How to stop the tiny air (and land) invaders.

1978 - a great year for entertainment fans, who now not only had the Laser Disc (a giant precursor to the DVD), but now Space Invaders. This still-standing arcade favorite is about shooting down space bugs as they swarm.

To connect this to safety, we'll use earth bugs - learning about bug spray, bug bites, and bug identification.

Complete all 3 activities for 3 Barry Bucks!

Be Entered to Win: An Outdoor Bug Zapper

Game Levels

Activity 1: Learn About Bug Spray

In Space Invaders, your best weapon is an 8-bit insect fighting gun.
In real life, it's bug spray.
Watch this video from Good Morning America about how to read a bug spray label and what should be inside your ideal bottle.

Everything to Know about Staying Bug Safe This Summer (3:34)

Activity 2: Learn your Bug Bites

No matter how careful you are, how much bug spray you wear, or how good your bug blasting skills are, there's always a chance a super-strong little critter is going to make it through.

When you notice a bite, blister, etc. without a bug attached, we need to figure out what bit you.

Click through the slides below to see what you may be dealing with, and what needs further attention.

Intro: Content Warning

The following click through pages are all going to contain a pretty gross-looking real bug bite pictures, because that tends to be more helpful.

There is additional information describing the bite.

If you can't stomach the images, you can read the list with drawn pictures below:

WikiHow: How to Identify Insect Bites: 12 Bug Bites & Stings

Bed Bugs

What they look like: Often confused with mosquito bites, bed bug bites are small, red, puffy bumps that appear in lines or clusters, usually three or more. They can have distinct red marks at their center, and they often appear on exposed skin that touches the bed at night, including the arms, neck, or trunk of the body. With close examination of your room, you can often find the bugs (or their droppings) in your mattress, particularly around the corners, the head end, and the cord that encircles it.

Symptoms to note: Bed bug bites aren’t too painful, but they can be very itchy and swollen. The parasites don’t spread diseases like ticks do; however, they’re difficult to remove and won’t stop biting you until they’re eradicated from your home.

Bee Stings

What it looks like: Bee stings vary from person to person. Some people exhibit only a small, light spot, while others get a larger, red welt. There also might be a white spot at the center where the sting occurred. In the case of a honey bee sting, the barbed stinger is often still attached—which will keep pumping venom into your body until you remove it.

Symptoms to note: Bee stings cause moderate pain, which should subside within a few hours. All insect stings can cause life-threatening allergic reactions, and bee stings are no exception. Monitor your symptoms after a sting and call 911 if you notice the signs of anaphylaxis, including swelling beyond the sting site, tightness in the chest or throat, or trouble breathing.

Wasp Stings

What it looks like: Wasp stings can be uncomfortable, but most people, without wasp sting allergies, recover quickly and without complications. Typical wasp stings present as sharp pain, redness, swelling, and itching or burning at the sting site. Often, a raised welt will appear around the sting site. A tiny white mark may be visible in the middle of the welt where the stinger punctured your skin. Usually, the pain and swelling recedes within several hours of being stung.

Symptoms to note: More concerning reactions to wasp stings, that may indicate some level of allergy to the venom, include extreme redness and swelling that increases for two or three days after the sting. Nausea and vomiting can also occur. Most times, these reactions will subside on their own in about a week. You should let your doctor know right away if you have a more concerning reaction after a wasp sting.

Yellow Jacket Sting

What it looks like: Similar to wasps and bees, when a yellow jacket stings you, it pierces your skin with its stinger and injects a poisonous venom that causes sudden pain. After being stung, you may also experience swelling or redness around the sting for a few hours. Fatigue, itching, and warmth around the injection site are also common symptoms people experience after a sting.

Symptoms to note: Some symptoms warrant emergency medical attention. These may include: coughing or wheezing; problems breathing or swallowing, or having tightness in your throat; changes to your skin, such as breaking out into hives; feeling lightheaded or dizzy, or passing out; or vomiting or diarrhea. These symptoms may indicate a severe allergic reaction or anaphylaxis. If you or someone near you exhibits these symptoms, seek emergency medical help immediately.

Fire Ant Bite + Sting

What they look like: Some ants can bite and sting. If you’re dealing with an aggressive one, it’s probably a fire ant, which are more common in the southern states. Fire ants, because they’re so lovely, will actually bite you so they can hold themselves against your body—and then proceed to sting you with their backend. The result can cause a pimple-like pustule, although some people don’t react at all.

Symptoms to note: Fire ant stings are very painful due to the potency of their venom, and since ants don’t lose their stingers when they attack, you’ll probably end up with multiple wounds. The inflammation and pain can take days or weeks to go away, and sometimes checking in with a doctor is needed.

Flea Bites

What they look like: Like bed bug or lice bites, flea bites are red bumps that appear in lines and clusters. They’re distinctively small, and they often have reddish halos surrounding them. Fleas tend to bite around the ankles and in warm places like the knees, groin, and armpits—but they usually prefer your pets.

Symptoms to note: Flea bites are very itchy, and they might even become sore or painful, causing a rash around the affected skin. Scratching the bites could cause these symptoms to worsen or even lead to infection.

Lice Bites

What they look like: Another too-close-for-comfort pest are head lice, which leave patches of red, abraded spots on the scalp and surrounding skin. Although their bites are small, the body’s reaction to them makes them grow. You might not even see the bites first—the initial giveaway might be tiny lice eggs (a.k.a. nits) first.

Symptoms to note: Lice bites are quite itchy, and an infestation can even feel like something is moving or tickling in the hair. This can actually cause trouble sleeping. Sores caused by scratching can also develop easily. The only solution is getting rid of the bugs A.S.A.P.

Mosquito Bite

What it looks like: Mosquito bites present as small, puffy, round bumps that are lighter or redder than the surrounding skin. Bites often center around ankles, hairlines, and the backs of knees and necks, and they’re likely to be isolated—not part of a cluster (unless you were hanging out in prime mosquito territory during dawn or dusk).

Symptoms to note: As you most likely know, mosquito bites are painless at first, then very, very itchy. Some people suffer from “skeeter syndrome,” which causes the bites to grow into painful, swollen welts. Mosquitoes do carry a risk of certain diseases like West Nile and Zika, so monitor for cold- or flu-like symptoms after a bite.

Spider Bites

What they look like: If you’ve got two tiny puncture marks on your skin (or see a spider crawling away), you are probably dealing with a spider bite. Redness and swelling at the site of the bite are also common. Thankfully, most spiders bite only when provoked.

Symptoms to note: Innocuous spider bites often cause mild pain (like a bee sting) and even itching. But watch out for brown recluses and black widows: The former can cause necrotic lesions, while the latter can bring on muscle spasms, tremors, and nausea. Seek medical help if you suspect a bite from either of these spiders.

Want more specific spider bites? Click here! (Warning, super gross).

Sand Fly Bites

What they look like: Sand fly bites are distinct from those of other flies. They can appear alone, but often present in groups of small, red bumps or blisters.

Symptoms to note: Sand fly bites are generally painful and may start to itch. In certain parts of the world—including the tropics, subtropics, and southern Europe–they can transmit leishmaniasis, a parasitic infection that causes skin lesions and ulcers.

Tick Bites

What they look like: The best way to I.D. a tick bite is to find one of the insects attached to you—and they can linger for three to six days as they feed on your blood. Some leave a red spot about the size of a dime, but not everyone exhibits this. Tick bites often occur on warmer parts of the body, like the hairline, armpits, behind the knees, and groin.

Symptoms to note: Tick bites are pretty painless and a bit itchy at first, but dangerous, with more serious symptoms appearing days to weeks after a bite. A bullseye rash (pictured here) signals Lyme disease, but other tick-borne illnesses include ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis, and tularemia, although the risk for each varies depending on the tick’s species.

Activity 3: Be a Pest Detective

Ok yes, this game is for kids, but it shows the important way you can use deductive reasoning to figure out what kind of pest or bite you are dealing with.

You'll play a round of "Pest Detective" in the box below.

Select the case "The Case of the Gruesome Bite."

If you enjoy it, feel free to play the other one also!

Game not loading in the box above? Click here to play: Pest Detective

Just for Fun: Watch a Playthrough!

Absolutely no pressure to watch this, but if you're curious about what the original Space Invaders looks like, here's a playthrough on Youtube!

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Note: We do not claim to have created Space Invaders.

Space Invaders is a registered trademark of Taito.