CAN’T REMEMBER WHY YOU HATE CAMPING?

Before you go hiking this summer you might want to get familiar with the Schmidt Sting Pain Index in order to figure out which nasty biting insects to avoid the most. The index is a brilliantly written ranking of the relative pain caused by stinging insects from level 0 (completely ineffective against humans) to level 4.0+ (pure, intense, brilliant pain.) Entomologist Justin O. Schmidt, who has been stung by almost every insect imaginable, has captured the feeling of each experience in sweet poetic terms. So here are a few to avoid: the Fire ant (level 1.2: “like walking across a shag carpet and reaching for the light switch”); the Bullhor acacia ant (level 1.8: “someone has fired a staple into your cheek”); the Bald-faced hornet (level 2.0: “similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door”); the Red harvester ant (level 3.0: “somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail”); Pepsis wasp (level 4.0: “you might as well lie down and scream”); and, at level 4.0+, the Bullet ant, whose sting is describes as “walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail in your heel.” Good luck out there! (Wikipedia.com)