How to Avoid and Treat Summer Bug Bites
Being outside or around swimming pools this summer will surely bring mosquito bites. I always seem to get a lot of bites because the flowers and trees hang over my uncle’s pool. Even though I spray bug repellant on every part of my body, I somehow always manage to get a bug bite and then a massive welt forms right after; behind my ear, under my chin or on my inner thigh.

Do not give into scratching your bug bites, or you can create scars on your skin. (Photo: ginasanders/123rf.com)
I always thought bugs follow me around more when I wear sweet scents. They probably think that since I smell like a flower, I am a walking flower. It probably didn’t help that I had to wear ruffles and hot pink flowered shift dresses all the time at my grandmother’s request to outside dinner parties also. Regardless, here are some tips to prevent and take care of those pesky mosquito bites:
The first thing a mosquito will go for is a sweet floral scent, whether it is from your perfume or perspiring after an outdoor yoga class and your “spring flowers” deodorant kicking in. Different bugs go for different types of scents, but a strong smelling, floral scent is sure to leave one with bug bites and welts. If you know you are going to be outside for a long time, go easy with your black opium floral perfume or your deliciously floral scented body mousses and try wearing some unscented deodorant.

The name of this translates to fresh herbs in English, so there is nothing floral in this scent. (Photo: Nordstrom)
Do not fear though, you don’t not have to go to your next dinner party smelling of soap from your last shower. You can wear scents that will help repel bugs as well. You smell nice and can enjoy the view by the lake after your dinner party with fewer or no bug bites.
Lavender is a repellant to most creepy crawly bugs, so if you spray on some lavender scented perfume, bugs will be sure to steer clear of you. You can even buy some inexpensive lavender oil to mix in with an unscented body lotion to make sure that it is only lavender you are wearing.
Another scent that works to repel bugs is peppermint. You might not want to walk around smelling like a candy cane, especially in the summer, but keep in mind that a mint-scented perfume mixed with other scents that are not floral smell very nice. I recently started wearing Guerlain’s Aqua Allegoria Herba Fresca. It smells so refreshing and clean, and truly does leave me with fewer bites than when I wear my other strongly scented floral perfumes. The lemon notes in it also help, since lemon is also a bug repellant.

Apply calamine lotion onto your bug bite as soon as it turns red then blow onto it until the cream has absorbed into the bite. (Photo: CVS)
When you have already gotten bitten, the best thing to do is to not scratch. If you scratch until your heart’s desire, you will make the welt bleed. Instead of it going down, you will have a fresh new scar the next day from the open wound you created. You need to stop the itching to keep it off your mind, then it will go away in about a week’s time.
Some of the best things to help stop the itching are hydrocortisone 1 percent cream or calamine lotion, which can be bought at local drugstores. I always rub a generous amount of calamine lotion onto my bites, and it works really well to make me forget about them. However, I do not carry it around with me because I do not need more reasons for my friends to think my purse is filled with strange drugstore finds. Perhaps you could use a small lotion tube and put some calamine in it to have and apply when needed.