Saturday afternoon at around 4:30pm we were blessed with a lovely constant, drizzling, ground soaking rain which lasted until after it was dark. It was wonderful, and much appreciated by the ground and plants I'm sure, I know the chooks liked drinking it off the top of their food container.
Being such a rare occasion these days we decided to enjoy the moment and took chairs out on the back veranda and relaxed, with a few glasses of red wine, enjoying the coolness the rain brought with it as well as its wonderful smell, and lovely pitter patter sound on the tin roof, and knowing how much it would be appreciated by the garden. All in all a lovely evening.
Only the next morning I found I had been feasted on by Sandflies. Give me mosquitoes any day compared to these buggers, sandfly bites come up the day after your bitten (if not longer) and are what I would describe as violently itchy, the bites I get end up being at least the size of a 5c piece and turn into a horrible red welt, that takes forever to heal (probably not helped by my constant scratching). The best remedy I have found so far is a mix of lavender and patchouli essential oils in jojoba oil, but even this had me waking up every couple of hours, scratching like mad before I was even aware I was doing it.
This is the first time I have been attacked by sandflies at home, mosquitoes lots, but not sandflies, so will be looking into what attracts them and at least trying to discourage them from calling my blood tea, maybe next door's digging and trenching all weekend disturbed them and they came out to get revenge.
Being such a rare occasion these days we decided to enjoy the moment and took chairs out on the back veranda and relaxed, with a few glasses of red wine, enjoying the coolness the rain brought with it as well as its wonderful smell, and lovely pitter patter sound on the tin roof, and knowing how much it would be appreciated by the garden. All in all a lovely evening.
Only the next morning I found I had been feasted on by Sandflies. Give me mosquitoes any day compared to these buggers, sandfly bites come up the day after your bitten (if not longer) and are what I would describe as violently itchy, the bites I get end up being at least the size of a 5c piece and turn into a horrible red welt, that takes forever to heal (probably not helped by my constant scratching). The best remedy I have found so far is a mix of lavender and patchouli essential oils in jojoba oil, but even this had me waking up every couple of hours, scratching like mad before I was even aware I was doing it.
This is the first time I have been attacked by sandflies at home, mosquitoes lots, but not sandflies, so will be looking into what attracts them and at least trying to discourage them from calling my blood tea, maybe next door's digging and trenching all weekend disturbed them and they came out to get revenge.
5 comments:
Sounded lovely til the bitey bit! I got stung by a wasp for the first time yesterday while gardening. Ouch!
goingferal(ish), it was lovely, and I guess looking on the bright side I didnt notice being bitten until the next morning.
I am not sure we get sandflies here, although I did experience them on a trip years ago over east.I am told that lavender is a natural deterrent to them, so heres a couple of remedies you might like to try:
6 drops of lavender oil
5ml Vodka
2/3 cup (150ml) warm water
Dissolve the lavender oil in the vodka and then mix with the warm water.
Alternatively:
Replace the Vodka with baby oil and leave the water out.
Of course there is a third option:
Leave out the lavender, water and baby oil and drink the bottle of vodka, you wont feel a thing then LOL!
cheers
I am glad you got rain but sorry about the sandflies. Ouch!
Kate
The Best Remedy for sandfly bites is to use a good targeting antihitamine such as Polaramine 6mg plus Eurax cream.
Avoid hot water and soap on those bites as this makes them worse!
Remember that sandfly bites leaves scares so it is a good idea to trim your nails right back.
My bites tend to last 1 full week before subsiding but if you follow the above remedy you'll get thru relatively easy.
hope this has ben a help!
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