In my neck o' the woods we've got lot's of biting/stinging critters from March through November. Mosquitoes, gnats, black flies, deer flies, fire ants, chiggers, red bugs, biting flies, tics, spiders, no-see-ums, all kinds of wasps, hornets, bees, timber rattlers, copperheads and cotton mouths. You can occasionally breathe through your mouth in daytime, you'll get a mouthful at night. We lost a couple of dogs in the neighborhood this year to copperheads. A good friend was walking her chihuahua at night when the dog bent to sniff a "stick". It was a copperhead warming itself on the asphalt. It bit little Rudy right in the eye. In a defensive rage this 70 year old woman with breast cancer grabbed the snake by the tail and swung it smashing it's head on the road. She called the vet and had the dog there in 5 minutes along with the snake. The venom had gone straight into his brain. The vet finished the job. The other dog that was bitten, a Jack Russel, lingered for days. Larger dogs and healthy humans usually survive though I imagine that getting bitten in the eye would be bad. Cotton mouths are more deadly, but you seldom see them far from the water. We leave them alone in the woods or swamp but if we see them anywhere near where kids or animals play they're dead. Most of us keep a loaded .410 shotgun (called a snake charmer) around. The spring is the worst for cotton mouths and late summer seems the worst time for the copperheads.