What’s Bugging You in the Garden?

Summer is in full swing and that means the biting insects are out, too. If you’ve always been a favorite mosquito meal, this one’s for you.

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My fellow is delicious .

I do n’t intend that in a angelical or salacious way . I mean insects find out him irresistible . From the Outback of Australia to a snug California motel , hungry bugs seek his society . Critters of all size , shape and mouth share guttle him .

The only sentence we ’ve reelect from a trip without any fretful reddened situation or dark pink divots on John ’s epidermis was after a week ’s stay in Iceland . In winter .

We ’ve had the same experience so many times , it ’s like deja vu on a eyelet . We ’re in a strange hotel room , it ’s eve and the lights are low . We ’re relaxing after a fussy 24-hour interval . John will be softly visit the tender crook of one weapon , and then he ’ll say , “ Something sting me . ”

“ What ? ! Let me see , ” I say as I grab for that branch to take a better tone .

I ’ve say the same thing about chiggers in Kansas , bedbug in California and an unidentified flying worm in Louisiana . And the angry wasp that burn him as we were leaving Key West .

The chigger bites entrust scar on his legs for weeks after they bask a banquet during a pleasant even stroll . The wasp made John a fiddling woozy as we boarded the flight home .

But I was n’t as concerned about those small wounds compared to the big bumps that appeared on his blazon and forehead after a day spent shlep around the middle of Australia . By the time we landed in Melbourne , those bumps had grown into quarter - sized red welts . They even read up in spots fully covered with net design to keep worm away .

“ Those ca n’t possibly be mosquito collation , ” I say after tightlipped review . “ They ’re way too big and puffy . I ’ve never attend anything like those . ”

I also had n’t see any mosquito while hike around Uluru . Thousands and thou of fly , but not a individual mosquito .

Although John was still vertical and had n’t started foaming at the mouth , I had to bonk if those bites meant business . I ’d record how there are more pernicious brute on that continent than anywhere else in the globe . Imagining some rare and dreadful insect had contend him a toxic blow , I steer us through the heavy chalk doors of a meddling downtown pharmacy and waited in line to talk with a pharmacist .

“ Have you ever seen anything like this ? ” I said pointing to the swelling on his question and arms .

She took one immediate look . “ mosquito , ” she pronounce and point us to the ointment aisle .

While John had been set on by a onslaught of parentage suckers , I remained unharmed . Maybe it ’s because I spend so much time in the garden that insects consider me a friendly .

Still it bugs me . What is it about him that drives insects unwarranted ?

It flex out it ’s bare chemical science . Some bodily compounds , odour and acids act as as creepy-crawly - nightwalker bait . Research indicates it has everything to do with his body heat , the carbon copy dioxide in his hint and the chemicals in his extra - attractive travail . “ Acidic volatiles ” are what principal mosquito to him so they can sting him .

There may be ways to change a individual ’s eubstance chemistry to deter dirt ball attacks . I ’ve read that B complex vitamins or garlic and Zn supplements can shift the chemistry slenderly . Home cure let in bathe in dilute chlorine bleach or applying stiff - smelling Vick ’s VapoRub to vulnerable areas .

I ’m sure those treatments would repel me , too .

When working in the garden , generously apply dirt ball repellent can assist or cautiously placedThermaCellscan keep mosquitoes off . Containers filled with Citronella - scented geraniums and African marigold may also push back undesirable insect on the terrace .

If all else fails , process the intumescence and itching from bite with some of the advocate discourse : lavender hydrosol , cortisone pick , minty toothpaste , frappe , antihistamines , Vaseline , witch hazel , beloved , tea tree diagram oil , baking sal soda and water and a moistened aspirin over the bite . Try one or try them all .

Mosquitoes are attracted to body heat, carbon dioxide from breath and the chemicals in sweat.Photo/Illustration: USDA Agricultural Research Service

In venom of the many repellents and treatments , I know mosquitoes will continue to feast on John . Before the next attack , I wanted to know if he ’d always had such an insect magnetism .

“ Oh yeah , ” he articulate . “ When I was a kid my ankles were constantly carmine and itchy from ant bites . ”

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