Robin, a blogger in Israel, challenged us to a Sunday meme about our version of summer.
Well, here is what summer means for me:
Yep, I'm very sensitive to insect bites.The pretty bottle contains vinegar. If you put it on a bite or sting right away, it helps a lot to stop the itching. I never go out without some cotton and a little vial of vinegar, just in case. Tiny bugs find me anywhere, even on the bus.
What I forgot to photograph is toothpaste. It heals most bites in a few days (as opposed to weeks).
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We have no natural bodies of water in Jerusalem like lakes or rivers. So for me summer is not swimming and fun.
It is lots of heat (no air-conditioning), winter greenery that turns brown and dry, and bugs that do not exist in cooler seasons. It is even too hot (no rain here for amost half of every year) to go hiking very far.
One good thing for Jerusalem: our higher altitude and inland location gives us less than half of sweaty Tel Aviv's humidity.
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Happy summer to Robin and all participants in Summer Stock Sunday!
Oh, I am sorry about no swimming! That doesn't sound like fun. We lost our local pool due to inside politics and lack of support for the community center, so we have to drive to swim.
ReplyDeleteHave you tried taking vitamin B1? That's what our chiropractor recommends for discouraging insect bites. I Googled it just now, and some say it works wonders for them, others say it doesn't work at all. Maybe you'll be in the first group.
Leora shalom. I think I tried Vitamin B1 back in the late 1990s and it did not help. At Heifer Ranch in Arkansas (see www.heifer.org) I first learned about the torments of chiggers (yimach shemam).
ReplyDeleteNow in Israel I started taking a few weeks of Apis every spring, little balls under the tongue. Recommended by a friend's homeopathic doctor. So when summer comes, I am less sensitive to bites and get fewer bites.
Apis is basically crushed honeybee bodies highly diluted with water and alcohol (I think).
Hm, doesn't sound as if summer in Jerusalem is your favourite. I wish I could send a bit of our rain and grey sky over to you.
ReplyDeleteI just got bit again. Mosquito on the back of my left leg behing the knee. Got bit on the opposite leg the same place the other night. They itch but that is eased by "Itch X" that I found at Walmart and put on it.
ReplyDelete54th Wedding Anniversary Today
No swimming and no air conditioning? That must be absolutely brutal, even with the dryer heat of the Jerusalem hills.
ReplyDeleteRe the bites, I'm also horribly sensitive to them (if there's one lousy mosquito in the hemisphere it will find me - I get mosquito bites in January!) but I've given up on the homeopathic route. I've found the most effective remedy, bar none, to be cortizone cream. Not great for you and I use it very sparingly, but it does the trick like nothing else I've found.
I'll never complain again! I have AC, I'm near the shore and well - the mosquitos do eat me alive but that's OK
ReplyDeletei get bitten a lot - i absolutely can't sleep at night without getting bitten, so i use one of those vials of insect repellent that plugs into a wall socket
ReplyDeleteInteresting, toothpaste for bites..
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip, Dina, this far I have used it only on pimples and my teeth..
the screens are also helpful, but we dont have them. when my husband was building the house, he kind of forgot to install them, we are regretting it now, but at least we dont have a bug problem in the day - it is only at night, so we use the plug-in, annoying but c'est la vie
ReplyDeleteNo kidding? Vinegar and toothpaste??? I had no idea. I can't wait to tell Art.
ReplyDeleteYou are well equipped. Have you tried the new clip-ons against bugs? I didn't know about tooth past. May try it - I have a travel size tube that fits my purse! Great information! I agree humidity is hard to take!
ReplyDeleteToothpaste for bites... I never knew (lol)! I guess every country/nation/region has its positives and negatives... no swimming and air conditioning, that sucks in the negatives department... but there are so many positives to Israeli summers :)
ReplyDeleteYour description of summer sounds like mine. I do all my walking in the last two hours of daylight. Los Angeles isn't too buggy but I always carry mosquito repellant. Yes, and my cat could tell you a thing or two about fleas.
ReplyDeleteI would really miss the swimming. Enjoy your summer any way.
ReplyDeleteI shall remember the toothpaste tip for insect bites.
good tip on the vinegar, never thought of it. My dad was never bitten, I on the other hand had his , mine and someone elses. Bugs love me too. I have tried drinking vinegar and eating garlic! nothing seems to work!
ReplyDeletedont like the critter in previous post would be screaming with him nearby!
I've found that the only thing that really works is a high percentage of DEET and prolonged use of that will probably kill you. Mozzies love me but I don't worry too much (just scratch) unless I'm in a malaria/dengue fever etc area. Thankfully we don't have malaria in Aus (yet).
ReplyDeleteI've known about fluoride toothpaste for drying acne since I was in high school, but I didn't know that it helps heal bug bites too. Thanks for the tip, Dina!
ReplyDeleteVinegar is also particularly good for fuzzy caterpillars that leave behind tiny hairs on your skin.
Bugs love me too – I spray my legs and arms every time I go out, use toothpaste and vinegar. Another thing I use is baking soda – you take a little bit with a drop of water to make a paste and place it on the spot – it stops the hitch pretty well. My husband gets no bides at all - it’s not fair.
ReplyDeleteToothpaste? I did not know that.
ReplyDeletewell we love it here in the summer the beautiful greenery after months of the white frozen landscape and some summers are wicked for mosquitoes but this summer there are rarely any at all.
ReplyDeleteWe get warned some years of the deadly little messengers carrying unwanted viruses like the west nile virus but no plagues have issued forth yet in any year
and there are tornadoes that rage on the outskirts of the city
nothing is perfect ha ha.
the evenings are beautiful when it cools.I love it.
shalom
ps don't forget to wear long sleeves.
in summer without swimming and air conditioning plus mosquitos... u are an heroe!
ReplyDeleteciao, Luis
Hi Dina, I will try the toothpaste next time i get bitten....
ReplyDeleteBites seem to take for ever to heal, I have used perfume and aftershave before.....stings but does stop the itching a bit....
I do have some after bite stuff, when you apply it, it smells like cat pee...:-/ lol
Since the mosquitos are particularly bad in the mountains this year--the measure of this is that they attacked even my husband--your vinegar and toothpaste remedies are very nice to know.
ReplyDeleteWe are in a mosquito district at home, though, where breeding areas are sprayed. So at home I recover from the itching between camping trips.
I hope you can swim in the Mediterranean Sea! For summer without swimming seems very boring. You gave some very good advice for us to take vinegar and toothpaste.Thanks!
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