A number of insects can either bite or sting and cause reactions in humans. Serious reactions that require a medical evaluation are almost always due to an insect sting. The “biting insects” such as bed bugs, mosquitoes, black flies and deer flies cause local reactions that are believed to be due to insect saliva. Reactions to biting insects can at times be very disabling but they rarely cause severe or life threatening reactions.
What kinds of insects sting?
There are four major classes of insects that can sting: the bees (honey and bumble bees), the wasps (paper and mud wasps), the vespids (yellow jackets, white faced hornets, yellow hornets) and the ants (fire ants).
All stinging insects have a stinger on the end of their abdomen and when agitated or threatened will land on your skin and insert a stinger into your skin. The stinger is attached to a venom sack which contracts and discharges a variable amount of venom into your skin depending on how long the stinger is in place.