Well, the kids had a jar with a bug in it. Elina claimed it was an assassin bug. Just from the name, I was already really uneasy about keeping this thing in our house. But the Bug Club needs its specimens, right? Today the kids took the assassin bug and some beetles outside because they wanted to take them out of their jars and hold them. Ewww, but that's fine.
Suddenly, I hear a very familiar scream coming from the backyard. It was Eli (no surprise there)! But this time was different. He was holding his hands together and crying and screaming....but he was also screaming out, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" He's never yelled for me like that. I ran to him and asked, "What happened? Where does it hurt?" I was almost afraid to see what he would show me when he opened up his hands. Seriously, A and I thought he broke his wrist or a finger.
Then I saw his middle fingers and they were red and getting a little swollen. Elina mentioned that he was holding a bug. I asked Eli if a bug bit him and he said, "Yes..I don't want to die!!" This kid knows too much about venomous creatures! So I ran him into the house and poured vinegar on his fingers (that's what a friend of mine did when someone got attacked by fire ants). Eli was still crying in pain, so I knew the vinegar wasn't doing it. I got him to tell me what happened and he said that he had the assassin bug in his hands and it bit him.
I don't know a thing about assassin bugs, so I started Googling it. Someone said that the assassin bug bite feels like a bee or wasp sting and that Clorox bleach would neutralize it. My next door neighbor (who is also our pediatrician) ran over with some bleach and it made Eli's finger hurt more. So our pediatrician looked at Eli's fingers and suggested a baking soda paste. We left the paste on Eli's fingers for about 15 minutes and I also gave him some Motrin. He was still sniffling, but at least he wasn't yelling anymore. After an hour the pain had subsided and Eli was better. Phew! But his finger was still a little purple. I found a little puncture on the side of his middle finger where he probably got bit and then all the red/purple that had run down his finger was just the "stuff" spreading. Scary.
Here are pics after an hour or so have passed. (I didn't even think to get a picture earlier on.)
Here are pics after an hour or so have passed. (I didn't even think to get a picture earlier on.)
It's funny because after he got over the trauma and pain, Eli started acting like he was famous. He kept saying over and over again, "I never thought I would get bitten by an assassin bug!" and, "Can you believe I got bitten by an assassin bug??" It was the cutest thing. Although it wasn't so cute when he was wailing and screaming.
This was definitely a little scary event for us. I mean, I don't know what bugs do what! But it did look pretty awful. From now on, no more handling of bugs we don't really understand. I told Elina to add that to the Bug Club's rule list. She agreed.
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