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How is a wasp's nest constructed, and how is it used in medicine? How to quickly find a nest of bed bugs in an apartment? What does a wasp nest look like?

Every spring, travel lovers face danger in the form of snakes. What does the viper, which is considered the most poisonous in our country, look like? How can we protect ourselves from its bites, and what other poisonous snakes can we encounter in the forests and waters of our country?

Every spring, travel enthusiasts face dangers in the form of snakes.

There are many varieties of snakes in our country. More than a dozen of them are poisonous. The most dangerous of them is the common viper (Vipera berus). In spring, it appears on the ground surface that begins to warm up. The time of their appearance refers to April and May. In the summer, vipers settle in animal burrows, in the hollows of rotten stumps, in bushes, in grass, in last year's hay, in old buildings, and in piles of building materials. Vipers are sometimes found near the river, as they swim well.

Vipers usually have different colors. But no matter its color, you can see a zigzag stripe along the back. These cold-blooded animals are not very active during the day. They often crawl out of their shelters into the sun to bask. And on a warm summer night they can crawl close to the fire. Having met a person, they usually try to crawl away from him.

Snakes have no hearing. They recognize approaching steps due to the vibrations of the ground. On soft soil it is not always possible to do this in time, so the vipers do not always have time to hide.

The viper snake in this position takes an active defensive position. She begins to hiss, make throws, and then bites, to which she is provoked by sudden movements of the pedestrian’s arms and legs. Therefore, it is better not to make such movements when meeting snakes. But thousands of bites are reported every year.

A viper snake usually bites on the arm or leg, leaving teeth marks in the form of two points on the limb. The pain occurs immediately and gradually increases.

Snake venom contains neurotropic cytotoxins that damage human nerve cells. It also contains other substances that cause:

  • bleeding disorders;
  • complete tissue necrosis;
  • swelling of the bitten limb.

After a snake attack, the bitten limb immediately begins to redden, its surface becomes hot, and swelling appears. Within 5-10 minutes, headaches and dizziness begin, nausea appears, movements become sluggish, the heartbeat quickens, and breathing becomes difficult. Consciousness is not always lost, but the person becomes like a drunk.

Reaction of the common viper to movement (video)

Gallery: viper (25 photos)













Help after a snake bite

Everyone has heard that snake venom needs to be sucked out. But not everyone knows that this can only be done in cases where there is no chance of providing medical care in the near future. If you have been attacked and bitten by a viper, you should immediately go to the doctor. If possible, it is better to call an ambulance. It is advisable to immobilize the wounded limb using scarves, sticks and other means. The victim should drink water or juices frequently. You can give him 1-2 antiallergic tablets such as Tavegil or Suprastin.

Under no circumstances should you ingest alcoholic beverages. It’s also better not to touch the wound. You cannot do the following:

  • cauterize the bite site;
  • cut the wound;
  • inject potassium permanganate or a similar substance into the wound;
  • apply a tourniquet.

All these points can only aggravate the situation of the victim, but do not help him.

Going to the forest where there may be poisonous vipers, you need to dress and put on your shoes correctly. Protect a person from snake bite able:

  • Wellingtons;
  • trousers made of thick fabric;
  • wool socks;
  • an ordinary stick in the hand.

Clothes should not be tight fitting. And the stick will be useful for pushing apart the grass and the rotting stumps, which may contain a viper.

Appearance of vipers

The snake in ancient legends represents wisdom, intelligence and insight. Along with these qualities, the animal is credited with speed of reaction and enormous destructive power. This image can be fully confirmed if you know the habits of snakes. What do snakes look like? This is a reptile animal up to 1 m long. Males are significantly smaller in size. The head has a rounded triangular shape. The parietal and frontal scutes are clearly visible on it. The nasal opening is located in the center of the frontal shield.

The snake's pupil is vertical. It is able to expand and completely fill the space of the eye. Teeth are mobile. They are located on the front of the upper jaw. The demarcation of the neck and head gives the poisonous creature additional grace.

Nature is not at all stingy when it comes to the color of the snake. The viper can be gray and sandy brown, have patterns of greenish and light blue, pinkish and lilac, dark brown and ashen. But no matter what color scheme There is always a zigzag stripe on the back of a poisonous creature. Usually it is dark, but sometimes it is light. But it is precisely this zigzag that is its calling card. When you see it, you can immediately conclude that it is a common viper.

Males are most often colored purple or bluish-blue. The arsenal of females includes red and yellow tones, greenish-brown and sandy shades. Both females and males are painted black. But in any case, small spots can be distinguished on males white located on the upper lip. The bottom of their tail is also somewhat lighter than the body. Females have spots of red, pink and white on their lips. Bottom part their tail is colored bright yellow.

With such bright colors, all small individuals are born the same color. It is brownish-brown, the zigzag on the back is painted in terracotta tones. After 5-7 molts, a change in color will begin, this happens after about a year of life.

Poisonous vipers can live in flocks and nests. It is quite rare to see a snake nest. It can be small, or it can gather into a ball with a diameter of 50-70 cm. Snakes can live next to people, vipers never. But recently, as a result of forest fires in the zone natural disaster It could also be a snake's den. Some animals will try to crawl to other places, while others will die. Vipers are poisonous snakes that can end up in gardening areas.

Despite the external similarity of snakes and vipers, there is a main difference - orange-yellow spots on the sides of the snake’s head. There are no lines or zigzag patterns on his back.

The body of the grass snake is much longer than that of a viper. The viper's head has small scutes and is covered with large scales. You can see round pupils in the snake's eyes. The viper is an excellent hunter of mice, frogs and toads. She has excellent reactions. These animals mate in May-June. The offspring are born until the end of August. The cubs are born alive, their length is 15-18 cm. They immediately spread out and begin their hunting life. In winter, snakes live in the ground, often in groups.

How not to confuse a snake with a viper (video)

Viper - common in our country poisonous snake. There are 292 varieties of it. There are large steppe specimens and smaller plain ones. They are viviparous and can lay 4-24 eggs. Sexual maturity occurs at the age of 3 years. The snake swims beautifully, crawls along rocks and trees, destroys bird nests, and hunts mice, lizards, and grasshoppers. Viper venom is quite strong and useful in certain doses.

The animal does not seek a meeting with a person; it tries to hide from his eyes. But it doesn't always work out. The snake begins to hiss and lunge towards the enemy. You should not make sudden movements when meeting her. This provokes the animal to bite. The poisonous snake also has its enemies: hedgehogs, ferrets, badgers, foxes. Snake venom does not affect them at all. Eagles, storks and owls hunt snakes from above.

In general, the viper is a poisonous snake that brings more benefit to humans than harm. It destroys rats and mice, which are quite difficult to deal with. She avoids meeting people, so her bite is not an attack, but a measure of protection.

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What to do if there are wasps in your dacha? How to deal with these such unpleasant guests? After all, most often wasps and hornets make their nests in walls, attics, on balconies, or in hard-to-reach places. Therefore, it can be quite difficult to find a wasp nest in a house, then get to it and finally destroy it. But if you are well informed on this issue, then the task will be much easier, and you can quickly and easily get rid of wasps in your country house or in a wooden house.

Wasps in the country: how to get rid of them yourself. Folk and chemical remedies against wasps

If we are dealing with “house” wasps and not ground wasps, then these control measures will be the most effective and getting rid of wasps is not far off. You just need to choose the best method and learn some facts about wasps.

What you need to know about wasps?

  • The wasps return to the nest to roost at night. Therefore, in the morning and during the day there are fewer of them in the nest, and baiting and destruction of the nest should be done at night.
  • Wasp stings can be dangerous. Allergies to stings can be life-threatening. Wasps can also carry intestinal infections that are difficult to diagnose and treat.
  • If on summer cottage or clusters of wasps were noticed in the house last year, it is better to inspect these places in winter or earlier spring time, since in mid-spring the wasp queen begins to reproduce and by summer the wasp swarm will be numerous.

What a wasp's nest looks like: photo

Effective methods of fighting wasps in the countryside using folk remedies

Important! Before you start killing wasps, put on protection. Mainly pay attention to the eyes, face and hands. It is better to wear leather gloves on your hands and use a special uniform to protect your face and eyes. A gas mask is very suitable for this purpose. Clothing should be “thick” so that wasps cannot sting. It wouldn’t hurt to read an article about wasp stings and their consequences in advance.

If the wasp's nest is visible

In this case, the task becomes easier. And we have 3 proven and most common methods.

First- you can take a bucket or pan (any container) with water, bring it to wasp's nest from below and immerse it completely in the liquid. Keep this for at least 5-7 minutes. The nest will dissolve in the water and the wasps will drown.

Second option — put the bag on the socket, squeezing it well at the attachment point. Cut it off the base and wrap the top of the bag with tape. Then make a small incision so that you can insert the head of a can of wasp repellent into it, and inject the contents into it. Then cover the incision with tape and leave for half an hour. If you do not plan to use a chemical product, put on several layers of bags, place the resulting cocoon in a large bucket, cover it with a lid, and leave it there for several days. Ideally, after time has passed, it is better to open the package and burn the nest.

Third- you can try to get rid of wasps using traps from plastic bottles. To do this, you need to take 2-5 liter bottles, fill them halfway with sweet honey syrup, sour compote or beer and make holes with a diameter of no more than 1 cm. The wasps will fly to the bait, and, having flown into the holes, will not be able to fly back. This method is effective, but as practice shows, it will not help to get rid of all wasps.

If the nest is inaccessible

No chemicals here. funds are not enough. Buy anything in the store chemical agent against wasps, on this moment In practice, the following chemicals are most often used. anti-wasp remedies:

  • Troapsil
  • Moskitol Protection against wasps
  • Smelnet (Smell-no)
  • Dichlorvos
  • Super Cobra
  • Sherpa, Intavir - suitable for injecting sweet bait or any place like compost heap. As a result - a bunch of wasp corpses.

Next we do the following. We attach an extension tube to the spray, onto which we first wrap a rag (this is necessary so that the resulting lump of fabric can tightly block the exit from the hive). Carefully plug the entrance to the nest with a rag with a tube wrapped in it, so that the tip of the tube is inside the nest, and inject the insecticide inside. We wait 10 minutes until all the insects die, remove the nest and burn it, and ventilate the room.

If the nest is not visible

If you have not found a nest of “winged” ones, you need to track their routes of entry into the house. After which, in the dark, when the wasps fly into the nest, you need to treat the tunnels with wasp spray by inserting a tube into them the right size. Then you can moisten pieces of tow or cotton wool with insecticides such as “Sipaz”, “Fufanol” or others and clog the holes with them as far as possible. The holes should be plastered. It will be useful to add a little karbofos to the plaster.

Important! After destroying the wasp den, it is necessary to “clean” the nest attachment site as much as possible. Then treat it with a solution of potassium permanganate or hydrogen peroxide. These measures are necessary to ensure that the wasps do not return to their previously preferred location.

Any insects are a nuisance for the owners of the house in which they appear, be it house ants, cockroaches or wasps. Wasps are common inhabitants of human homes, gardens or plots. Larvae are offspring that will bring with them even more larvae and harm, so it is extremely important to know what wasp larvae look like and effective ways their destruction.

These insects can cause dangerous intestinal infections; they behave aggressively if someone tries to influence their nest. Wasps also spoil food and disturb owners with their buzzing and general presence in the apartment. Hundreds of people around the world also die every year from allergic reactions to bee stings.

These insects are among those that go through a cycle of becoming adult during your life. The female lays a larva small size, which is equal to approximately a third of that of an adult. The embryo turns into a pupa, which quickly undergoes the process of forming internal organs: digestive system and other systems vital for insects.

After a few days, the insect sheds its shell and becomes an adult. What do wasps feed their larvae? During his “growing up” period small insect cannot eat the same food as older individuals, the female obtains protein “products” for her offspring: spiders, ants, midges and other insects. The mother attacks her prey, rendering it paralyzed, and brings it to the nest.

The newly laid pupa is almost motionless, so the adult wasp takes care of it. The wasp larva has a yellow body; it does not have membranous and developed wings or legs, with the help of which the flying pest can capture prey and hold it. Since wasp larvae most During the period of their development, they are in honeycombs, they do not move, and if they fall out of the shelter, they move crawling, like caterpillars, only wriggling and rolling from side to side due to the lack of limbs. The larvae have a round body on which divisions are visible

The wasp lays its offspring in honeycombs, attaching the larvae to the walls; it seals the entrance to the “cell” with a special compound so that the “baby” does not fall out. Over time, the wasp larvae reach such a size that they no longer fit into the honeycomb, so it is difficult to fall out of it.

Where to look for a wasp's nest?

The most common location for a nest in an apartment is a balcony, under the ceiling in a corner, behind shelves, under the trim, or vice versa - in a corner closer to the floor, under a window sill, on pipes.

In a private house, wasps can fly from attics, from under the roof of buildings, from piles of old things. Wasps often create their nests where they are most difficult to find. To know how to get rid of pupae of flying pests, you should know what wasp larvae look like so as not to confuse them with caterpillars.

Advice: if it is not possible to find a wasp’s home, you just need to put a piece of bread, smeared with jam, melon or meat in the room where they often live and watch their movement. The wasps will quickly smell the treat and fly off to treat themselves, and then fly back, and you can follow them.

Destruction of a nest with larvae

There are quite a lot of means for destroying wasp nests, but since over time the wasps have mutated and become more resistant to the effects of chemical components, a higher concentration of dangerous compounds is added to the substances, which can also harm human health.

Wasp larvae respond well to classic aerosols, for example, Dichlorvos, Raptor, Varana, etc. - they can be found in any grocery store. Such means will not cope with a large spread of insects, but you can easily destroy a small nest located on a balcony, in an apartment, or in the attic. Enhanced Effect active ingredients have indoors.

More effective methods getting rid of a nest with pupae:

  • Pesticides - experts recommend using them if the fight against flying pests has been going on for a long time and is not at all in your favor. Aerosol is sprayed on outer part nests and inside. After 2-3 days, the insects will die, even those that fly into the house for a short time. After this, it will be possible to remove the nest;
  • Insecticidal dust - you need to generously treat the “entrance” to the home and, just in case, from above. The poison will penetrate inside the house on the bodies of the wasps and have an effect on other individuals, including the larvae. This remedy is good because the insects die without their noticing.

There are also several traditional methods to get rid of wasps. Experts warn that these methods are used only if the pests have settled in your home for the first time and have not yet multiplied too much.

Home control methods include the following:

  1. The smell of burnt pine needles - this method of control is suitable for those who do not want to destroy insects and for residents of private houses. If the wasps have settled near the stove, then you need to drown it with pine branches until the wasps fly away. Negative trait– this method will not help immediately and is not available to everyone;
  2. Tree resin - a red thread is treated with resin and stretched from the nest to the fruit tree;
  3. Foam is a quick and rather ruthless way to completely close the entrance and exit from a home with foam, without leaving a single gap, after which the nest is “cut off” and taken to a safe distance;
  4. Hot water – the nest must be poured with boiling water and taken out of the home. This method is very risky, since such an attack on the shelter will enrage them, so before carrying out the procedure it is necessary to wear a protective suit;
  5. Bag - cover the nest with a thick bag, disconnect it from the surface, seal it with tape at the base and burn it. This method requires quick reactions;
  6. Kerosene – treat the nest with kerosene, after a while the wasps will die and you can get rid of their shelter.

Conclusion

What do wasp larvae look like to be able to recognize them? They differ little from adult individuals, only they do not have developed legs and wings. But by destroying one larva, you will not be able to get rid of the wasp invasion, so you need to influence the nest itself using folk or chemical methods.

Video: Large wasp larvae

The construction technique, final shape and main characteristics of bird buildings - primarily their strength and heat capacity - are determined by the properties of the nesting material.

Birds simply pile up thick, rigid branches of trees and shrubs, trying to fit them together as tightly as possible. Large birds of prey and storks build their massive platform nests in trees in this way, achieving truly outstanding results.

Perennial nests

Once folded, the nest, clearly visible from all sides, becomes a landmark of the area for many years. It will be occupied for decades by different individuals, who, due to their natural industriousness, will also make their contribution to the accumulation of nesting material. The thickness of the platform will grow from year to year, the platform will turn into an impressive tower.

The famous bald eagle nest near Vermilion in Ohio (USA) was 2.5 meters in diameter and more than 3 meters high, weighing approximately 2 tons. This is probably the most massive structure of birds that, without any stretch of the imagination, can be called a typical nest intended for breeding offspring married couple. Only slightly inferior to this colossal structure are the nests of Pacific Steller's sea eagles in Kamchatka. The size of the black vulture's nest resembles the wheel of the heaviest dump truck, reaching a two-meter diameter and almost a meter in thickness. Taking advantage of the peaceful nature of the owners, entire bird families are housed within its walls, and they tolerate each other quite well.

Materials for building nests

To this same the simplest technique Many birds resort to layer-by-layer folding. For aquatic birds, the material used is not branches, but various fragments aquatic plants. The material is laid in a wet state, which, when dried, imparts additional strength to the building due to the effect of “gluing” the drying fragments.

Small birds with miniature nests have cobwebs among their favorite materials, and they spend a lot of time searching for them. Being sticky and durable, it acts as a cementing material, holding together individual layers of dry grass, and perfectly secures nests to tree branches.

Nests of tropical sunbirds


The nests of tropical sunbirds are very unique in design and easily recognizable. In most species, the structure looks like a very elongated pear, hanging on the tip of a thin branch or suspended from bottom side palm or banana leaf. In the lower expanded part of the “pear” there is a closed nesting chamber with a narrow side entrance, usually covered on top by a small canopy. The building is very miniature, and even a tiny sunbird does not fit inside completely, so the head of the hen with a long curved beak is almost always visible from the outside. The main building material is plant fluff, held together with a large amount of cobwebs, which is also used for hanging the nest.

Thanks to a large number cobwebs flickering in sun rays, the nests of some species look very elegant and resemble Christmas decorations, who by misunderstanding ended up on a palm tree. In general, the love of sunbirds for webs is all-consuming - the Russian name spider-eaters, applied to some representatives of this group of birds, should be changed to spider-lovers. Some sunbirds do not build nests at all. Having found a good layer of cobwebs in a secluded corner in the crown of a tree, they lightly rake it in one place and lay eggs in the resulting tray.

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Warbler nests


Worthy of mention are the nests of warblers, skillfully mounted on vertical stems standing next to each other. The stems pass through the side walls of the nest, which is held on supports mainly by friction or “glued” using putty made of silt and mud. The shape of the warbler's nest resembles a cylinder or a ball with a truncated top, neatly twisted from blades of grass and reed leaves. The edges of the tray are always tightly pulled together, the inside is sometimes “plastered” with the same mud, which, when dried, forms a smooth surface. Sometimes warblers attach a nest to living, growing stems of nettle, meadowsweet or fireweed, and in the month that elapses from the time the building is laid until the chicks fly, it sometimes rises up almost half a meter. The nest is attached with the side walls to the reed stems.

“Master of Pottery” – clay nests

The catalog of building materials for birds also includes damp clay soil. The main bets on it were made by swallows, rock nuthatches, magpie larks and some representatives of the family with the eloquent name of ovenbirds. Molded nests are among the most skillful bird structures and resemble pottery. They are molded from small lumps of clay and therefore almost always have a characteristic finely bumpy surface, so that by the number of bumps you can quite accurately calculate how many portions of material were laid during the construction process.

Magpie larks


Magpie larks are small, colorfully colored birds native to the arid regions of Australia. Contrary to their name, from an evolutionary point of view they are more raven-like and indeed resemble magpies with their tails half-cut. They are quite satisfied with the simplest cup-shaped nests, open at the top, mounted on tree branches and typical for most ravens. The only difference is that the larks' nests are entirely made of clay. This gives only one advantage - the ability to build on thin horizontal branches, “sticking” a building to them, while for nests made of “standard” material, which does not have the properties of cement, it is necessary to look for a fork in the branches or strengthen them close to the trunk along which a marsupial marten or a snake may climb up.

Great rock nuthatch nests

The nest of a great rock nuthatch looks like a narrow-necked pitcher glued to the rock with its bottom. The neck of the jug, that is, the entrance to the nest, is directed downward and to the side. Such a “jug” usually weighs about 4-5 kilograms, but there are also more massive buildings. The thickness of the walls reaches 7 centimeters, and the strength is such that it is impossible to break the nest with your hands. Nuthatches use the mucus of crushed caterpillars, beetles and butterflies as a cementing solution, mercilessly smearing them on the surface of the nest, which over time is covered here and there with a motley pattern of wings of unfortunate victims.

Swallows' nests


Molded swallow nests are distinguished by a wide variety of shapes. The simplest one is the open-top structure of barn swallows - exactly half of a cup neatly cut along the length, glued along the cut to the wall, certainly under the cover of some kind of canopy - a cornice or rock ledge. City swallows build a nest, closed on all sides, with a narrow side entrance. Most often, the shape of the building is close to the quarter of a ball, attached from above and behind to two mutually perpendicular planes - usually to the wall and the roof canopy.

The nest of the red-rumped swallow is distinguished by its extreme elegance of form. It consists of half a jug cut lengthwise with a rather long neck and is attached directly to the ceiling.

Ovenbird nests


In the art of handling clay, the ovenbird bird that lives in the Argentine pampas has no competitors. In size and shape, its structure resembles a soccer ball attached to a strong tree branch or the top of a pole. It looks simple in appearance, but commands respect for its solidity, reaching a weight of 10 kilograms.

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The side entrance leads into a fairly spacious interior space- a kind of lobby, to back wall which is attached to the nesting chamber itself - a deep pocket sculpted from clay, somewhat similar to a barn swallow's nest. It is not easy to squeeze into this “pocket,” because stove makers leave a very narrow gap between the ceiling of the lobby and the upper edge of the “pocket,” so they do not have to worry about uninvited guests.

Why do birds build nests out of clay?

Clay is malleable during construction and gives high strength to finished buildings. Why did these advantages turn out to be in demand by the “construction industry” of birds on such a limited scale? The widespread use of clay for the construction of bird's nests is hampered by its endless vagaries depending on the weather. Either it is too hot for it, and it dries out, often forcing a long pause in construction that has already begun. On the contrary, it is too damp, and the newly laid layers of clay refuse to dry and harden, which also entails an unplanned pause in construction.

In addition, it is advisable to build clay nests in the shade. Once in the sun, they can dry out and collapse, and it’s not easy for chicks to sit in a hot clay “stove.” That’s why swallows love to roost under the roofs of buildings, nuthatches avoid building nests on southern-facing rocks and almost always hide them under overhanging rock ledges, and ovenbirds tend to lay eggs as early as possible in the spring, before the sun has yet gained full strength.

Finally, clay nests are very labor intensive. To build their very small nest in ideal weather and full supply of materials, a pair of city swallows needs to deliver from 700 to 1500 portions of clay (excluding dropped ones), which takes at least ten days. Ovenbirds and nuthatches with their massive nests require at least 2,000 clumps, and construction, accompanied by inevitable downtime, lasts for several weeks. Stove makers do not hide their nests from the sun and therefore are forced to do their best to increase their mass in order to reduce the rate of their heating and reduce the range of temperature fluctuations.

But despite all the shortcomings, molded nests still opened up a completely new approach to the problem of safety. Swallows and nuthatches have the ability to “glue” their houses on the steepest rocks, hanging over the rapids of mountain rivers or falling into bottomless abysses, under the ceilings of caves and grottoes in the midst of mysterious twilight and eternal dampness, in a word, in places where predators are unable to reach . In addition, nests fashioned in the form of chambers closed on all sides with a narrow entrance perfectly protect the offspring, and, on occasion, parents from rain and cold.

By using clay soil You can reduce the size of the entrance hole to the hollow, as our common nuthatches do. They settle mainly in the hollows of large spotted woodpeckers with an entrance about 50-60 millimeters in diameter, while for a nuthatch 35 millimeters is quite enough. The nuthatch eliminates the difference by carefully covering the entrance with clay, silt or manure.

This activity is purely instinctive in nature. Even if a nuthatch nests in a hollow with a small entrance, it will still generously coat the tree bark around the entrance with clay.

“Don’t give a damn... and build it”

Swift nests

The attitude of swifts to the construction of their nests can be described as “not giving a damn.” Basic construction material during construction, it is its own saliva, which has the ability to instantly harden in air.

The swift is the best flyer among all birds. He lives on the fly - he hunts for insects, quenches his thirst, plays a wedding, rests, sleeps, and so on.

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Most well-known representative A suborder of swifts, numbering 58 species, is the black swift - an inhabitant of city attics and birdhouses. The shape of its nests largely depends on the configuration of the nesting space and the presence of foreign nesting material in it. Basically, the nest looks quite ordinary and is a kind of flat cake with raised saucer-like edges.

In terms of design features and construction costs, the most complex and labor-intensive nest is built by the Cayenne swift, which lives in the Central and South America. The structure is suspended from an overhanging rocky cornice and looks very much like a thick icicle with a broken tip. The design of the socket is a tube with an entrance from the bottom. Clinging with sharp claws, the swift climbs onto the ledge of the inner wall, where the egg lies. At the top of the tube there is another false entrance, which ends in a dead end. The length of the “icicles” exceeds 60 centimeters, which is four times the length of the builder himself. It’s no wonder that construction takes almost six months and requires patience and dedication from the birds. It is not at all easy to catch plant fibers and feathers in the air and, of course, to produce saliva in quantities sufficient for construction.

With the help of saliva, swifts have the ability to stick eggs at the incubation site - this allows them to make do with the tiniest nests and incubate the clutch in the most incredible position.


The nest of the palm swift, widespread in the tropics of the Eastern Hemisphere, is shaped and sized like a tablespoon without a handle. This "spoon" is glued to the underside of a hanging palm leaf almost vertical position. The eggs, naturally, also stick - without this they will immediately fall to the ground. “Newborn” chicks tightly cling with sharp claws to their hanging cradle and hang there for several weeks, just as their incubating parents hung before.

The nest of a palm swift is shielded from tropical downpours by a palm leaf. Crested swifts rely only on themselves to protect their nests from rain. Compared to their own size, they build the smallest nests of any bird.
But not because of a good life, but so that the nest could be completely covered from the rain with one’s own body.

Meanwhile, in the nesting areas of these birds in a tropical climate, rains fall every day, as scheduled - immediately after lunch, and can be extremely heavy. The structure is a tiny shelf made of several pieces of bark, plant fibers and fluff glued together, glued to the side of a tree branch. There is only enough space for one testicle: the brooding bird has to sit on a branch because the shelf will not support it. Therefore, the branch where the nest is attached should be no thicker than a finger - otherwise the swift will not be able to grab onto it with his fingers. Sitting under a furious tropical downpour, amidst a raging thunderstorm, the crested swift is worthy of becoming a symbol of the parental dedication of birds.

"Carpenters" and "diggers"

Woodpecker nests


What professions have birds not mastered in pursuit of maximum comfort and safety of their nests? Some even had to master the skills of carpenters and diggers. These skills for both are based on the skillful use of the same working tool - their own strong beak, which, depending on the circumstances, can be used as a chisel or instead of a shovel. Therefore, the professions of a carpenter and a digger in the world of birds are quite closely related to each other.

Most woodpeckers hollow out a new “home” for themselves every year., passing the old one on to the “secondary market” and acting as real benefactors to other birds who are in chronic need of hollows. The hollows of the Great Spotted Woodpecker, the most numerous and widely known “carpenter” of Russian forests, are inhabited mainly by small songbirds - flycatchers, redstarts, and tits. They are quite satisfied with a room with a diameter of 14-15 and a depth of 20-25 centimeters. But the activity of the nest is especially important and even irreplaceable for forest birds, whose voluminous hollows provide shelter for such large birds as owls, pigeons, mergansers and goldeneyes.

In modern forests, old hollow patriarch trees have almost disappeared, so it is almost impossible for owls, owls, and crows to find a natural hollow of suitable size. Unlike other woodpeckers, who tend to change places of residence every year, the woodpecker retains a long-term attachment to old hollows, which does not at all prevent it from building new ones in the spring - “in reserve.”
Despite all their dexterity, woodpeckers still rarely dare to gouge a hollow in the hard wood of a completely healthy tree from start to finish. Therefore, almost all woodpeckers consider aspen to be their favorite tree to go under hollows, with its soft wood susceptible to heart rot. It is possible that by tapping on the trunk before starting “construction”, the woodpecker determines by ear whether it is worth starting work on this particular tree or whether it is better to look for another.

The pygmy woodpecker, one of the smallest representatives of forest carpenters, lives well in the bamboo forests of the Himalayas and Indochina. The bamboo trunk is hollow inside and divided into sections by partitions-internodes. It is enough for the bird to hollow out the wall of the trunk 10-20 centimeters above the internode - and it has a completely ready-made nesting chamber at its disposal.

The red-headed woodpecker, which lives in the same region, does not build a hollow at all, but hatches its chicks inside the massive and certainly residential nests of large wood ants, nicknamed “fire ants” for their lively character and readiness to immediately and for any reason use their powerful jaws and poisonous sting.

The building material for ants is a unique and quite durable “cardboard” made from wood fibers thoroughly chewed and mixed with saliva. Woodpeckers make a hole about 5 centimeters in diameter in the shell of an ant's nest and lay their eggs right among the insects' brood chambers. The secret of the loyalty of ants, whose incredible aggressiveness is known to all inhabitants of the jungle, in relation to woodpeckers has not yet been solved, especially since the feathered tenants are not distinguished by their modest disposition and regularly eat ant pupae, without even interrupting their incubation.

Common kingfisher burrows


Regarding kingfisher burrowing - great masters. They dig with their beaks, and scoop out the earth from the tunnel with their paws, moving back towards the entrance, so deftly that clay and sand fly out of the hole like a fountain. When choosing a more convenient place, many birds lay several holes at the same time, often at a decent distance from each other. In the morning, the kingfisher works on one cliff, in the afternoon it flies to another, and in the evening, you see, clay is already falling from the third.

  1. Routes of infection
  2. What bedbug bites look like: symptoms on human skin (photo)
  3. What is the danger of bed bug bites for a child?
  4. How to remove bite marks with ointments and other medications
  5. How to get rid of it at home folk remedies for bites

Many suffer from lack of sleep. It’s impossible to relax at night; something constantly interferes and forces you to wake up. As a result, the person is completely broken and cannot work fully.

It is possible and necessary to fight it, human health depends on it. However, few people know what a bite looks like bed bug and how you can get rid of it. This will be discussed in this article.

Routes of infection

A bedbug is a small insect, the size of which can reach from 3 to 8 mm, it has oval shape bodies. Its size is affected by the degree of saturation, and its color also speaks about this. The individual may be light brown in color before feeding on human blood.

Bedding on trains and furniture in hotel rooms can be called real breeding grounds for bedbugs. All you have to do is sit for a couple of minutes on the chair where the bug lives, and it will move to a new place of residence, where it can still satisfy its hunger.

What bedbug bites look like: symptoms on human skin (photo)

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A person does not always immediately understand that a pest has taken up residence in his home and particularly in his bed - a bug, which inflicts numerous wounds under the cover of night and feeds on fresh blood.

You can certainly see characteristic marks on the body, but many often mistake them for bites of other insects.

There are several characteristic symptoms that indicate that the bites were caused by a bedbug:

  • Insects feed mainly in one place, so in the morning a person may find multiple bites localized in one area on the body. In this case, you can notice a characteristic path of small footprints.
  • In places of damage, swelling is visible and scars appear.
  • When biting a person, the insect injects saliva, which provokes severe itching. This phenomenon is an allergic reaction.
  • When making the bed, a person may notice numerous small spots of blood on the sheets and duvet covers.
  • Regular bedbug bites cause the area of ​​the affected area to expand. Those who are prone to allergies will struggle longer with the rash that appears.

If you look closely, you will notice that literally in an area of ​​several centimeters there are from 3 to 5 bites.

What is the danger of bed bug bites for a child?

The destruction of bedbugs should be carried out by the relevant services; it is not always possible to cope with such an invasion on your own.

How to remove bite marks with ointments and other medications

In pharmacology, there is no drug with a narrowly targeted effect specifically for the treatment of bed bug bites.

  • Psilo-Balm has proven itself well. The active ingredient is diphenhydramine. It quickly soothes irritated skin, reduces swelling, redness and relieves itching. The person does not feel pain.
  • You can use Fenistil gel. It protects the skin from infections, prevents the development of suppuration, and eliminates itching.
  • Affordable Rescuer accelerates the healing process of wounds and reduces swelling. It quickly reduces itching and irritation. This remedy should be used at the first detected insect infestations.

Important! Selecting a remedy yourself is prohibited. You need to consult a doctor so as not to provoke adverse reactions.

  • Erythromycin ointment;
  • Tetracycline ointment;
  • Hydrocortisone ointment.

These are strong remedies that are prescribed exclusively by a doctor. It also determines the permissible dosage and duration of use.

How to get rid of bites at home using folk remedies

After being bitten by bedbugs, it is not always possible to run to the pharmacy and purchase medicine. In this case, time-tested traditional medicine will come to the rescue.

  1. Make a paste of fresh leaves, stems, and flowers of dandelion and apply it to the affected area in the form of a compress. Beneficial features plants prevent the development of an allergic reaction.
  2. Squeeze the juice out of the garlic, moisten a cotton swab and apply to the bite site. This will quickly cope with itching, redness, and kill pathogenic bacteria.
  3. Cut the onion into several pieces and apply to the affected area of ​​the skin. Keep for 4-5 hours. This will soothe the skin, relieve inflammation, and reduce pain.
  4. Make a solution of baking soda and a small amount of water. You should have a porridge-like consistency. Apply it to the bite site and wait until it dries.

These are simple and available funds will help to quickly alleviate the condition, but you definitely need to see a doctor to prescribe medication.

Expert opinion about the drug.