The Mommy and The Wictor are currently a little spotty. 

First we went and got ourselves bit by mosquitoes.

Then we went and got ourselves stung by fire ants. 

The mosquitoes came from our yard, where The Daddy has now found and tipped out the full-to-the-brim-with-water spare wheely bin (or as we like to call it, Mosquito Nursery) which was sitting behind the garage. We are waiting patiently for our Mosquito Trap to do the rest. In the meantime we are using mosquito coils, mosquito foggers and, of course, insect repellent. For our minor swarms these measures are quite effective.

Not 100% though. The Wictor always gets bitten in that few seconds it takes to fumble the cap off the repellent bottle. So when he ran outdoors yesterday his back magically turned into an artwork of welts before I could get to him. And then last night, while I was sitting confidently in the yard, feet up on the table, surrounded by chemical laden foliage, dripping with DEET and calmly breathing in the smoke of the mosquito coil, a ninja mosquito got me on the sole of my foot. 

And the fire ants? They came from the park. We had only been there 2 minutes when The Wictor ran over to me yelling “Ant! Ant!” Luckily he is well schooled in ants and the havoc they can cause, and so I was able to act quickly and wipe the swarm off him before too many had stung his little legs. I got stung too, which on consideration is not actually a bad thing, because if I itch, I will know he is probably itching too. We were near a Walgreens so we loaded up on hydrocortisone cream, but we haven’t really needed to use it. Touch wood. 

A couple of years ago we lived in a house backing onto forest, which was great except that it made a great base for fire ant armies, who saw our yard as the front lines. In those days I always carried multiple tubes of Mitigator. Yesterday’s encounter was a reminder that I need to buy more. This stuff really works, and they should totally pay me to say that. Rub it on a fire ant bite right after you get it, and you probably won’t need to think about it again. It works on other itches too, like mosquito bites. Although I have heard that some household products, including cream deodorant, are just as effective, I love that Mitigator is a scrub. They actually encourage you to rub that bite, where those poncy creams and ointments entreat you to gently dab it on and then jump about in frustration until the itch goes away. 

Of course the focus should always be on prevention, and for fire ants we pretty much have things other control. The children all know to keep away from the nests, and react immediately if they find any crawling insect on (or in the general vicinity of) them.

Mosquitoes are another story. In these humid days of summer, we can go for days without a bite and then, usually after a storm, little swarms of them will appear in the yard and even make their way into the house and the car. I think we would be talking about big swarms here if it wasn’t for the mosquito trap - we tip out any water mosquitoes can breed in, but our neighbors probably don’t. 

As for insect repellents, after going through tube after very expensive bottle of “natural” repellents, which didn’t work very well and left us smelling of random things like geranium, we are back to trusty old DEET, in low percentages as recommended by experts, of course. And we never re-apply. There are newer solutions out there, picaridin jumps to mind, but if I have to be using a chemical that gets absorbed into the body - natural or not - then I would rather be using one that gets released after absorption and that I myself applied in high concentrations and at very regular intervals as a child. That way I feel my children have a better chance of making it to the age of 36 without too many signs of nerve damage. Past 36? Watch this space. I am an experiment in progress. 

Joking aside, mosquitoes are an issue this days. The risks are small but I would rather not grapple with West Nile or other types of encephalitis. Staying indoors is not an option. I am just glad I do not live on a farm or in a forest -  I would be covered head to toe in bites. If you live on a farm or in a forest, or even if you just have a manicured lawn, I would love to hear from you. What measures do you take to keep the mosquitoes at bay?