Gnats, Mosquitoes and Ticks ... oh my!
Dr. Ann Sneiders, pediatrician practicing at New Prague Medical Clinic, offers these tips for parents who are concerned about - or just annoyed by - seasonal pests who can spoil our outdoors experience.
by Ann E. Sneiders, M.D.
The warm weather has been great for outdoor activities this spring. But living in Minnesota we know what comes with the great outdoors ... pesky gnats, mosquitoes and ticks. The gnats are mostly annoying, but mosquitoes spread several nasty illnesses that can make you and your children quite sick for weeks on end. West Nile Virus and several different forms of encephalitis are spread by mosquitoes. All of these diseases cause severe headaches, fever, nausea and vomiting, and fatigue. They sometimes result in seizures or lasting brain damage.
Ticks can carry Lyme Disease (fever, rash, headache and late onset arthritis) and anaplasmosis (fever, headache, muscle aches and sometimes renal or lung failure), not to mention a couple other nasty diseases. Fortunately, Scott and Le Sueur counties are not high risk areas for blacklegged (deer) ticks, which are the primary carriers of those diseases, but regular wood ticks can carry them, too. So it's still important to avoid tick bites.
The best protection against gnats, mosquitoes and ticks is 30% DEET. It is safe to use on children and comes in sprays, wipes, and creams. Avoid children’s eyes and hands, but apply it to other exposed areas before going outside and on pant legs. You can also spray it on your patio furniture and lawn equipment to provide further protection. There are other products that claim to be safer than DEET, but they will not work, so don't waste your money.
What to do about those itchy gnat and mosquito bites once you have them?
- Wash them with soap & water when you first notice them. Gnat bites produce a strong local reaction in the skin so don't be surprised if you see dime-sized areas of redness and swelling around each bite – especially on the back of the neck and scalp in kids.
- Keeping your kids' fingernails clean and short will help prevent infection from scratching.
- Applying Bacitracin or triple antibiotic ointment a few times during the day will help with itching and help prevent infection, too. Applying calamine lotion will ease the itching, but 1% hydrocortisone cream applied thinly twice a day will help even more.
What else can you do?
- Wear long sleeves and pants while gardening and when in tick-infested woods or fields.
- Tuck your pant legs into your boots.
- Gnats and mosquitoes will be thicker at dawn and dusk, so be sure to use DEET during those times.
- Empty all water-holding devices around your property – such as old tires or buckets. Mosquitoes love to breed in water.
What to do if you find a tick attached to you? First off, don't panic. Ticks usually need to be attached to the host for several hours or even a day or two before they transmit disease. Grasp the tick near the skin with tweezers and pull steadily until it comes loose. Wash the area well and apply antibiotic ointment if you have it handy. Do not try to smother the tick with Vaseline, untwist the tick from the skin, or burn it with a match. Just grab with tweezers (or your fingers) and pull.
That's it for now – enjoy the warm weather!