Summer is the time when you want to spend any free minute in nature: organize picnics, swim, sunbathe, go hiking. But this rainbow picture has a downside - in the summer, blood-sucking and stinging insects become active, causing a lot of inconvenience. To meet with them painlessly, you need to know how to prevent insect bites and how to treat them.
Natural repellents
Mosquitoes are scared away by the aromas of anise, peppermint, wormwood, juniper, citronella. Buy a natural essential oil of one or more of the listed plants, a perfume spray, quality vodka or alcohol. Mix 50 ml of vodka with 10 ml of oil and pour into a spray bottle. Apply the product to open areas of the body, avoiding contact with mucous membranes and eyes. For children, you can prepare an aqueous solution of oils in the same ratio or mix essential oils with ordinary vegetable oil to avoid burns.
To scare off the midges - small black mosquitoes that bite very painfully mainly in the area where you can feel the pulse (wrists, neck, armpits) - a vanillin solution is excellent. Dissolve 1 g of crystalline powder (1 sachet) in 100 ml of water and pour into a spray bottle.
How to behave when attacking insects
Bees and wasps attack in exceptional cases when they sense danger. Moreover, if a bee stings and dies, then the wasp can do it repeatedly. Therefore, if one or more stinging insects are flying around you, do not wave your hands, do not try to drive them away or kill them. They have a rigid body that is not so easy to injure, but an insect can easily be pissed off. If you or your child is holding something sweet - a drink, candy, or ice cream - it is best to carefully lay it on the ground and move away.
When going into the forest, do not wear brightly colored clothes and do not use perfume with a sweet scent. If you are attacked by several wasps or bees, it means that their hive may be nearby, try to get away from this place. When choosing a place for a picnic, carefully examine the ground and bushes - there should be no anthills or aspen forests nearby.
Being in a forest or field, you can attract the attention of many blood-sucking insects, what to do if even repellents do not help? If possible, go to an open hill - the wind will blow away the clouds of insects. If this is not possible, pick wormwood and make a fire by throwing this plant into it. Hold your outer garment over the smoke and put it on. You can also rub fresh wormwood leaves in your hands and touch them to exposed parts of the body to kill the scent.
How to remove swelling from an insect bite
An ant bite is an injection of formic acid, which can be neutralized not with vinegar, as some home healers advise, but with any alkali: soap or baking soda. With multiple bites, an allergic reaction can develop, so any antihistamine should be taken.
A mosquito or gnat bite is itchy due to a blood thinning substance that bloodthirsty females inject when bitten. A local allergic reaction develops on it, the degree of which depends on the characteristics of the organism. To quickly relieve itching and inflammation, you should use a local antiallergic agent (Advantan, Ftorocort) or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (Ketorol).
First aid for a bee (wasp) sting
If stung by a bee, wasp, hornet or bumblebee, first of all, you need to remove the sting with tweezers or nails (in no case squeeze out) and rinse the wound under running water to remove as much poison as possible. Next, cover the wound with a cotton swab dipped in ammonia, hydrogen peroxide or a solution of potassium permanganate. If you have a predisposition to allergies, take an antihistamine (Suprastin, Ketotifen) in order to avoid the development of an acute allergic reaction. If the stung one does not get better, urgently call an ambulance.
