Wood-Ticks
I had been told of the ticks that infest the forests of the South, had heard blood-curdling stories of how they sometimes bury themselves, entire, in the flesh of animals and men and have to be cut out, and my horror of them was great. In reality I found them unpleasant enough but, as far as we were concerned, comparatively harmless.
The wood-tick is a small, rather disgusting-looking creature which, in appearance and size, resembles the common bedbug. It fastens itself upon you without your knowledge and you do not feel it even when it begins to suck your blood, but something generally impels you to pass your hand over the back of your neck, or cheek, where the thing is clinging, and, feeling the lump, you pull it off and no great harm done. The tick is supposed always to bury its head in the flesh, and it is said that if the head is left in when the bug is pulled off an ugly sore will be the result. We had no experience of that kind, however, nor, in our hurry to get rid of it, did we stop to remove the bug scientifically by dropping oil on it, as Kephart advises, but just naturally and simply, also vigorously, we grasped it between thumb and forefinger and hastily plucked it off. The effect of the bite was no worse on any of our party than that of the Jersey mosquito.
Often your friends will see a tick on you and tell you of it even while they have several, all unknown to themselves, decorating their own countenance. The name by which science knows this unlovely bug is Ixodes leech.
Jigger. Redbug. Mite
The tiny mite called by the natives jigger and redbug is more annoying than the wood-tick, one reason being that there are so many more of him. He really does penetrate the skin, and his wanderings under the surface give one the feeling of an itching rash which covers the body. You won't see the jigger—he is too small, but if you invade his domain you will certainly feel him.
Deer-Fly
The deer-fly will bite and bite hard enough to hurt. It will drive its sharp mandibles into your skin with such force as to take out a bit of the flesh, sometimes causing the blood to flow, but the bite does not seem particularly poisonous, though you feel it at the time and it generally raises a lump on the flesh. The deer-fly belongs to the family of gadflies. It is larger than a house-fly and its wings stand out at right angles to its body. It will not trouble you much except in the woods.
Black-Fly
The Adirondack and North Woods region is not only the resort of hunters, campers, and seekers after health and pleasure, but it is also the haunt of the maddening black-fly. From early spring until the middle of July or first of August the black-fly holds the territory; then it evacuates and is seen no more until next season, when it begins a new campaign.