In my area of the N American continent, mid-summer heat is preceded by rain. Buckets and buckets of rain followed by temps in the 29C to 34C (85 to 93F) during the afternoon. Then, the mosquitoes start hatching from every imaginable spoon of water or puddle. And so it's been for the last week. I wear long but loose jeans, socks, long sleeve summer weight knit undershirts beneath knit lightweight cotton T-shirts to keep perspiration from soaking everything and attracting even more than the usual summer pest bugs.
Then the third hatch of mosquitos shows up and the misery starts. Bug repellent works up to a point then fails utterly. That's when the mosquitoes have a feast. For the third time a mosquito bite "spot" of 25mm has swelled to 50mm in the time it took to apply the ammonia first aid liquid to the spot. Cut my walk short and went home to apply a more generous quantity of ammonia to the bite area. After 30 minutes the 50mm spot stopped feeling itchy -- for now. Experience has shown it will irritate once again so ...
I resorted to my parents remedy for itchy mosquito bites at bedtime. Soaked 51mm square paper towel piece in ammonia, folded it put it on the bite and wrapped it all in place with plastic wrap. Folded the wrap into a triangle then folded the 'tails' so they would be inside the wrap. The wrap enclosed the bit of paper towel against my wrist and was sticky enough to stay wrapped and in place on my wrists. I wish I had remembered this sooner. In 5 minutes the bite site stopped itching madly,. At this point I can leave the wrist wrapped and go to sleep.
No doubt some not yet irritating mosquito bite will wake me for an ammonia application.
Sigh.... it's summer. If you haven't tried to ammonia treatment, give it whirl. It works.
