal to you. Most of those do not occur in North America, but a few do occur in South America,” Rivers says.

“Then there are those that produce a painful toxin that may indeed be lethal, but it’s when they attack as a group that they truly become deadly. In that regard, we do have some that are close by: There are two, and they are both ant species.”

Some of these poisonous Insects are:

Japanese Oriental Wasp

This wasp is typically 2 to 3 inches long.

What makes it deadly is the fact that the wasps are extremely aggressive as a group.

“It’s one of the most aggressive insects on the planet. Close to hundreds can sting someone at a time, and they’re stinging you multiple times. Thus, the payload of venom delivered by the wasp to the victim is believed to exceed that of any other venomous animal. I hear the pain is one of the most excruciating that can be delivered.”

This wasp lives in remote locations, including some isolated islands associated with Japan, and the death rate is relatively high.

The Monarch Caterpillar and Butterfly

“We never think of moth and butterfly larvae as being toxic,”

“One of the deadliest insects you’ll find in Maryland is one you never think of, and that’s the monarch butterfly. Its orange and black colouring is actually sending the message to stay away.”

The monarch caterpillar feeds on milkweed, which is toxic and can disrupt cardiac contractions.

“Anything that would eat the caterpillar or the monarch butterfly is going to get intoxicated (a term not to be confused with inebriated). And they’re very lethal to humans,”

“The monarchs themselves are incredibly deadly, but no one ever thinks of them for that.

The Brown Recluse

Unfortunately, these spiders do live in Maryland, where they tend to hide in damp basements… and sometimes they crawl into shoes or bedding.

“In fact, when I was in the National Guard for nine years, a friend of mine got bit by a brown recluse and had to be discharged from basic training,” Professor Rivers added.

“They’re not uncommon. When they bite, sometimes you get lucky and nothing happens. If you’re unlucky, it can cause tissue death. The affected tissue may turn gangrenous and need to be removed.”

Black Widow Spider

The black widow is not an insect, but a very closely related cousin.

When Rivers found one of these in Oregon Ridge Park, just a few miles north of Loyola’s campus, he captured it and took it back to his office.

“I was feeding it house flies and it got to the point where she stopped eating and died,” he says. One of his former research students who works in pest control in Maryland has found them in people’s homes on more than one occasion.

You probably won’t die from a bite from a Black Widow, but there’s nothing pleasant about the experience.

“I saw a special on National Geographic where a couple of people said, ‘I wish I had died since it really hurt.’ One woman had lasting effects afterwards. For weeks or months they were miserable, but no lasting effects after that. But if the toxin targets the nervous system, that’s where you could have long-term complications.”

The Cow Killer

These aren’t as far from Loyola’s campus as you might like to think, since you can find them as close as the southern part of Maryland.

“When it’s just a few, it’s not lethal. But if the cow steps on any, a chemical signal in the venom gland, an alarm pheromone, is released that mobilizes the colony for group attack. There’s venom coming from the saliva, and then there’s a true venom gland, so they’ll sting you and bite you. So you’ll get a double dose.”

At that point, a small child or a person with a suppressed immune system could be at risk.