What is scarier: Lyme disease or West Nile Virus from a mosquito bite, or the chemicals in the bug spray to avoid the bite?
“This is a hard issue,” says Sonya Lunder, MPH, a senior analyst at the Environmental Working Group in Washington D.C. “It’s one that I’ve gone through many times before, both as an expert in toxins and as a parent.”
After going back and forth for a while about this, I have decided that the potentially harmful ingredients in most insect repellents are not going on Isaac’s soft toddler skin.
Do these look familiar?
The usual suspects contain either DEET or Picardin, and although the …
Day 1...look at that eye!
Poor Izey, every time we visit Grammie and Grandad in MD, these Northern mosquitoes eat him alive! I don’t get it, because the Southern variety of pest is not a big problem back in NC… Remember last summer? Same thing happened (check it out here for last year’s photos and similar sad story).
Regardless, my toddler gets bitten despite my best efforts to spray him with non-abrasive chemicals and manually swat bugs away from him. Not only do the mosquito bites get super red and big and nasty looking, but of course they itch like crazy! So of course he scratches, and of course …
We love to play outside without bugs!
I have a strong disdain for bugs, namely, bugs that bite. Lately, this strong dislike has been directed toward mosquitoes. I have a zero tolerance policy for those little suckers.
It’s bad enough when mosquitoes bite me, but biting Braylin is simply unacceptable. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not naïve and I know that it is inevitable, however, I would like to delay Braylin getting a bite for as long as possible. My dad used to joke that bugs liked to bite me because I was so sweet, well, if that’s the case, my sweet girl is in big trouble!
Being that we …
While we were up North visiting my family, Isaac and I discovered a frightening and rather itchy occurrence: For some reason, the Yankee mosquitoes seemed to prefer out sweet Southern blood as opposed to that of the local Northerner.
That’s right, my son and I became victims of the killer mosquitoes, but they didn’t appear as interested in my husband and stepdaughter…I wonder why?
The second we walked outside, regardless of the time of day or the weather, these vicious bloodsuckers zeroed in on us, formed a battle plan, circled, and attacked.
And you know how mosquitoes are; as soon as you notice one on you, it has already feasted and even if …
