Word: bacterias
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...from farms, kill the ecosystem by starving fish. These nutrient pollutants are found in fertilizer and in sewage, and they cause excessive growth of aquatic plants when they hit the water. Algae, during their natural course of life, die and sink to the bottom, where they are devoured by bacteria, which use oxygen. Too many algae deprive fish of oxygen...
...They're too small to feel when they're crawling on your skin. They pack their own anesthetic, so you don't realize they're burying their heads in your body. And they suck your blood for hours at a stretch. Besides grossing you out, ticks may carry certain bacteria that can make you very, very sick, as thousands of folks in the Northeast and Midwest who have developed Lyme disease can tell...
...debilitating and sometimes fatal flu-like ailment called Ehrlichiosis. The infection is transmitted by the Lone Star tick in the southern half of the U.S. and the ever present deer tick in the north. It was once thought to afflict only dogs and horses, but four strains of bacteria that affect people have been identified in the past decade. Last week came word that a fifth strain, called Ehrlichia ewingii, which is particularly common among dogs in Missouri, can cause illness in their masters as well...
Since it takes as long as 24 hours for bacteria to get from the tick into your bloodstream, it pays to remove ticks as soon as you can. Don't try holding a burnt match to the tick to make it back out. Apart from scorching yourself, you'll just provoke it into regurgitating its potentially toxic baggage into your body. Instead, take a pair of tweezers, line them up alongside the tick's body and as close to your skin as you can and gently pull out the tick. Be sure not to squeeze or crush the tick...
...CRACKLE, YUCK! Here's something to chew on this summer: every time your bug zapper vaporizes a fly, it sends off a cone of bacteria-and-virus-laden mist that can be up to 6 ft. wide. Most of the microbes are probably harmless--unless the insect has been feeding on manure. Best advice: mount your zapper far from your food...