More on Bugs

I receive certain statistics on my blog posts and I noticed that one of the more popular entries is "Downsides of the Cayman Islands: Addendum Bugs". As I am now being terrorized by bugs again I find it fitting to add a few things.

In Edmonton I was mostly bitten by mosquitoes and the occasional spider. The bite reactions were pretty much the same. Someone once told me that here in the Cayman Islands there are some 30 species of mosquito. Which would explain a lot! The sand flies are also quite nasty here as you can see by the pictures in my original post.

This is what a sand fly looks like. Nasty!

Just last weekend I was ravaged by some kind of bug. My reaction to these is a very itchy dime sized welt. Followed by a tiny blister at the biting point. Then a bright red mark, almost like a small hickey.
 The problem with these ones is that they itch the entire time, meaning 3-7 days! If you get these I highly recommend rubbing alcohol.

I tried a very expensive pain and itch reliever and that did nothing. But a few minutes after putting in the rubbing alcohol I finally felt some relief. I ended up putting the rubbing alcohol on band-aids and keeping the band-aids on all night. The itch is totally gone and has been for 2 days.

Another interesting thing to note is that I have not been bitten by any sand flies since the pictures in the last blog were taken. In the winter months on Cayman there were no sand flies. I only occasionally put on bug spray. So I think there are only a few months were the fly flies are really active.