DEALING WITH SUMMERTIME ANNOYANCES AND PESTS

Summertime and the living is, well, sort of easy. But increased exposed skin area and contact opportunities with some unpleasant critters and plants can make it a challenging time if you aren't prepared.

Be prepared in a healthful, natural way for whatever nuisances the warm weather brings. Don't add insult to injury by using some product with more side effects than the original problem like DEET leaking into your eyes through perspiration. Some of these old remedies have been used successfully since Grandma was a girl.

Going to the beach or a day in the woods? Pack that meat tenderizer. Swim in the ocean in your panty hose. Don't forget to dab on a little eau de Vicks VapoRub. You may feel like a laughing-stock but you'll be a non-itchy, comfortable laughing-stock. Seriously, you will only stand out in the crowd for showing how smart you are about using Grandma's home remedies against nature's predators.

Splinters

Summer means less clothes and increased surface perfect for picking up splinters from sitting down at a wooden picnic table, or on an old deck chair, or from just handling the wood for the barbeque.

Splinters are especially hard on kids: all that poking around with the needle looks worse than it feels. To prevent infection and stop the pain, however, they must be removed. One less painful way to ease it out from under the skin it to let warm water do the work. Give the affected area a good 10- to 15-minute soak. This causes the wood to swell, causing the splinter to pop out on its own.

If the soak doesn't do the trick, put an ice cube on the splinter. This helps numb the area so that the removal doesn't hurt as much.

It is important to have the right tweezers for the job. Be sure to cleanse them first in isopropyl rubbing alcohol. Apply a good dose of hydrogen peroxide to the splinter itself while your disinfecting. It will clean the wound and lift out any flecks of debris.

Finish the job with liquid hand soap and more hydrogen peroxide.

Mosquitoes

If you're planning to spend much time outdoors, now is the time to increase your thiamine (B1) intake. People who have diets high in thiamine report fewer insect bites. It's because the vitamin gives off an odor in perspiration that is unattractive to insects but undetectable to humans. Good sources of B1 include whole grains, organ meats and brewer's yeast. Or use a good B complex supplement.

Another dietary method of prevention against mosquito bites is to consume a lot of onions or garlic. It's recommended that a person using this method eat a couple of raw onions daily during the summer. (Higher life forms may also avoid you.)

Everyone knows now that Avon's Skin-So-Soft keeps off gnats and mosquitoes. Similar success stories are told about Alpha-Keri lotion. A few dabs of Vicks VapoRub have also shown success in keeping the pests away.

And after you are bitten. reach for the Adolph's or McCormick's meat tenderizer to take the sting out of the bite. Make a paste with water and the tenderizer and apply directly on the bite area as soon as possible. For severe swelling and itching, don't forget your grandmother's mainstay of calamine lotion.

Make a paste by mixing table salt with water and covering the bite. Also, ice packs wrapped in towels on the area for 10 minutes or so can be comforting. Or you can try one teaspoon of baking soda in a glass of water, dipping a cloth into the solution and placing it on the area for 20 minutes.

Be sure to clean the bite thoroughly. Apply an antiseptic after washing with soap and water.

Ticks

Do these little blood suckers who spread Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Lyme disease serve any useful purpose? June and July are the height of tick season, but they are a danger from early spring until fall.

You need to take precautions when spending time outdoors in an area containing ticks. Cover as much skin as possible. Wear long pants, high socks and long sleeves. Inspect your body when you get home.

If you find a tick on your body you need to use a tweezers to ease it out. Be careful not to pull too fast. You want to get the whole thing out and not leave its mouth parts embedded to set the stage for infection. If you're not having much success, you can apply a freshly blown out match to its backside. The heat may encourage it to let go.

Once you've removed the tick, wash the area with soap and water. Then apply an antiseptic.

Fire Ants

Seek medical attention immediately if you have any of these symptoms: severe chest pain, severe sweating, slurred speech, loss of breath, serious swelling or nausea. These could be the result of an allergic reaction.

Avoid scratching the pustule, which can lead to infection. Do not break open the pustules. Even if they are thoroughly cleaned, you run the risk of infection and scarring. Just leave them alone

* After washing the bites, quickly apply one of the following:

*baking soda and water (thick paste)
*bleach and water (half and half)
*meat tenderizer and water (thick paste)
*ammonia
*crushed aspirin (thick paste)
*salt (thick paste)
*Tea Tree oil
*Alternately apply for five minutes: cotton ball soaked in ammonia, followed
by a cotton ball soaked in peroxide. Continue for 20 minutes.

These can reduce the pain and itching. You can carry a small spray bottle of one of these mixtures with you to use immediately if you know you will be in an infested area.

Apply an ice cube to reduce pain and itching.


Jellyfish

Jellyfish are one of the most common stinging marine animals. Their long tentacles contain stinging cells. When they brush against you, these cells pierce your skin and release a poison. If you should have a close encounter with one, here are some suggestions.

Most stings and cuts are minor, and you do not need to seek emergency care unless you experience vomiting, nausea or intense swelling. Also, seek help if you have trouble breathing. The jellyfish venom is painful but usually harmless unless you swim in the South Pacific where bites can be fatal.

First things first. True or false: Applying urine is the answer to jellyfish stings. Answer: False. It is ineffective and can leads mostly only to embarrassment. The first order of treatment is to apply vinegar.

Scrape the tentacles out from the skin the way you would scrape out a bee stinger. A credit card works well for this. Don't try to pull them out with your fingers or you will inject more venom into the skin. You can make this easier by putting some baking soda or shaving cream on your skin. Rinse only in saltwater. Fresh water will activate any stinging cells that have not already ruptured. Do not rub the skin for the same reason.

Neutralize the stinging cells by rinsing with one of the following:


* Vinegar - Splash on as soon as you can. Make a 50-50 mixture with salt water.
* Ammonia - can also be effective.
* Alcohol - Rubbing alcohol is preferred but any kind will do in a pinch.
* Meat tenderizer - It contains an enzyme that deactivates venom protein and it
can help prevent the rupture of stinging cells. Dissolve it in saltwater and pat
on.
*You can also use a paste of baking soda and saltwater.
*Purify with peroxide.

Finally, relieve the itchy skin with antihistamines. Reduce the swelling with hydrocortisone cream. Take pain reliever if pain persists.

And next time you swim in the ocean, think about wearing those panty hose as prevention.

Poison Ivy

Believe it or not, only about one-half of the population is allergic to the toxin urushiol oil which is found in poison ivy. But if you are one of the half who has this common allergy and have spent a few days scratching like a mutt with mange, you will definitely do whatever you can to avoid it in the future.

In the meantime when you get up the day after you've been scouting in the deep grasses of the woods and you feel like you need 20 fingernails more, here are some tips.

*Good old calamine lotion to the rescue. It soothes and cools the skin to stop the itch.
*Cover the area with a cotton cloth soaked in cool water and let a fan blow on it.

*Cortisone creams are worthless when in comes to stopping a significant rash, but they do relieve some of the itch.

*Herbal treatment with jewelweed, also known as impatiens or touch-me-not, has been shown in clinical trials to work as well as prescription cortisone creams. Slit the stem of the plant and put the juice on the rash. It may also help stop the rash from developing.

*Another natural remedy is the leaf of the black nightshade plant (not to be confused deadly nightshade). Chop, grind, crush it up and mix it with milk and apply to rash.

*People have had success using the juice of the more readily available milkweed plant.

Just drip the milky latex on the rash.

*When you know right away that you've been exposed to the plant, you can wash the skin in rubbing alcohol. This takes the urushiol oil out. Don't use a washcloth which just spreads the toxin around.

And in the future, remember, "Leaves of three, let it be."

Summertime, and the livin' can be easy, if you follow the Boy Scouts' motto: Be Prepared.