Wisconsin hazards
Here in Wisconsin the worst thing you'd have to be worried about wildlife-wise is ticks. They are abundant, especially in woodland areas but even on the walls of buildings and in people's lawns. And pets like dogs are always bringing them inside. Deer ticks are especially problematic, they are the hardest to spot and often carry pathogens like Lyme's Disease.
Aside from ticks, there is of course bees and wasps of all types, red ants, and mosquitoes. The mosquitoes are the worst because they seek you out, unlike the bees who will leave you alone as long as you don't get too close. The mosquitoes rest in the tall grass and clouds of them rise up when you walk through it or brush against it, and have a knack for buzzing around your ears and driving you generally insane.
Flies are generally not bad, unless you're in an area with livestock. I have a horse and we have these GIGANTIC black horseflies, probably 2 inches (not an exaggeration), that torment him and the other horses endlessly, it's a constant battle trying to protect them from flies. I have been bit by horseflies as well. It's painful.
There are snakes, but here in Wisconsin only 3 species are venomous, and of those, one species is endangered.
Botanically, there is a variety of thorny plants, poison oak, poison ivy, burrs, stinging nettle and the worst offender to all people in shorts, saw grass. It grows near water and will leave your legs with a patchwork of painful, burning, stinging cuts.
While I have been the victim of sawgrass attacks more than once
, I have been pretty lucky as far as hazards go. I am outside a lot (other than detecting, I do gardening and lawn work) and despite this, I have never been bit by a tick (have had them on me, I feel them and fling them off), never gotten a rash from poison ivy (pretty sure I've been into it), and until last year when I was 18 I had never gotten stung by a bee or wasp.
) are few and far between and it would be extremely rare to see one of those. Basically all you need is bug dope.
