A little cropping, and who’ll know? 
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Oh, the Red-bellied Woodpecker! I was banding birds and it got stuck in the mist net. Worked hard to get out, so it wrapped the netting around its toes and around its tongue, which is edged with backwards-facing projections, the better for pulling insects out of wood. I couldn’t untangle him, so finally cut the net to get him out and took him home. Sat for a long time carefully pulling bits of netting backwards off his tongue while he hammered my hand every time his head was free. Bad experience for me and I’m sure worse for him.
Other than that, I was bitten by a diversity of birds when taking them out of the mist net, most painfully Evening Grosbeaks.
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Boy! Last week I was “eaten alive” again last week while working at an organic farm. This time they were not Panamanian bugs but Middle Rio Grande hungry “devils". They were not all mosquitoes because a lot of them could crawl under my clothes. I had to use a cream with steroid in order to reduce the swelling and itch. After more than a week these bites are still visible. Are stinging bugs getting nastier?
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When I was a kid, I often got stings in the foot from bees in our garden. As a teenager I walked too close to a bee hive and got a sting in the lip that hurt several days. In 2004 I was bitten by a tick and got Lyme disease for several years. I was treated regularly with antibiotics until 2009, but I’m not sure I got actually rid of the bacteria. During my time in Mexico, I got a sting from a Polistes species in the hand when a group of persons in front of me panicked because of the wasp. They shouted and waved and the wasp apparently got aggressive.
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Took me some time to compile a list – I am not sure I remember the names of what all been bitten me but here goes (where feasible will mention the binomial, if not please excuse my ignorance)
Mosquitoes
Ticks
Fleas
[Leeches] (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/55726287)
Dog (only once )
Cats (a few times, along with plenty of scratches)
Jungle Cat (Felis chaus) we once brought up a jungle cat -
Red Giant Flying Squirrel (Petaurista petaurista) also a rescue
[Batocera beetle] (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/52701802) was trying to pick it up to get the underside -
Praying Mantis
Rat Snake
Horse Flies
Horse (nipped by it)
Mule (also nipped by it)
Cow and Calf (also nipped)
Honey Bees (both Apis dorsata and A mellifera)
Blue Whistling Thrush that i was trying to rescue
Green-Backed Tit (also being rescued)
Couple of Small warblers (also being rescued)
Pretty sure some species of Fish but not sure which one
am sure am missing a few - will edit and update if i can remember
and if being thrown around counts then please count Domestic Yak (Bos grunniens)
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I sometimes notice that, too. In my case, I would suspect changes to the immune system could change the reactions to such “triggers”.
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My wife seems to get targeted by mosquitoes whenever we’re out somewhere but they usually ignore me, or are only a mild nuisance. Maybe there’s something in our different body scents that cause variation in who gets the worst of these biting insects. Not that I haven’t been viciously attacked by mosquitoes at certain times when I’ve been in a wetland where they were abundant. A few years ago I got really mobbed by mosquitoes in such a situation and a few days later I became sick with something like the flu that lasted about a week; I could barely get out of bed. My suspicion is that it was West Nile Virus.
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Thank you so much for fixing my “run on” text!!! I have no idea how that happened as I didn’t do anything differently.
I, too think snakes are cool and when I worked in a non-dog/cat pet store during college, our resident herp gave me a baby black rat snake knowing I wanted one and I’d take him around with me after classes. I’d put him in the front pocket of my bib overalls and pulled him out to show others at a keg party, and those around me jumped back several feet! The drunks were the worst/funniest and I didn’t drink at that time. Hey, this was the late 70’s!
No one wanted to dorm with me and I had a tank of fish, a snake, a parakeet, gerbils (for an “experiment” so I was allowed animals in my dorm) and 4 baby Johnson’s chameleons that hatched in the store and 4 were given to each employee who wanted to raise them. I also had a tank of crickets for breeding to feed baby crickets to the baby chameleons. Unfortunately, none of the employees had any luck and all of the baby chameleons died. 😢 After college I sadly returned the snake to the guy who gave him to me.
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Dang! It did it again!
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Oh… reminds me that I had bite Marks from my little Sis…
I was a Teenager at that time and she was about four.
They were hurting!
Complete had forgotten that. Lol
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I got another bee sting
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Bit on finger by common green iguana. Bit on the arm by a small Colombian boa constrictor. Also pinched by crabs (hurt more than the snake or iguana) stung by hornets and wasps, and plenty of urchin spines in feet.
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