BS: Summer's Bug Hazards

Subject: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 01:54 PM

Every year about this time I don't know which is worse: wintertime's chapped, rough skin or summer's no-seeums. At the moment there's no contest. I could go mad from the itching. Last night it would not have been a long journey.

Maybe my system over-reacts to the no-seeum bites but I am a mass of welts from toes to ears and scalp. They itch. Fiercely.

The windows in this apartment are old and don't close tightly. There is a never-ending supply of the midges out there. Just about the worst thing about combating them is that they don't buzz. Not until I feel the sharp ping! do I know that I've hosted another of them. The itching starts the next day.

Does someone have a remedy? A few years ago a friend gave me a roll-on tube of No Itch (or something like that). When I read the label it said '100% Ammonia'. Who'd a thunk it.

Today when I go to the store I'm getting a jug of ammonia and I'll dab it on, especially in the night.

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 02:05 PM

Ha! I say. Just now I went looking online for a remedy. Tea Tree Oil is supposed to work- and I've got a bottle in the house! We'll see.

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 02:17 PM

what is is the scouts swear by... don't eat bananas? Wonder if that works.

burn midge candles near the windows. eat garlic and reduce salt intake.

Didn't I read somewhere that biting insects like midges, gnats and mosquitoes are attracted by the smell of salt in the blood?

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: pdq
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 02:35 PM

Try Cutter 53663 Advanced Insect Repellent which works well but conatins no DEET.

DEET is still used in other Cutter products but has been the target of various anti-pesticide groups for many years.

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: gnu
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 02:56 PM

Mosquito netting. Regular window screens will not keep bite-em-no-see-ums out. When you say "midge", do you mean blackflies?

100mg of Vitamin B per day witll decrease the bites, but on a hatch, indoors, at night, it won't do much good. Been there, looked like I had been laced with reddish pepper all over. One night, I slept naked with no sheet over me... it was hell for over 24 hours. The little bastards won't even leave you eyelids alone... or the most important lid. >;-O

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: gnu
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 03:20 PM

DEET can cause tumours in the parotid glands although I have no reference to cite... only my experience with a possible connection.

The best repellant for blackflies is a trick... let the little buggers bite you behind the ears and vigorously scratch behind the ears where the skin is tight to the skull until it bleeds. Scratch every so often to keep it bleeding. It's a good idea to swipe the bleeding area with an alcohol wipe every now and then.

This will allow you to continue fishing until you catch your limit and head for the truck. I discovered this in Labrador by mistake one day when I ran out of Muskol. Labrador, where the blackflies have learned to seek out the smell of bug repellants. They like their DEET neat.

I tried sticking a fish hook with bloody gills in the back of the brim of my hat but that seemed seemed to attract the critters in larger numbers.

Safety warning... if you use a bug jacket and you smoke, never try to get the last few drags of a cigarette through the mesh unless the jacket is certified non-flammble. The fire does not last long enough to keep flies away for any length of time. And you look silly when you explain why you have no eyebrows.

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 03:33 PM

gnu, these are definitely not black fly. We have those too, but I've encountered them only outdoors.

These are the tiny no-seeums, those gnats that are almost invisible except in clouds of them. If you catch one, though, you'll see that they are black and in masses of thousands they are dark as thunder clouds.

A screen is next to useless against no-seeums, the only thing that would hold them back would be an almost solid mesh, and the air would scarcely pass through it, to begin with.

I remember once I was mowing the lawn and evidently came upon a colony. I was suddenly swarmed by them and eventually fled the outdoors. They are brutal.

I just read more online and am told that calamine lotion helps control the itch. I'll try that in greater swaths than where I use the Tea Tree Oil.

I don't want another night like last night!

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: Little Robyn
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 03:55 PM

Mind your eyes with that Tea tree oil stuff because it stings like L!Don't believe the vitamin B story - I eat tons of the stuff - flaked yeast, Marmite, every day but the mossies and other biting things just love me.
Mitch eats a banana every day and they don't bother him.
I was told they don't like lavender so I use a cream with lavender in it. I'm not sure if it really works but it seemed to help. Even just crushing some lavender leaves and rubbing it on did the trick when the Morris dancers were dancing in the gardens and the mozzies were eating my fingers while I played.
Robyn

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: pdq
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 03:56 PM

Then you ask why I don't live here.

Honey, why don't you move?

       ~ The Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: gnu
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 04:10 PM

Calamine lotion was in every house here when I was a lad. I have some in the linen closet... wouldn't be without it. Another one is a salve of water and baking soda.

My gramma use to keep a few jars of Salmon River (Kent County... we have three Salmon Rivers in NB) Red Mud Salve. Every spring, she would collect some. It's a red clay. She would boil it on the wood stove until it was just less than sloppy and put it in jars. It was used to soothe severe bug bites and infections.

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: Amergin
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 04:30 PM

Well it could be worse...it could be crabs instead....

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 04:57 PM

Amergin, you know Peace?

pdq, I live here because the music and the air and the people are more important to me year 'round.

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: Leadfingers
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 08:26 PM

Ebbie - All I can say is that's what you get for tasting good !

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: leeneia2
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 09:02 PM

"The windows in this apartment are old and don't close tightly."

How about sealing them with rope caulk?

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: leeneia2
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 09:04 PM

see how

http://www.energycircle.com/shop/mortite-rope-caulk-gray.html

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 09:04 PM

Good lord! Those no-seeums sound awful. The best remedy I've found to ease the itching of bug bites is: Don't scratch them! Not even once. The itching goes away much sooner if you don't, and the swelling goes down much faster too. I think that is because the scratching damages many of the body cell walls and spreads the active irritant around more, thus defeating your body's ability to isolate it and deal with it.

However, I've no idea if that no-scratch technique would help in the case of no-seeums. It certainly helps lessen the effect of mosquito and black fly bites.

One other thing that may help is to put a little lemon juice on the bite.

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 09:12 PM

Sounds like some kinda mite... I hate 'um... No matter what you do yer gonna have a couple days of itchin' from their bites...

Sorry, Eb...

Cortizone cream fir the next few days...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: pdq
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 09:32 PM

No relation to a mite, which has eight legs.

The "no-see-um" is a very close relative of the mosquito, a type of fly. Very small and hard to screen out.

They are also known as "biting midges", as Ebbie correctly said.

Another Diptera called a "sand fly" bites folks in similar climes. A more earthy name for a sand fly is "punkie".

These are all quite different from the "black fly". I know a family that was tormented by black flies enough to move to another state.

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 Aug 10 - 09:40 PM

Leenia, the one window is one of those that cranks outward. The metal arm that is supposed to retract it is broken. I notified management months ago - when I moved in - but it's fairly low priority, I guess. (don't get me started!)

Leadfingers, if I taste good it no doubt is attributable to my blood - and it is nearly all gone now. What shall I do when I am drained? Could be a problem.

Little Hawk, it is easy to say not to scratch.   Harder to keep from it in one's sleep. The worst of it is that after I break the skin and it bleeds it isn't nearly as itchy. (I do use antiseptic on it) I'm sure I create scars but I no longer care about that.

I suspect that I react more violently to the no-seeum bites than 'normal' people do. I know that mosquitoes are rarely a problem for me but a no-seeum bite causes a raised welt that can be easily an inch and a half across. Even though the bite itself is minute.

Enough complaining. Tonight I plan to use Tea Tree Oil and calamine lotion and I expect to sleep. If it doesn't work, I'll visit a drugstore tomorrow and see if there's a Benadryl product I can use to address the itching..

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: leeneia2
Date: 30 Aug 10 - 09:13 AM

Put on shorts and a sleeveless blouse so everybody can see the welts. Then visit the office of your landlord in person. Do the bites seep? Make sure you seep onto the upholstery.

Graciously mention that you have told everybody on the bus about your broken window.   

I guarantee the twenty-something at the front desk will get your window fixed right away.

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Aug 10 - 11:02 AM

lol Could work.

Well, I slept, thanks be. Mostly I smoothed calamine lotion on my feet and ankles and on my midsection. Hooray. yawn

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: ranger1
Date: 30 Aug 10 - 12:16 PM

Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) works pretty good for the itching, too, but I don't know if you have it in Alaska.

Subject: RE: BS: Summer's Bug Hazards
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Aug 10 - 12:43 PM

Thanks, Ranger1. It doesn't appear to grow in southeast Alaska. It says 'Pacific Northwest' but we're pretty far north on the coast. It would be neat if it grew here.

We don't have poison ivy or poison oak here; what we do have is a plant variously called cow parsnips, wild rhubarb and wild celery, and no doubt other names. Native Alaskans traditionally have used the plant for food and salves- but twice I have fallen into a bed of them and the experience wasn't pleasant.