Louis and I have deemed that the purchase of our current house was one of the smartest choice we ever made. There's absolutely nothing that we do not like or love about our house. Except for one little problem... there are some unwanted intruders that pop in every so often that drives me crazy.
Mosquitoes! My most hated insects of all. I have a love-hate relationship with them. They love me (or rather my blood) while I hate each and every one of them to the core. For exactly the same reason that those blood thirsty vampires seemed to love me for.
Our unit is located in the middle of a 19-storey flat. Right outside our balcony window, there's a tall tree. Across a little road from our block of flat, there's a nursery. I suspect that the mosquitoes come from either the tree or the nursery, especially when they fumigate the place every so often.
Usually, the mosquitoes would grant me their first (few) kiss of love. But when we put Faith to sleep earlier at night, she usually sleeps on her own until we are ready to go to bed. It is at these times when she's more susceptible to mosquito bites since Target #1 (i.e. myself) am not on hand to provide food for those blood sucking vampires!
Last week, a mosquito bit her all over her face. She's got bites on her forehead, side of her head, on her right eyelid and another on her hands. Unfortunately, Faith's reaction to mosquito bites are like mine. She develops allergies to the bites and they would swell and turn a bright red. Those bites took almost a week to subside and clear.
The very next day, I hit the pharmacy and NTUC to buy calamine lotion and 2 different types of mosquito repellents to put in the house. I first tried one of those "air-freshener" gel-like canister, placing it on the open window sill of our bedroom.
It seemed to work for a while, but just on Sunday night I'd gotten a mosquito bite on my left arm. Incest, I crept out of our bedroom in the middle of the night to read the instructions on the other pack of insect repellent. This one is an electric mosquito repeller, which you affix a mat into the grill of the heater, shaped in an electrical plug which you promptly place into an electrical outlet. I seem to suffer no further mosquito bites for the rest of the night. Thankfully, Faith didn't have any mosquito bite on her when I checked her first thing on awakening.
While these mosquito repellents all seem to work one way or another, their effect is rather short term. They usually last for a 12-hour basis or the effect seem to wear off after a short spell -- like the gel canister. I would like something that works well on a longer term period, rather than to have to change or plug some sort of insect repellent on a daily basis. But I rather suspect that there's nothing like this available commercially. For now, we just have to be more diligent :(
The above picture shows Faith with her mosquito bites. The circled number representing each bite on her face.
1 comment:
hi Eve
nic gets sprayed with all natural citronella grass oil (which is easily available from pharmacies or aromatherapy shops, I got mine from Chiangmai) each morning before zipping off to school which is next to a newly constructed (not 100% ready) MINDS center. It works well. Also, my girlfren's hubby buys this electric aromatherapy burner where he puts citronella grass oil. I think it's available online and I've seen her bring it along to their chalet trips. Hope this helps.
N
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