Bites-and-Stings Books

Critters that crawl around in the dark - or the light, as the case may be - are both horrifying and fascinating. Other reviews have mentioned enough of the topic that I won't repeat that here. The book was another of author Nagami's great inform-the-public books about the things we live with every day. If you like Bitten, then you will like The Woman With a Worm in Her Head, which had some even scarier stories. I love Nagami's books and I love finding out about our world. My only complaint with her books is that within each story, she tends to jump around a bit. She usually starts out with a scare story and then often leaves you hanging while she explains the medicine behind the story, and then finally finishes up with more stories that are similar and a grand finale in telling you the outcome of the original story. While it sounds fine here, it tends to make following the mini-stories a bit difficult. Having said that, both her books are a fascinating subject and well worth the cost of a few nights time to read.

One gruesome story after another about the death and misery brought by those tiny critters we share the planet with-you'll look twice before you sit on a rock while camping or go swimming...or eat...or travel...not for the feint of heart

About: A very in depth look at the bites and stings of different animals and the diseases they may cause. Spiders, snakes, jellyfish, tsetse flies, cone snails, ticks, mosquitoes (including a particularly wonderful section on West Nile), Komodo dragons, alligators, crocodiles, seals, dogs, cats, horses, donkeys, camels, humans, monkeys, rabies, bird attacks and fish with spears are all covered. In fact, the only thing that I thought was missing was a section on sharks, but the addition of so many other biting animals more than make up for this omission. Besides, there are plenty of shark books, but this is the only book I've seen camel, donkey and seal bites addressed.

Pros: Engaging and fascinating. I looked forward to picking it up again after I put it down. Covers things I've never read about before. Scientific terms are clearly explained in the text as well as in the included glossary. Writing is very accessible. Great balance of science and anecdotes. Glossary, references.

Cons: A section on sharks was notably absent but this is a minor gripe considering what is covered

Grade: A+

Great book! Each chapter reads like a separate short story which makes it perfect for traveling.

_Bitten_ by Pamela Nagami, is a very interesting and well-researched popular science compilation of information and stories about just about every animal that stings, bites, or can carry infectious disease. Though a few are left out (notably sharks), a great many are included, each chapter often opening up with an interesting case history of a person afflicted by one of the animals in question, followed up by information on the organism, details on the disease that they may spread, and generally several other case histories of various patients throughout the world (some of which are from the author's own experiences as a practicing physician specialized in infectious disease). I found riveting not only some of the case histories but also the incredible medical detective stories, both those relating to saving patient's lives and in other instances the struggle to develop an anti-venom or to find the animal spreading a disease. Several chapters included information on what the reader should do when confronted by this animal (for example tips on safe tick removal and effective treatment for cat and dog bites). A helpful glossary and extensive bibliography are included.

The first several animals included in the book are dangerous mainly because of their venomous bites or stings, namely fire ants, several spider species, Portuguese man-of-war and various jellyfish species, cone snails, and a number of venomous snakes.

The fire ant chapter was illuminating. I was fascinated to learn that fire ants are even more trouble than I had imagined; livestock have been known to starve when fire ants render their food inaccessible, thousands of trout have been found that died from venom poisoning after eating swarms of winged males and queens that had flown into lakes, and fire ants, attracted to the warmth of heated asphalt, have caused rural roads to collapse as they built mounds beneath them, the undermined soil eventually subsiding and causing the road to collapse.

The chapter on spiders was also quite interesting. The reasons why small spider bites can cause such huge problems for victims is still incompletely understood, but may have to do with an enzyme found in some spider venom (such as that of the brown recluse) that attacks and dissolves cell membranes. This enzyme sets a victim's defenses against his or her own tissue, leading white blood cells to dissolve a victim's flesh. This necrotic arachnidism is a worldwide problem and there isn't any consensus on best treatment.

The next group of animals was largely included for the ability to transmit infectious disease. Included in this section are ticks, tsetse flies (with the emphasis being largely on sleeping sickness), and the sandfly (which spread leishmaniasis, parasitic diseases of the skin, moist membranes of the mouth and airway, liver, spleen, and bone marrow, caused by protozoa of the genus _Leishmania_ ). Also included was a chapter on the West Nile virus, a chapter which read like a medical thriller.

Tick paralysis was very interesting to read about. At first a rather mysterious paralytic illness, physicians discovered that an attached tick could cause a type of spreading paralysis in a person or in livestock, a completely debilitating and even potentially fatal paralysis yet one that can be stopped and completely reversed when the tick is found and removed (viewers of the show _House_ will remember a case of tick paralysis from the series; indeed many of the case histories sound like the opening segments of a _House_ episode, minus of course the misanthropic doctor).

It was sad to learn that human African trypanosomiasis (East African and West African sleeping sickness) was present on the continent since prehistoric times but only became widely disseminated when Africans left their ancestral homelands thanks to roads and railways brought by the Europeans during the colonial period, a problem exacerbated when what measure of disease control maintained by the empires collapsed during the civil wars and chaos left in the wake of the European withdrawal.

Massive efforts were made to control sleeping sickness, including for a time the draconian method of wholesale destruction of wild game. In addition to "being repugnant to practically everyone," these efforts were doomed to fail because the tsetse fly, when deprived of lions, hartebeests, and bushbucks, simply moved to smaller game, and in areas cleared of wildlife, humans and their livestock moved in, becoming replacement hosts themselves for the parasites. Nagami quoted from Dr. Robert Desowitz, the author of an essay on sleeping sickness ("The Fly Who Would Be King"), who noted that "the tsetse and the trypanosome are the most stalwart guardians of the African ecosystem and its magnificent wild fauna."

The final section looked at animals that pose a danger from the damage caused by their teeth and claws and from the infection of those wounds. Included in this section where chapters on the komodo dragon, alligators, crocodiles, dogs, cats, ferrets, rats, horses, donkeys, camels, garfish, seals, roosters, owls, monkeys, the wildlife that spreads rabies, and surprisingly humans (human bite injuries, particularly to the knuckle joint, can become infected with the bacterium _Eikenella corrodens_ which can cause irreversible damage).

I was surprised to read how vicious ferrets can be. In 1988 alone physicians in Denver, Colorado reported three cases of severe facial injuries to infants from attacks by pet ferrets. In one instance a three-month-old girl, placed in her crib with her bottle, was attacked by the family ferret which managed to climb in and a few minutes chew off forty percent of both her ears. Another patient, a baby girl, lost her nose to a ferret attack.

A very interesting series of chapters, the squeamish reader is warned about "seal finger" (a bacterial infection caused by seal bites, one that can cause swollen and stiff fingers and joints and pain so agonizing that sealers once amputated their own fingers for relief) and rats eating the flesh of sleeping people (those with nerve damage, such from diabetes and leprosy, are quite susceptible to rat attacks at night).

This book is an example of an inflated ego believing it is an expert on everything. The author claims expertise due to the fact that he lives in an area where scorpions also live. He writes:

'Ten years of living in the high desert country of Arizona provided my background experience for studying ways of handling the scorpion menace. Let's be honest: they are a menace to the comfort and safety of adults and to the lives of children, the elderly or infirm and all friendlier domestic life forms-our pets.'

The author describes scorpions as 'killing machines' and 'lethal', and yet in the final pages he admits that no scorpion has killed anyone in the United States within the last thirty years! Meanwhile we read in the newspaper many times a month about how one of our 'friendlier domestic life forms-our pets' has taken the life of yet another human.

Oddly the author recommends, since scorpions are so 'lethal', that every one (along with cobras, water mocassins, etc.) be exterminated. According to the numbers (scorpions - 0, dogs - manyfold) if we were to follow his logic we should exterminate our dogs instead (not that I'm a fan of that idea either).

The book shows many pictures of scorpions identified as the 'lethal' bark scorpion. Instead, the pictures are of a Vaejovis species, a different, and essentially harmless type. Further, though the scorpion is pictured 'on the porch', 'on the ceiling' etc., the images are clearly of a dead scorpion whose legs are in identical position throughout. No doubt the picture of it on the ceiling was taken on a sheet of paper then the image was turned upside down. The captions on the photos are about as accurate as the rest of the 'information' in the book.

We currently keep several thousand live scorpions of various species. I have surveyed the bark scorpions of the Grand Canyon on scientific expedition. We deal with live scorpions on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. When asked her opinion of the book my girlfriend read it through carefully and finally pointed to a small section and said,'This paragraph isn't so bad'. Unfortunately it was the only one.

If you want a book chock full of misinformation, hype, and paranoia, this book is for you. If you'd like an accurate depiction of scorpions look elsewhere. I'd recommend buying this book only if one is already quite familiar with scorpions and is interested in a bit of humor in the manner that old black and white movies about arachnids are often so bad they're good.

The only reason I gave this book two stars instead of one is because it made us laugh several times and one can never have too much laughter.

Oddly the author is apparently a psychiatrist yet admits a virulent phobia of scorpions. Physician, heal thyself. And stop writing 'books'.

Near the beginning of the book the author makes it painfully obvious he knows next to nothing about scorpions or ecosystems with his statement that "The world does not need scorpions" and goes on to suggest that snakes, scorpions, spiders, etc. should be wiped from the face of the earth. In truth, scorpions eat insects which are far more damaging to human health and economics than scorpions ever were.

Throughout the book scorpions are frequently referred to as "poisonous" when in fact they are venomous, and in a few places it even refers to scorpion "bites" instead of stings (scorpions do not bite). These may seem to be minor details but considering the author's credentials such oversights are a little disturbing.

The book was also inconsistent and confusing. The first few chapters make scorpions out to be most dreadful creatures that "wish you no good" and exist only to torment humans, then the author goes on to explain you don't need to fear them, and then reiterates how horrible they are.

The section on black widows was not nearly as bad as the scorpion section, but the author does recommend using pesticides to eliminate them. The hazards of using pesticides in and around the home far outweigh the hazards of having black widows present. Black widows, like scorpions, feed on those insects which pose a greater threat to human health, for instance the mosquitoes which carry West Nile Virus. Even if you cannot bring yourself to catch the spider in a cup for release outside, they are easy enough to squash with a flyswatter and avoid the lingering poisons of pesticides.

As someone who very much likes spiders and scorpions and keeps them as pets (including the "deadly" and "poisonous" species the book focuses on), I found much of this book very offensive and was often quite saddened by it. I will admit however that the chapter on "scorp proofing", done without pesticides, actually contains some pretty good advice. The rest of the book, however, contains little more than hype and misinformation.

This book has some good suggestions on ways to keep these pests out of your house. Written in an informal, easy-to-read style.