I'll occasionally tease Henry and Harper by claiming, "I eat baby feet," as I pretend to gobble their toes, and when one of them is guilty of criminal cuteness, I might say, "I'll eat you up." But this time of year, beloved summertime, mosquitoes and chiggers truly are making meals of my children.
Mosquitoes are familiar territory. Jake and I both grew up in Florida, and as you may know, Florida is some of the most fertile mosquito ground on Earth. But, until our first full summer in Nashville, we knew nothing of chiggers.
When the large, red bites appeared, we assumed they were flea bites. Fleas in the bed, we thought. We hadn't seen any fleas, but we did have a cat who slept in our bed. It only made sense. I gave the cat a bath, washed all the bedding in hot water, and vacuumed our mattress. But, still, new bites appeared.
I consulted the Internet. It wasn't much help. Bed bugs? That didn't seem right. I asked one of my sisters. She had no idea.
We went on scratching. Scratching at the back folds of our knees, scratching near our armpits, scratching around our waistlines, scratching at places where no one should scratch in public.
I was newly pregnant with Henry that summer, and we'd begun to make friends with another expectant couple. They also had a three-year-old daughter. They invited us over one Sunday afternoon. We were outside talking while our hamburgers grilled, when the Dad brought out the Off!. He sprayed some on their three-year-old and himself, and offered some to us -- for the chiggers.
The chiggers?
We showed him a couple of our bites.
"Yep. That's classic chigger."
And, so, we discovered the source of our discomfort.
I forget about mosquitoes and chiggers by late September each year, and I don't pick back up thinking about them until late May. Right around the time buzz begins about applying sunscreen, it's time to start trying to repel The Bugs Who Eat My Children.
This year, I'd been using Off! FamilyCare Unscented like we have in the past. But, one night while I was applying anti-itch cream to fresh bites and Neosporin to the older ones that the kids had scratched into wounds, I decided I was doing too much treatment and not enough prevention.
So, I did what any mother would do. I went to Target.
I decided to try All Terrain Kids Herbal Armor natural insect repellent. ($5.99) Instead of using DEET to make us invisible to pests, it turns a person into a walking citronella candle. It's in a spray-bottle, but because its consistency is more of a thin lotion than a liquid, I've been spraying it onto my hand and rubbing it on. I thought its thicker consistency might make it feel greasy, but not at all. The scent also settles down after application. Most important, though, is that is does seem to be working. We went for a walk in the woods today. I applied the Herbal Armor on myself and Harper, and neither of us seem to have gotten a single new bite. Jake used the Off! spray on Henry, and he didn't fare nearly as well.
I suppose we could avoid mosquitoes and chiggers by staying indoors all summer, but what fun would that be?
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