Omaha daily bee., 1883-05-24
SOME FLORIDA PRODUCTS.
The Pest OF Fleas. T1cks, Snakes and
other Lively Creatures.

A Florida letter says: More feared
just now by the traveller In Florida
than tho Indians are her insects. In
some seasons the flea Is omnipresent
and innumerable. He Is recognized
In polite society. Ticks abound In
the cattle pastures. They consist of
an In%dis.rubber sack attached to q
small cork. screw head, which latter
they insert under your cuticle and
through which they draft your pre-
cious sanguinous fuid into the sack.
You are appraised Of ones presence by
suddenly feeling q protuberance az
large as q buckshot, oocasioned by the
extension of the sack. You attempt
to prag 1t of, but succeed only In
pulling the body away, after which
you IA dig out the head at your leis.
ure with your hunting. knifer The
red bug Is to be found on nearly all
the hunting grounds, near fresh
water, exactly where you desire to
enoamp, and is very apt to appear In
Q swarm when he comes. ! cannot
describe him, as I have never subjected
him to microscopic examination. To
the naked eye he has the appearance
of q light prick from the point of q
very fine needle. he burrows entire.
~ under the cutiole. The poison Is
sure In It's action, the irritation il In.
siderable, and the general result Is .
sore a large a. q half dollar, which
will resist cure for weeks. Jiggers
exist In some localities. They gen.
orally insinuate themselves between
the fingers and toes and deposit an
egg, from which Is Matched q worm
that In many cases, In addition to
great pain, Causes serious lameness
and Inconvenience Mosquitoes, af-
ter the LIST of May, become q terrible
pest. They are of the small black
variety, exceedingly poisonous, come
In clouds, and make life uncomfortable
In some localities. But the worst of
all, to hunter or fisherman, Is the
sand fly. He comes all at once, and
his name Is legion. You are hunting
on the sea beach, among the lar
groves and ~palmettos, or anchored In
q bay or out In INT of the keys, when
the breeze suddenly dies out. A cob.
web of fire falls upon forehead, cheeks,
neck and hanhs, and fills up your eyes,
ears, nostrils and mouth. Blind,
bresthless, sore and suffering, there Ia
nothing for 1t but to surrender at once
and run or row for your life. They
are infnitesmal black goats, resem-
bling those which are the pests of the
Lake Superior forests, and are 30 light
that the smallest breath of the breeze
Is sufficient to relieve you of them,
otherwise they would render some re.
geons uninhabitable.
During several years rambling In
Florida l have met but one serpent
a poor little moccasin running away
with a minnow at the Lake Poinsett
landing, and being whipped to death
by a half-dozen grown men. On that
occasion / sympathizsd with the snake
On another, a rattlesnake ran ver my
foot when my attention was otherwise
diverted, bat was seen by my conpan,
Ions. He treated me politely. / re-
~cierocated and did not hunt him
There are said to be numbers of blacl
and milksnakes, which are inoffensive
but 1t Is not likely that there is on tn,
average n poisonous reptile to iv'
square miles In Florida. Accident
sometimes result, however, from In
cautiousness of their presence. 4
gentleman at Fort Meyers stepped on
of his house upon a dark night las
February, was stricken by a RATHER