I spend a lot of time outside now that I live in Maryland. I've got a terrific front porch where I eat breakfast, the dog and I walk, and then there's my biking/walking commute. As a result, I use a lot of DEET. There are a lot of ticks in this state (and a lot of Lyme disease), plus mosquitoes have always found me extra tasty.
In spite of all that bug spray, I still manage to get a fair number of bug bites - last week's count was 25 in two hours, but that was an exceptionally bad experience - and I can't find anything topical that actually stops the itching. (As an aside, can anyone recommend anything besides hydrocortisone or calamine lotion?) On really bad occasions, like today, I've started taking over-the-counter antihistamines, which help quite a bit.
However, I haven't yet developed an allergy to poison ivy. I've been particularly grateful about this lately, as my friends S and N incurred terrible poison ivy reactions while putting up their big wooden fence, requiring the doctor's attention.
It seems to be tempting fate, but since we're all on the mend from our various bites and rashes, we'll all be headed to camp at Shenandoah National Park this weekend. When we're there, we can worry about bug bites AND bears.*
*Of course, nature lives in the house with me too. Just ask the mouse who is currently inhabiting my kitchen.
3 comments:
Well at least with Bear bites you don't have that annoying itching. You just need to get the tourniquet on quickly to stop the bleeding from the stump of your limb.
Tell your UK connections to hook you up with some Savlon. Nothing stops the itching forever but I find it stops it enough to distract me and get my mind off it.
Not sure if you want to have a pet mouse. If not, steel wool and mice do not get along. Thanks to steel wool in strategic areas, mice do not scurry around my unit. -jg
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